Valentine’s Day is a lot of pressure when you’re with the one you love. How much do you spend? What are you buying? I am like that practical gal, fresh flowers kind of drive me crazy (unless we got them at a great price). But, then I want something… anyone else have this problem?
However, the fondue was gone very bad in the past for me. We don’t make wine, so there are tons of recipes out there… so I really wanted to find one that was EASY — and I found the answer for you! This is seriously the EASIEST Fondue (both cheese and chocolate) you will find. You can also easily adapt it to your tastes (different cheese, different chocolate).
This fondue is great for each occasion (I see A LOT of people using this cheese recipe on New Year’s too). Don’t let the fact that we use it on Valentine’s Day put you off. This post will start with cheese, but I also have a great recipe for chocolate fondue — so keep reading!
And then there’s the matter of hitting a restaurant on that special night. So many people, pressured to SHOW OUR LOVE to one another. Not to mention expensive. I prefer to save my budget and just go to a favorite restaurant on the weekend.
That’s how I came up with fondue for our family. We have done it every year the last 10 years or so. Our kids are REALLY looking forward to it and it’s nice to focus on our FAMILY love and not just the love between my husband and me. But, don’t feel attached to Valentines with this. It’s great for a fun family meal whenever you think you could use a little pick me up!
However, fondue can be scary! I’m sure we’ve all tried to make a cheese sauce that “broke” (in turn broke us) or was lumpy. Honestly, a lot can go wrong with fondue. But not with this recipe. It’s practically fail-safe (as long as you don’t burn it, you’re on your own if you ignore it) and it’s easy to adapt to your family’s tastes.
Let’s do this!
First is the cheese. You can choose whatever type your family likes. I often make a sharp cheddar (family favorite) or Swiss (my favorite). The recipe actually calls for a Monterrey Jack. If this is a family favorite, then by all means go for it. It’s a nice mild flavor that won’t turn any mouth off. 🙂 For ease of writing, I’ll refer to it as Swiss cheese.
I use a recipe I found on Family Fun a long time ago. I found the recipe right here if you want to print it (but seriously keep reading the tips because every year I worry I’ve ruined it):
It goes like this (this recipe makes a good amount of fondue, plenty for the 5 of us)
1 cup of milk (the recipe calls for 1 cup, but I usually do about 1.25 cups, because it sits in the pan and gets too curdled if the milk is too little).
Bring it milk to simmer — about 2-3 minutes (this means it’s not boiling, but it’s starting to bubble around the edges). You can also add a minced clove of garlic (or if you’re a garlic lover like us, you can just do a teaspoon of minced garlic).
Toss 1 kilo of Swiss cheese (or cheese of choice) with 2 T flour. I put all my cheese in a basic plastic bag and shake it around until the flour falls out. This prevents the flour from clumping. This is truly the magic of this recipe!
So, back to the milk, simmering….
Then take it handfuls of the cheese/flour mixture and use the wire whisk to whisk it until it’s all melted. Wipe quickly. This is not a soft wire, with the heat you are trying to wipe it smooth. Then another handful. You want to make sure you only do handfuls, you don’t want the milk to be overwhelmed by the cheese or hard to mix. You will need to scrub hard and fast. Make sure you do some arm workouts before this. Haha.
The heat is then turned off after the cheese has melted.
There might come a point where you’re like – crap, it’s ruined. I think this every year. Keep tanning, even harder if you can. I get to this point almost every year and then somehow I pull through.
We haven’t had much luck using a fondue pot (our last one got rusty since we don’t use it very often). At our table we use an electric skillet on low. It’s also bigger so we can all take a seat around it! But make sure you find some fondue forks. They are far enough that everyone can dive in without getting burned (I see them at Goodwill quite often)
Now, it’s time for the REAL fun! The dippers (I LOVE picking the dippers):
- Bread — no time for basic French bread, I suggest a crunchy, hearty bread which will hold well on your fondue fork. I often buy a nicer multigrain and also a crusty sourdough. Yum.
- ChickenI often saute some sliced chicken breasts and serve them
- Pickles (don’t knock it till you try it), you can also use pork or steak!
- Roasted garlic (as above)
- grapes (love me sweet and salty)
- Baked potatoes (Make sure they’re still firm, don’t cook them until they’re soft)
- Roasted vegetables (we love cauliflower, carrots, asparagus and broccoli) — another option is to blanch the vegetables (especially broccoli) to soften them a bit before dipping them (DO NOT OVERCOOK, the mushy broccoli that falls into your delicious fondue is great joy. -NOT).
- Mushrooms (I love baby bellas)
- Red pepper (best raw, I think)
Oh man, writing this post is making me hungry. And you?
We have some fun traditions during the fondue. If you spill something, instead of kissing, you have to say something nice about the person to your left (or across from you — we switch it up several times during the meal, so you end up saying nice things about a lot of people).
We also usually have it a couple of times. When you’ve gone to the trouble of buying all the dippers and preparing them all, you might as well get two meals out of it! I make the cheese part fresh each time, not great for repeat.
And, of course, we follow it up with chocolate. The recipe I use is also in Family Fun. The key there is the dippers. Sure, you can do whatever you want — but a few things our family LOVES:
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (make sure you use a kind that’s okay to eat raw – no eggs and toasted flour if you’re making it yourself)
- Bites of cheesecake
- Candy pieces
- Red crispy rice delight
We also use apple (green), strawberries and bananas to round it out.
I have to say that even when my kids are grown, they will 100% come home for the fondue tradition and I wholeheartedly agree that it is our best family tradition to date. I’m so glad we started this and it was so much fun to do together.
And yes, if you do this New Years NOW is also a great time to resolve to get more into routines. 🙂
This post was originally published in 2016 but has been updated.
