Raise your hand if you like chocolate. Keep it raised if you like setting things on fire. Now read more of this week’s Toast of Tuesday if you want to learn how to make flambeed turtle fondue with homemade rice crispy treats! Dear Betrothed and I don’t really have sweet teeth, but on special occasions like Valentine’s Day we will indulge in dessert. This year we recreated the Melting Pot experience by doing fondue at home. Click here to read the Toast of Tuesday devoted to our beer cheese fondue.

For dessert, we chose to replicate the Melting Pot’s flaming turtle dessert fondue. At the MP, they serve their desserts with strawberries, bananas, brownies, pound cake, cheese cake, marshmallows, and rice crispy treats. But, like I said, we don’t really have sweet teeth, so we just chopped up a banana, and I made homemade rice crispy treats with only 2/3 the usual amount of marshmallows to cut down on the sweetness.

The treats were super easy to make! Just three ingredients plus a dash of salt, and no baking or chilling required.

First I melted the butter in a large pot. Then I added the marshmallows and stirred it all together until melted. Dear Betrothed added the rice crispy cereal a cup at a time while I stirred.

Next, we pressed the mixture into the foil-lined pan and let it cool. All done!

Now onto the fondue itself. I honestly kind of regret purchasing all of these ingredients, since I know we don’t really like sweet things, so the rest of the chocolate chips, caramel syrup, and cream sat unused. But it was still a lot cheaper to do it this way than go to the Melting Pot.

Actually, I thought that even the rest of the rum would go unused too. We each took a sniff as soon as we opened the bottle. Golllllly that stuff was strong! There’s a reason I drink wine and not liquor. Dear Better Half added it to his morning coffee the next weekend, though, so it got used.

While Dear Valentine preheated the fondue pot, I added the cream to the chocolate chips and melted them together.

But by the time we added the chocolate to the pot, it was hardening again. Increasing the heat and adding some more cream helped melt it down again to a good consistency.

Once we got it all melty and hot again, Dear Fiance added the caramel sauce, and I added the rum.

Next came the fun part: LIGHTING IT ON FIRE!!!

After the fire died down, we sprinkled in some chopped pecans and stirred up the concoction.

We barely made a dent in the chocolate sauce since it was so sweet, but thankfully this stuff saves well, so we put most of it in a covered bowl in the fridge.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Toast of Tuesday! Let me know if you ever have any suggestions or requests for Toast of Tuesday recipes or topics.

**Homemade Rice Crispy Treats**

Ingredients:

• 6 cups crisp rice cereal
• 1 bag marshmallows
• 4 tbsp. butter
• dash of salt

Method:

• Melt butter in a large saucepan on low-medium heat.
• Add marshmallows. Stir until melted.
• Stir in cereal one cup at a time, adding dash of salt.
• Remove from heat, and press mixture into foil lined 9×9 pan. Let cool for 2 hours before cutting.

**Homemade Flaming Turtle Fondue**

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces milk chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/4 cup caramel syrup
• 2 tablespoon rum
• 3 tablespoons pecans, chopped

Method:

• Melt chocolate and heavy cream in a microwaveable bowl in 15 second intervals, stirring until melted. Pour chocolate into a warm fondue pot.
• Stir and add any extra cream in 1 tablespoon increments if needed to maintain a liquid consistency. Pour the caramel in the chocolate sauce, but don’t stir yet.
• Pour rum on top and ignite (carefully!) with a lighter. Once the flames have subsided, sprinkle with pecans and stir.
• Keep fondue on low heat while eating.

Bon appétit!