If you’re looking for an elegant dinner experience from the comfort of your home, look no further than Date Night Cheese Fondue. Making fondue is an unforgettable dining experience that should be shared with loved ones and just feels elaborate. Serve it up for your next special occasion, holiday, or when you’re looking to jazz up your routine.
Please note this post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using the links. Please see my disclosure for more details.
Foray Into Fondue
Making fondue can be an unforgettable experience.
If you’re fortunate enough to experience it in a restaurant, do it!! I would definitely recommend experiencing it firsthand for a date night out once it’s safe. That way you can get comfortable with the process and have the guidance of the staff.
If not, then don’t be alarmed! Making a classic cheese fondue at home is extremely simple and you can learn as you go 🙂
Have you ever made a cheese sauce at home? Just imagine it as a much thicker sauce without the cream.
What to dip in cheese fondue?
Dipping food into warm, melted cheese is only half the fun. Being creative and deciding what food you want to prep as dippers is what I enjoy most!
- Bread – Easily the most common option and very foolproof! Use any bread you have available and tear into bite size pieces. Fresh bread with a thick crust works best and can soak in the cheese longer, so just be mindful of sogginess when using lesser quality bread. Bread absorbs the cheese so fast and won’t leave you waiting around for it to cook!
- Fruit – Apples, blueberries, and grapes pair great with savory cheeses. Think of fruit you may place on a charcuterie board and start there. Softer fruits like bananas or oranges are more tricky to keep on the fork and don’t taste the best with rich cheese. If using a chocolate fondue, strawberries and pineapples are the way to go!
- Vegetables – Broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, squash, asparagus, potatoes, the list goes on and on! Basically, if you can pierce a veggie with a fork, it can be soaked in cheese. Just like with fruit, when selecting vegetables think about which ones would pair well with cheese and make your mouth water most.
- Meat – In my experience, raw meat is cooked in a brothy fondue rather than a cheese fondue to ensure it is cooked thoroughly. However, precooked or cured meats are perfect for cheese fondue! Prosciutto, cooked shrimp, pepperoni, cooked sausage, and bacon are favorites when drizzled with cheese. The fun part here is trying to keep them on the forks!
How to: make date night Cheese fondue
It takes just a couple ingredients and few quick steps to have ooey-gooey cheese fondue to enjoy.
Begin by cutting a garlic clove in half and rubbing it around the inside of the pot. Next, pour in the wine and lemon juice and bring to a simmer.
Toss the cheese in cornstarch and set aside. Once the wine and lemon juice is simmering, add in the cheese a handful at a time. Stirring constantly, the cheese will begin to slowly melt in.
After all the cheese has melted in, mix in nutmeg and pepper and serve hot. Enjoy with your favorite dipping food!
Ingredients Needed
Materials Needed
***Okay let’s be real, a fondue pot and all its accessories are not exactly commonplace in the American kitchen. Luckily, this can still be done with a pot on the stove. believe my fondue pot came from a thrift store or yard sale, so keep your eyes peeled if you’re looking for one!
Date Night Cheese Fondue
Ingredients
- 1 lb gourmet cheese (gruyere, gouda, white cheddar)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Shred the cheese into a large bowl. Add the cornstarch and toss. Set aside.
- Cut the garlic clove in half and rub it along the entire inside of the fondue pot. Over medium heat, add the white wine and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer.
- Gradually add in the shredded cheese, stirring constantly. The cheese should melt until smooth. Mix in the pepper and nutmeg. Serve with an assortment of dippers with fondue forks or skewers!
Pin me!
Now that we’ve conquered cheese fondue, who’s ready for some chocolate?? Top off the evening with fruit pieces and cake bites dipped in dreamy milk chocolate. YUM!
There’s nothing better than a cheese fondue! I have a fondue pot that the previous tenants of my apartment left there! Thanks for sharing.
I inherited my fondue pot from a yard sale! I love it!
Ooh! Yum! This sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you!
It’s been forever since I have had fondue and I have never made it myself. Now you have me craving it and it doesn’t look all that hard to make. I will have to give this a try soon.
It’s so easy to make for a special dinner!
