Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondue

When I saw this week's recipe for Baked Sunday Mornings -- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondue -- I could think of only one thing. The TV series Glee. Specifically, Brittany's internet show "Fondue for Two," where she dishes gossip and shares fondue with guests and her cat Lord Tubbington. The show has the memorable opening lyrics: "Fondue for two! Fondue for two! That's some hot dish! Fondue for two!"

As it turns out, I used the recipe to have "Fondue for six!" We don't own a fondue pot, but our friends Jim and Colleen do, and they were kind enough to host us for dinner and fondue. While the cookbook says that Matt and Renato's favorite fondue dipper is a Baked brownie, I wanted to go with something a bit lighter, so I made angel food cake, caramel popcorn balls, and vanilla marshmallows.

In contrast to the amount of time it took to make the cake, popcorn balls, and marshmallows (the first two of which are pictured above), the fondue was incredibly quick and easy. You simply melt milk chocolate and mix in smooth peanut butter and heavy cream. I had to add a little extra cream in order to achieve a nice smooth consistency.

There's not much to say about this recipe. The fondue tastes like exactly what you would expect: peanut butter and chocolate. The only problem we encountered was that the angel food cake was not sturdy enough for dipping without breaking into pieces. Nonetheless, it was delicious with the fondue, as were the marshmallows and popcorn balls.

I didn't take any pictures of the fondue itself, because I didn't think that a pot of brown fondue would look that interesting. Instead, above are pictures of a marshmallow and popcorn ball after dipping. Tom pointed out that the dipped popcorn ball looks like an evil face with a toupee (can you make out the large angry eyes and the tiny lopsided mouth?).

Although I'm not big on fondue (counting this experience, I've had fondue exactly twice in my life; both times were at Jim and Colleen's house), I would recommend this recipe and I would make it again. Who can resist the classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate? And depending on your choice of dippers, the prep time can be cut down to practically zero (for instance, you could use pretzel rods and whole strawberries). Fondue is just fun. Even if I might get nightmares about that evil popcorn ball.

Recipe: "Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondue" from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.