Prepare your foods for dipping in a chocolate fountain
Melted chocolate cascades over the top of a fondue fountain to cover anything placed under the flow in a robe of rich sweetness. To keep your chocolate fountain flowing properly, you must carefully choose and prepare your foods for dipping. Crumbs falling off pieces of food clog the fountain, making cleaning difficult and decreasing the flow of chocolate. Avoid these problems while still providing food matched to the dipping chocolate for your guests' enjoyment.
Instructions
1. Wash and dry the strawberries. Cut the leaves and stem off the top of each strawberry. Set aside.
2. Cut the peel off a whole pineapple or melon. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds from the melons and discard. Slice the melon or pineapple into 1 ½ inch thick slices. Stack three of the slices on top of each other and cut 1 ½ inch squares from the slices to create cubes of melon or pineapple. Repeat stacking and cutting the melon or pineapple until you have cut all the fruit. Set the cubed fruit aside.
3. Cut a prepared, unfrosted pound cake or angel food cake into 1 ½ inch cubes by cutting into 1 ½ inch slices. Lay each slice flat on a cutting board and cut into 1 ½ inch squares. Repeat with the remaining cake. Place the cake cubes to the side.
4. Sharpen one end of the bamboo skewers by inserting each skewer into a manual pencil sharpener and turning to hone the skewer to a point.
5. Take a 12 inch bamboo skewer and push the sharpened point through the middle of a whole strawberry. Push the strawberry two inches from the sharpened end of the skewer to allow for room for the other dipping fruits.
6. Follow the strawberry by pushing a piece of pineapple or melon onto the skewer next to the strawberry.
7. Repeat making the rest of the bamboo skewers by threading the skewer through the center of a strawberry then a melon or pineapple cube. Use one strawberry and one melon cube (or pineapple cube) per skewer.
8. Hold the skewer from the end opposite the fruit and place the fruit under the flow of chocolate from the fountain until coated.
9. Place one cube of pound cake with one small cookie onto individual dessert plates or into paper cupcake liners.
10. Combine five pounds of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in a zip top bag. Seal and microwave on high power for three minutes. Remove the bag, and squeeze the bag to distribute the heat inside. Return it to the microwave on low power to finish melting the chocolate for one to three more minutes. Open the bag and pour the melted chocolate into the chocolate fountain, according to the directions included with your fountain.
11. Use a ladle to scoop up melted chocolate from the bottom of the fountain and drizzle it over the cake and cookie, but do not dip these foods directly into the fountain.
Tags: into inch, melon pineapple, chocolate fountain, bamboo skewers, chocolate from, dipping chocolate, flow chocolate
