Christmas Cheese Boards
Here are some fun and festive ways to get creative with your cheese boards this year! For a recipe for Sugared cranberries, click here. *For the "tree" board, I specifically purchased pretzel balls, cheese stick type crackers, these 34 degrees crackers and I also used Stroopwafels.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- Cheeses You'll want an assortment of at least 3 to 4 different cheeses of various textures and flavors. I like to buy the wedge cheeses in various sizes. They are easy to slice into the long strips needed to create the star. I also use blue cheese that I crumble.
- Charcuterie Select several dried meats that compliment your cheese flavors, such as Salami, Proscuitto, Soppressata, Capocollo or Mortadella. I went for larger, flatter pieces.
- Blackberries and raspberries pomegranate arils would also work!
- Sugared cranberries
- Crackers and/or Bread* Include a variety of crackers with different textures that compliment your cheese and charcuterie flavor profiles; and/or sliced baguette or other crusty bread.
- Stroopwafels
- Nuts and almonds Choose a few types of nuts that offer both complimenting and contrasting flavors, like candied walnuts and spicy almonds. I love marcona almonds.
- Pickled Things Veggies that are pickled - like beets, asparagus, and cornichons - add great sour notes for balancing the sweetness and saltiness of your other cheese board items.
- Jams and/or Preserves
- Castelvetrano olives You can include both green and black olives, or whatever variety goes best with your cheese and charcuterie selections. Castelvetrano olives are the ones shown below.
- Fresh herbs for garnish and decorations. I mainly use fresh rosemary and thyme.
- Extras: popcorn, cookies, chocolates for fun
Instructions
- For the Christmas "tree" board: simply follow the photo above.
- For the Holiday "star" cheese board: arrange everything on your board and try to keep the charcuterie as flat as possible. Make sure to leave room around the edge to place the fresh rosemary along the edge. Arrange the cheese strips, in a circle pattern, alternating the long and short strips or laying the shorter pieces on top. Lastly, fill in the holes with the sugared cranberries, nuts, candied pecans and olives. Enjoy!
Notes
*For the "tree" board, I specifically purchased pretzel balls, cheese stick type crackers, these 34 degrees crackers and I also used Stroopwafels.