Easy Cheese Fondue Recipe Classic Appetizer

A rich combination of Swiss and Gruyere cheeses melted into a white wine, this is the perfect dish to bring guests together!

Best Cheese for Fondue

This easy fondue recipe uses the Swiss cheese and Gruyere cheese as bases, but for a different flavor profile, feel free to add blue cheese or another soft melt-able cheese and make a signature dip all your own! Make-ahead for a grab-and-go potluck or party!

When it comes to choosing your own signature cheeses just make sure to choose soft, easy to melt cheeses with high-fat content for the best cheese fondue. Cheeses that have a deep rich flavor pair well with whatever your guests are dipping with.

Cheese Tip

Always shred your own cheeses from a block. Pre-shredded cheeses have additives that can keep them from melting properly.

How to Make Cheese Fondue

This cheese fondue is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Toss all of the shredded cheese with the cornstarch until the shreds are evenly coated.
Rub the inside of a stockpot (or fondue pot if you have one) with the peeled garlic clove that is cut in half.
Simmer wine in the pot and gradually add small handfuls of the coated cheese into the heated wine. Stir each handful in a figure 8 pattern until well melted. It is important to do this step slowly!
Stir in the remaining ingredients and continue to stir until heated through and the cheese is smooth and creamy.

Serve warm with fresh french bread and other dippers and enjoy!

Variations

Add 1-2 teaspoons grainy mustard
Swap out the cheeses for your favorites (brie is amazing too)
Swap wine for beer (similar to a beer cheese dip!)
Darker beers, stouts, and malts will give a more bitter flavor while ales and IPA’s will give a lighter flavor.

No Fondue Pot? No Problem!

If you’d like to keep your cheese fondue in a fondue pot, that’s great! I serve cheese fondue in a thicker ceramic fondue pot to keep it from burning (an electric fondue pot works great too).

Darker beers, stouts, and malts will give a more bitter flavor while ales and IPA’s will give a lighter flavor.

Even if you’re using a fondue pot, cheese fondue needs to be made on the stovetop so guess what, no fondue pot is really required. Pour it into a bowl (heat the bowl with boiling water for a few minutes before adding the cheese to keep it warm longer) or even a mini crockpot on warm.

Cheese Fondue Dippers

So many things make great dippers for cheese fondue! Maybe that’s why it’s been so popular for decades!

Chips: tortilla chips, pretzels or pretzel sticks
Bread: chunks of French or sourdough bread, soft breadsticks, garlic crostini rounds
Vegetables: celery sticks, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, zucchini rounds, bell pepper strips, whole mushrooms, whole (cooked) baby red potatoes
Fruit: cubed apples, seedless grapes, dried fruit, pineapple slices
Meat: meatballs, grilled steak, chicken, shrimp

Leftovers

You mean, IF there’s leftovers; here’s what you can do! Keep leftovers tightly covered in the fridge until you’re ready to use them again.

Reheat: To reheat cheese fondue just add a little bit of milk and a dash of salt to freshen the flavor and pop in the microwave or back into a pot.

Freeze: It’s okay to freeze cheese fondue but it will separate as it thaws. But this is an easy fix! Just reheat slowly and whisk in some extra milk and cheese.

Cheesy Appetizers

Easy Shrimp Dip – loaded with juicy shrimp!
Cheesy Hamburger Dip – rich, creamy & cheesy
Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Dip – so simple to prepare!
Cheesy Beef Queso Dip – perfect for dipping!
Baked Brie – with cranberries & pecans