Today I’m excited to share this delicious Epcot cheese fondue recipe from the Bavaria Kitchen at Epcot’s Festival of the Holidays!

When it gets colder in the winter I crave something hot and comforting. This often means soup, which of course is always delicious. But even better? How about a big bowl of warm melted cheese! Jason and I love a good cheese fondue, and we’ve started making it at home ourselves occasionally.

For Thanksgiving this year it seemed like it would be fun to recreate a recipe from Epcot’s Festival of the Holidays. During the month of December the Bavaria Holiday Kitchen offers a “Cheese Fondue in a Bread Bowl with Fresh Steamed Baby Vegetables and Marble Potatoes”. 

I’m going to be honest – this is good when you get it in Epcot, but it’s even better when you make it yourself at home. Since they have to mass produce it in the theme parks the cheese may have been sitting under a warmer for a bit, and with fondue it’s absolutely best when it’s fresh and has that perfect cheesy consistency.

This one is definitely a winner because it’s got some great flavors in it. They could have done a very basic cheese fondue and gotten away with it, but this one involves two different kinds of cheese, wine, nutmeg, and just a hint of cayenne. 

Any sort of sturdy, crusty bread makes a good bread bowl for cheese fondue. We used sourdough because we were very lucky to have a friend who makes his own sourdough loaves who had dropped one off for us the day before! Though the original recipe calls for 6 small bread bowls we just used one large “standard size” loaf and the amount that the recipe made fit perfectly. You could still divide it into smaller bowls if you wanted individual portions but I think they would have to be very teeny loaves.

I have a feeling we’ll be making this one again before the winter is over!

Epcot cheese fondue recipe:

Cheese fondue recipe from Epcot's Festival of the Holidays

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup heavy cream, divided
• 2 1/4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• Pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup grated Swiss cheese
• 1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
• 2 zucchini
• 2 cups baby carrots
• 3 cups baby potatoes
• Crusty loaf of bread
• Chives, chopped

Instructions

1. Prepare vegetables: cut zucchini into thick sticks. Boil potatoes and carrots in salted water until al dente, then blanch zucchini for about 2 minutes. Place all vegetables in a bowl and season to your liking with salt and pepper.
2. Add wine to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then stir in 3/4 cup of the heavy cream.
3. Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup cream and cornstarch in a small bowl to make a slurry.
4. Whisk nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and salt into the wine and cream mixture.
5. Gradually whisk the cornstarch slurry into the wine and cream mixture. Whisk until thickened.
6. Turn heat to medium low. Whisk cheese into mixture a handful at a time, letting cheese melt completely before adding more.
7. Slice off the top of your bread loaf and carefully hollow out the inside. Pull out the inside and slice into bite size pieces for dipping.
8. Ladle cheese fondue into your bread bowl.
9. Add chives on top.
10. Serve with the vegetables and bread pieces. Enjoy!

Other blog posts of interest:

Brazilian cheese bread recipe from Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival
Chocolate peppermint cookie recipe from Epcot’s Festival of the Holidays
Le Cellier cheddar cheese soup recipe
Celebrating the holidays at Epcot
Jiko mac and cheese recipe

Are you interested in trying this Epcot cheese fondue recipe?