I’ve never actually had a cheese fondue! I’d love to try one. Although I’m not sure about putting fruit with it. Although I suppose I have pineapple on pizza so there’s not much difference!
I was kinda turned off to the idea at first too even though I snack on pieces of cheese and fruit together normally! lol it surprised me how well they went together!
i personally think cheese and fish is an underrated combo! fondue is romantic but for lactose intolerants, good luck !
That’s so true! I’m sure it depends on the individual but Parmesan, Swiss and Cheddar are the cheeses with the lowest amounts of lactose
I love a fondue night! This post is so brilliant, thank you for sharing (and making me hungry) xx
http://www.dellalovesnutella.co.uk/
I loved this! You can’t beat a fondue night – thanks for sharing (and making me very hungry) x
http://www.dellalovesnutella.co.uk/
It is so long ago that I did this, but I loved it, especially with bread and paprika! Maybe I’ll do this with my boyfriend soon 😁 thank you for the inspiration!
I love a fun fondue date 🙂
Cheese Fondue looks delicious, fun, and romantic. I will like to try this. You have described the do”s and don’t pretty well. Thanks for sharing this wonderful appetizer. Happy new year, Kalin:)
Happy new year! Thanks for the feedback!
I’ve never tried making Fondue. It would make a great dinner party meal for everyone to share! xx
It’s so fun with a group!
When looking at restaurants and how they have the food presented, it makes it look much harder to make than it is. This Definitely made things look a lot less intimidating to make.
That makes me so glad to hear — just like with lots of foods, fondue can be easy and doesn’t have to be intimidating 🙂
Anything that’s cheesy I love, this sounds absolutely delicious, I do however sometimes find cheese dishes quite filling.
I have to go easy on the bread and make sure I load up on fruits and veggies when eating mostly cheese for dinner! lol
Looks super delicious and not too hard to make! Definitely, something to add to my list of food to make
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it!
Looks so delicious!
Thanks 🙂
Thanks for sharing the recipe of Fondue.
I am a cheese lover and this recipe has already made me crave for it.
No more time wasting…
Will immediately try it…
That’s great, I hope you like it!
perfect to have on movie nights! I like to have it with friends they’ll be surprise how this looks fancy and delicious at the same time. Thanks for sharing.
I love how simple it is yet how elegant it feels 🙂
This looked so amazing and we needed a date night idea! Movie and a Fondue! It was so perfect and so delicious! Love! Love! Love!
I love that you had such a great time, it sounds lovely!
I love this idea. For Valentine’s Day, we have a family tradition of chocolate fondue. I hadn’t thought of doing cheese. This looks like a delicious and fun dinner activity. Thanks.
Chocolate fondue is SO much fun too!
I want one, can I come over for dinner? Love fondue and your recipe is classic and delicious
Haha I wish! Thanks so much!
It’s been ages since I’ve had fondue – now I need to try your recipe! Pinning and looking for a fondue pot!!
I hope you can find one! I got mine used at a yard sale 🙂
We used veggies plus the precooked shrimp you recommended for this cheese fondue, thanks for the idea! Delicious.
That makes me so happy to hear!! Glad you enjoyed!
I’ve never eaten anything like this so I think it’s about time I fondue (sorry, bad joke) … Fab recipe!
Hahaha best comment award goes to you!!
I am excited about this recipe. I would love to make fondue for my family so we can have a great family time together! Thanks a lot for the detailed recipe!
It is such a fun and unique dining experience to share 🙂
That looks like a great recipe. We love fondue for new year’s eve and winter. I will make sure to bookmark your recipe x
NYE, Valentine’s, all the cold weather holidays!
Love to do this. I remember “ back in the day when my mom would have Fondue Parties”
Looking forward to trying out this recipe, Thanks for sharing!
That sounds like a party I wanna be at! Thanks for reading!
I love this idea! Sounds like fun for a date night and delicious too.
Thank you, I always have so much fun with my fondue pot!
I’ve never made cheese fondue before, but my family would LOVE this!!
It’s definitely something fun and different for all ages!
Anything with cheese in it wins my approval, and fondue is definitely worth trying at least once.
Same here!! I love cheese
After excessive cheese and wine, a little change would be so nice, especially when it still has cheese!:))) Good idea, thanks!
