Fondue Week Continues! I couldn’t do a fondue week without a chocolate fondue recipe, right? This one is a Chocolate Fondue with Cardamom and Orange Liqueur. Read on to find out how this chocolate fondue recipe can add some spice to your Valentine’s Day Romantic Dinner. This post has been entered in the Sexy Dishes Contest from Shine Supper Club.

Along with fondue recipes in honor of Fondue Week, this week I’ve been giving you tips about how to create the perfect romantic dinner. We’ve talked about simplicity and interactivity.

Today I want to talk about adventure!

Today’s Romantic Dinner Tip: Embark on a food adventure together by deciding to try something new and different.

Now I do not mean that you, the cook, should find some new idea on pinterest or somewhere, shop for it, make it and then spring it on your partner in a “Surprise! Guess what we’re trying tonight!” kind of way.

That would be a bit like…erm…stories I’ve heard…yeah…erm…stories about other people…erm…trying new things in the bedroom. They tell me, those other people who have stories to tell, that it’s better to talk about it first and decide to do it together instead of suddenly showing up at your partner’s bedside wearing a __________ on your __________ and expecting him to __________ it until it __________ on your __________ . (Did somebody say Mad Lib Time? Please please please play your mad lib at home and don’t leave your answers in my comments section. I don’t think we know each other that well and I’m afraid that Google would forever mark my site as spam. It sure was fun though, wasn’t it?).

Awwwwwkwaaaard.

So what I mean is that you should talk together about the meal beforehand and try to think of some new little twist on an old favorite that you can easily make.

Or maybe there’s a fruit or vegetable you haven’t tasted before or a spice or a type of cuisine.

Go into it together.

Then you can talk about what you expected and how it met or didn’t meet those expectations. Neither of you is caught surprised or needing to explain why you didn’t like something and nobody has hurt feelings when their partner doesn’t like the new thing that was sprung on them.

As an example of a food adventure, I bring you a Chocolate Fondue recipe with a spicy little twist: This chocolate fondue has cardamom and orange liqueur in it.

If you’ve never tried cardamom before, this would be a fun new thing to try out for your adventure. You can both smell the spice before cooking with it. That’s fun, right? Then you get to taste it mixed into melted chocolate. And then you get to fall in love with it together. I promise you will.

Cardamom is a good thing.

Cardamom in chocolate is even better.

Add some orange into the mix and suddenly I’m in the mood for another game of mad libs!

In addition to the cardamom, I’ve suggested kumquats as a possible dipper for this fondue. Now I’ll just tell you straight out that lots of people don’t like these little guys. They kind of taste like orange peel. But if you quarter them, pop out the seeds and make sure they’re loaded with chocolate before you taste them, you get that amazing chocolate-covered-orange-peel kind of effect. But juicier.

I love kumquats.

What if you guys try the kumquats and decide you don’t like them. It was still an adventure. You’ve tried something new together and have something to talk about now and again every time kumquats come up in conversation.

And we all know how useful a good kumquat anecdote is!

Note that Scharffen Berger gave me the decadently rich chocolate used to make this decadent rich and delicious fondue recipe. They also have provided a lovely gift box of chocolate for one of our lucky Fondue Week entrants. If you haven’t already, make sure you head over and enter in the giveaway for the chocolate gift box from Scharffenberger, a Swissmar Fondue Set and a Melting Pot Gift Card.

You should also head over and check out the amazing fondues that my partner in Fondue Week crime, Katie’s Cucina, has been cooking up this week. It’s pretty amazing stuff!

Oh, and if you like my pictures of chocolate fondue in this post, you’ll love the free printable Valentine’s Day Card that I have for you to give to your sweetie. Click here to get your copy of this fun and flirty chocolate-inspired Valentine’s Day Card.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Chocolate Fondue with Cardamom and Orange Liqueur

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

This is an easy fondue to make and yet the addition of the cardamom and orange liqueur make it seem exotic and more complicated.

Author: Christine

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 9.7 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, such as Scharffen Berger Bittersweet Fine Artisan Dark Chocolate with 70% Cacao
• ¾ cup of whole milk (or you can use low-fat (the 2% version) evaporated milk
• ¾ tsp of ground cardamom
• 1 to 2 tbsp orange liqueur, such as cointreau, grand marnier or triple sec
• a pinch of salt
• assorted dippers like strawberries, raspberries, kumquats, cookies, marshmallows, pretzels, etc..

Instructions

1. Set up a double boiler (a pot with water simmering inside of it with a bowl perched on top of the pot such that the steam from the simmering water is warming the bottom of the bowl. Click here for a picture and further instructions on how to make a double boiler. Do not allow the bowl to touch the actual water).
2. Pour the milk into a microwave safe dish. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time until it’s really steamy. If a skin forms on the top of the milk, no worries. Just use a spoon to take it off.
3. While the milk is warming, take the bowl off of the top of the double boiler so it can cool off a little bit. Chop the chocolate up finely. Put it into the bowl and then immediately pour the hot milk over top. Set the bowl back above the simmering water of the double boiler. Stir until the chocolate is melted.
4. Add the cardamom, 1 tablespoon of the liqueur and the salt. Stir until it is well combined. Give it a taste. Decide if you’d like more alcohol in it or not. Add up to 1 more tbsp if you’d like to. Stir some more.
5. If you have a chocolate fondue set, use a spatula to scrape every last bit of the chocolate into the bowl of the set. If not, you can take your double boiler to the table. The water will continue to steam keeping your chocolate warm for a long time.
6. Serve the fondue with the assorted dippers.

3.2.1596

Some more tasty inspirations for you:

Fondue Week Ends on a Sweet NoteMy Best Potato Recipe: Parmesan Roasted w/ VidaliasA Drink Recipe for Brunch: Mango Lime BellinisFondue Week & A Valentine's Day Card