The Doughboy's Favorite New Year’s Dinner: Family Fondue Night

Tomorrow night, before the celebration begins, you’ll have a chance to sit down together to the last family dinner of the year. Make it one to remember when you serve the Doughboy’s favorite festive New Year’s Eve dinner: Family fondue! Prep ahead to make easy cheesy, broth-based and chocolaty dips and serve an assortment of foods that kids can mix and match. Everyone gets what they want—including one more happy memory.

So, how do you fondue? If you’re familiar with this fun, family-friendly way of eating dinner together, then you also know it’s easy to do and highly customizable (perfect for those picky eaters). And if you’ve never tried fondue or set up a fondue spread at home, we’ll share everything we know so you can prep ahead and party right into the new year, family-style.

To kick things off, we recommend choosing one of three types of fondue: Cheese, broth or chocolate (or all three, if you have enough fondue pots!). One 3-quart fondue pot will hold enough dip to serve approximately four to eight people. Once you’ve decided which fondue you’d like to make, write a list of ingredients needed to make the dip—plus all of the foods you want to dip into it, too!

For cheese fondue, we recommend any or all of the following foods for dipping:

• Pillsbury™ crescent rolls
• Pillsbury™ French bread
• Sliced apples
• Cooked or raw vegetables (such as broccoli, bell peppers or mushrooms)
• Cooked meatballs
• Cooked pasta (such as fusilli, rigatoni, etc.)

For broth-based fondue (which is ideal for cooking meats and vegetables), we recommend any or all of the following foods for dipping:

• Steak
• Chicken
• Cherry tomatoes
• Sliced carrots
• Mushrooms
• Shrimp
• Thin-sliced red potatoes

And for chocolate fondue, we recommend any or all of the following foods for dipping:

• Pillsbury™ Ready to Bake!™ cookies
• Cubed pound cake
• Strawberries
• Pillsbury™ Place & Bake™ Brownies
• Marshmallows
• Grapes
• Bananas

Our best tip for making a family fondue night extra-fun and extra-special is to get ahead, so you can spend less time in the kitchen on New Year’s Eve and more time playing games and making merry with the ones you love. Prepping ingredients the day or night before is key.

Once you’ve decided on a fondue recipe and purchased all of your ingredients, take some time to cut up the dipping foods into bite-sized pieces, each about 1 inch. For example, cut up French bread into 1-inch cubes, and cut bell pepper into 1-inch slices. For foods that tend to spoil quickly once sliced (such as apples and bananas), save those to prep the next day.

On New Year’s Eve, set up your station where everyone will gather to dip their foods into the yummy fondue! Put out platters of the cut-up dippers for each fondue pot, separating them by the type of fondue (cheese dippers by the cheese fondue, meat dippers by the broth fondue, etc.). When handling raw meats, be sure to keep them away from any other foods at all times.

Plates are optional, but if you’re serving a broth-based fondue where the meat cooks in the pot, it’s best to transfer the cooked meat to an individual serving plate to let it cool slightly and to dip it into an extra sauce, if desired.

If you’ve got little hands involved in the fondue fun, be sure they have a grown-up to help with dipping foods into the hot pots, handling the long-handled fondue forks, cooking raw meats, etc. For very young family members, it might be best to give them their own, already-filled plate of finger foods with an individual ramekin of cheese or chocolate dip so they can stay safely out of the fondue frenzy but still have fun!

What’s so great about fondue is that it stays warm for as long as it’s in the pot, so you can keep the feast going for as long as you want. Have fun mixing and matching flavors (such as dipping apples in the chocolate fondue and grapes in the cheese fondue) and making memories as a family at the dinner table.

Expert tip: While you’re gathered together, have everyone share their favorite memory from the year, their New Year’s resolutions, or what they’re looking forward to in the coming year.

Now that you know everything about how to do the fondue, we have plenty of fondue recipes to keep the party going all the way into the new year.