Pretty charcuterie boards aren’t just for meats and cheeses. When created with the right selection of ingredients, a lackluster presentation can become a platter of textural beauty and bold flavor that result in drool-inducing food combinations. Pairing creamy, crunchy, and salty cheeses with sweet snacks, cookies, candies, and chocolate can not only add colorful dimensions to your party platters, but also widen the choices friends and family can pick at.
Whether you have an affinity for dark chocolate squares or can’t seem to put down bowls of caramel popcorn, we are here to encourage you to invite your favorite treats to your next charcuterie board. While you can use holidays and seasonal recipes to inform your culinary compilations, there are no hard rules here, and we hope to provide a bit of inspiration as you begin to sweeten up your selection of meats and cheeses arranged neatly on trays and cutting boards. We are sure that plates filled with fun sweets and colorful snacks will delight guests of all ages at the next happy hour you host.
Pair chocolates with cheeses
Cheese and chocolate are no strangers. The two can cozy up by offering a delightful contrast of savory and sweet tastes with creamy, salty bites that leave snackers wanting more. Whether you prefer tangier cheeses or richer morsels of decadence, there is a world of chocolates and cheeses to navigate.
Contrast cubes of sharp cheddar or Parmesan with squares of dark chocolate, or try swiping cream cheese onto chunks of milk chocolate. Chocolates made with flavors and added ingredients like sea salt or dried fruits can complement smoother, buttery bites of mozzarella, while spicier chocolates made with cayenne or red chili pepper can be wrapped up comfortably in strips of Havarti cheese and smoked sausage. Smoked chocolates paired with nuttier-tasting profiles found in Alpine cheese can be enjoyed either before or after dinner, while pieces of homemade chocolate almond bark can be eaten with cubes of English-style cheddar for an energizing afternoon snack. Lovers of white chocolate may delight in combining the buttery pieces with feta or goat cheeses, and when eaten alongside salty meats, crunchy crostinis, crackly breadsticks, or garlicky pieces of French toast, will prove to be a difficult platter to step away from.
Add sweetness with dried fruit
Fruit and cheese may be a more expected charcuterie offering, but dried fruit can add an extra sweetness that can elevate a typical presentation and create contrasts among savory ingredients. Dried blueberries and strips of dried mangos can be placed into shot glasses to create levels and visual variations within your compiled spread of meats and cheeses. Include dried cherries and cranberries to complement some of the caramel notes found in Emmental and alpine cheeses. Dried apricot and goat cheese or crystalized ginger served with creamy cheddar can turn heads towards this creative culinary assembly.
Alternatively, play with the presentations of fresh and seasonal fruits to turn up the dial on sweet. Drizzle strawberries with honey or dip them into chocolate, grill watermelon and peach slices and sprinkle them with cinnamon, or coat apple slices in caramel to place on your carefully curated charcuterie boards. Set out pungent goat cheese and softer chunks of gouda to allow guests to mix and match food items according to their palate’s preferences.
Candies can add a pop of color
A smattering of chocolate-covered pretzels, bowls of gummy candies, broken pieces of Kit Kat bars, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, or candy corn may sound like unusual additions to a charcuterie spread, but these kinds of candies and snacks are exactly what we are encouraging when thinking about enhancing a presentation of cheeses and meats with sweets. Satisfying bites of Kit Kat can complement chunks of Stilton, while a buttery Manchego can stand up to the classic chew of a piece of candy corn. Not only can chocolate-covered pretzels be delicious when dipped into creamy cheese spreads, but the crunchy pieces can also be paired with saltier bites of prosciutto and salami.
Try sampling Reese’s M&Ms or Peanut Butter Cups with the alpine-style Grand Cru cheese, or slice off a piece of goat cheese to chew with your favorite gummy candies. Homemade salted peanut butter bars can also be plated neatly onto a charcuterie board. Though these kinds of pairings may test your culinary courage, you may discover a delicious duo you wish you had known about sooner.
Cookies aren’t just for after dinner
Cookies and cheese may not be an instinctual pairing when crafting a charcuterie board, but stepping outside of the culinary box can yield pleasant rewards. Try eating cheese and cookies one time, and you may be creating cookie-filled charcuterie boards to serve as both desserts and afternoon snacks.
Slathering burrata or creamy goat cheese onto Oreo cookies or using chocolate chip cookie pieces to build gouda-filled sandwiches may draw glances at your dinner parties, but trust us, this is an exploration worth taking part in. Layer Biscoff cookies with crunchy pieces of maple-smoked bacon and blue cheese, or crown Italian butter cookies with hard Italian cheeses or Pecorino and strips of ham. Oatmeal cookies made with cranberries or raisins may come to life with a sliver of cheddar or the fudgy, caramel-leaning Gjetost hailing from Norway. Why not blur the lines that define dessert?
Add some crunch with popcorn
Bowls of popcorn aren’t just for movie nights. If you’ve coated popcorn with Parmesan or cheddar cheese powder, you understand the deliciousness that this salty, savory pairing offers. It isn’t only salty profiles that work well with buttery morsels of cheese, however. Consider making batches of both sweet and savory caramel popcorn to set on your next charcuterie board. Caramel and cheeses make for a natural end-of-meal presentation, and the crunch of caramel popcorn enjoyed with a slice of cheddar cheese may invite nostalgia into the room. Complement your dishes of caramel popcorn with homemade caramel candies and truffles or provide salted caramel sauce for dipping and drizzling onto plates.
You don’t need to stick with caramel-coated popcorn, either. Try using melted cotton candy to coat popcorn pieces or peanut butter syrup and honey to add variety to your sweet charcuterie spread. Not only can these sweet morsels refresh an adventurous palate but can be conveniently picked up and paired with the assortment of cheeses, nuts, fruits, and meats you’ve decided to serve to your guests.