Haha thank you 🙂
Yummy!!!!!!! I love cheese fondue! I like the idea of dipping fruits and berries in cheese fondue. Thank you for sharing your ideas on how to enjoy this elegant meal and also the recipe.
Thanks so much for reading!
I need to try this, it looks amazing! My favourite is usually a baked camembert 🙂
Lauren | https://www.wooloftheking.com/
I’m not a great fan of cheese, but I always remember as a kid we’d have the odd fondue and I enjoyed it. I’d have never of thought using fruit though? Interesting. My wife loves cheese so she’s enjoy this. Funnily enough.. when people can’t pronounce my surname correctly I get called Mr Foundue.
Ha that’s so funny to hear about your name! And yes, it surprised me how great fruit went with fondue!
Oh wow! After reading your post, I realized it has been years since I’ve gone out for fondue! It was what my girlfriends and I would do for monthly meetups! I love the idea of doing it at home. Thanks for sharing! Will be trying out your cheese sauce recipe in the near future 🙂
http://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
Aww that sounds like a great way to spend time with friends! I hope you enjoy 🙂
Hi, Kalin! I’m a big fan of cheese and also making simple small dishes like these! I’d love to try these some other time, I’m excited to to try it with bacon, bec I love bacon too. 😂🙈 Thanks for sharing this! Pinned to my pinterest board! xx
That’s so great to hear, thank you!! I love when a dish can be simple and so delicious!
Just in time for valentines day. 😀
Perfect to make a stay-at-home dinner special 🙂
Fondues are great fun! I think we have a pot sitting around somewhere but we’ve not used in in years! Thanks for reminding me to get it out and use it ☺️
I hope you can find it and put it to good use 🙂
Well this sounds delightful & such a great date night idea!
Love this! The addition of nutmeg is awesome! We did fondue for Valentine’s Day our first year of marriage because our wedding cake was actually rounds of cheese decorated to look like a cake so we had an abundance in our freezer. That was 5 years ago so maybe it’s time to do it this year again!
Wow that is such a neat story and I love the idea of having cheese instead of cake! I hope it turned out great for you!
I had a Swiss friend at university who made us cheese fondue regularly and I haven’t had it since! I’ve always wanted to make it myself so I’ve saved your brilliant recipe as I’m definitely making it very soon! So glad I read this post!
Ahh that sounds like a dream! I was supposed to travel to Switzerland before COVID and was so sad when I had to cancel and miss out on all that fondue!
Ok this is silly but it never occurred to me that I could make cheese fondue from scratch!!! Thanks for sharing, I’m definitely going to try that! <3
I totally feel like that too sometimes! I love when I discover a way to make something special at home pretty easily!
I never would have thought of this!! Such a great idea! The broccoli and cheese and bread with cheese will definitely be a hit in my house.
I love finding what I have available in my pantry and fridge to dip into warm cheese 🙂
It’s been such a long time since I made cheese fondue, but it turned out terrible! I need to give it another go sometime, thanks for sharing x
It’s been such a long time since I made cheese fondue, but it turned out terrible! I need to give it another go sometime, thanks for sharing x
Oh no! I hope if you give it another shot it’ll turn out great 🙂
OHHHHH yes, all I needed was something like this to use up the cheese I have in the fridge! Thank you Kalin x
That’s great to hear! Thank you!
This sounds delicious. I’ve never tried a cheese fondue before but as a massive cheese lover, I know its something I would enjoy. You’ve included some great ideas of what to dip in too.
Yum! That cheese fondue looks so tasty and delicious! Thanks so much for sharing!
What a fantastic date night idea!!
I LOVE fondue, I’ll literally dip myself into it 😅 I NEED to try this recipe!
Yummy!!!!!!! I love cheese fondue!
Thanks for sharing
https://uncuaderno4cero.wordpress.com
Pingback: Sparkling Pink Raspberry Punch - with frozen hearts - Abundance of Flavor
This looks sooo amazing, my mouth’s watering! Cheese is always a great thing to feed me! I’m bookmarking this to try to make it soon!
Oh this cheese fondue is so yummy and wonderful for small gatherings!
This is so fun and easy to make!
Love this fondue! It’s perfect for a fun date night at home!