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The idea for this gorgeous fall cheese board got me out of bed at 4 am on Friday because I was so excited to make it. I popped out of bed, made a pot of coffee and began to sketch and write down ideas. I scoured my Halloween cookie cutters and paper punches and the idea really started to come together. I had plans with my mom for a socially distant porch lunch date and knew I wouldn’t be able to get to it that day, so I went to the store so I’d be good to go on Saturday morning. I won’t go into a long post over this because I think it speaks for itself. Happy ‘All Hallows’ Cheese’! Enjoy!
All Hallows' Cheese Board
A Halloween cheese board with goat cheese tombstones, cheddar jack-o-lanterns, and an herbed soft cheese full moon with punched seaweed bats.
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Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 package Herbed Cheese Spread (plus 1 tsp turmeric )
- 1 4oz goat cheese + 1 pinch charcoal powder (tombstone cookie cutter needed)
- 7-8 slices cheddar cheese (small pumpkin cookie cutter needed)
- seaweed nori sheet (or punched bats and jack-o-lantern faces)
- 1 bag Braided pretzels and pretzel sticks (for tree)
- assorted crackers
- fresh thyme sprigs (garnish)
Fruit and Nuts
- 2 4oz blackberries
- 2 4oz blueberries
- 1 bunch black seedless grapes
- 1 container pomegranate seeds
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup dried apricots, quartered (for fall leaves)
- 1 cup pistachios
- 2 Tbsp blueberry or blackberry jam
Instructions
- I like to use the sliced cheddar cheese slices from the deli section when I want to use cookie cutters to cut shapes. They are all the same thickness which makes for easy cutting. To add a fun detail to one of these pumpkins, I used a cute face punch to punch out of a sheet of nori. But if you don't have the punch, you can cut it out by hand or if you have a food color pen, draw it on. I got this punch from Daiso.
- I used a small tub of Rondele cheese and added 1 tsp of turmeric and gave it a stir until I like the color. Then I smoothed out the surface of the cheese (moon) and stuck it back in the fridge to firm up a bit. I had a bat paper punch that I used to punch out some bats from a sheet of nori and placed them on the surface of the moon. If you don't have a bat punch, I would suggest using a bat cookie cutter to trace onto your nori sheet and then cut it out. Note: I decided to use a soft herbed cheese spread for the moon instead of a wheel of brie because it would be easy to dip the braided pretzels in, but free free to use a wheel of brie and give the rind a dust of turmeric to add a yellow hue.
- Add a pinch of charcoal powder (you don't need much) to 4 oz. of herbed goat cheese and lightly combine. The dry crumbly texture of goat cheese with hints of gray adds the perfect stone texture to your tombstone. Add cheese into a tombstone shaped cookie cutter and smooth out. Use a spoon to gently push the headstones through the cutter onto a piece of wax paper. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Assembly
- To prepare the cheese board, start with a general outline of your tree, using a single layer of braided pretzels. I used a dab of cream cheese to secure them to a large round platter. Add seeded crackers to the base of the platter around the tree trunk. Next, place the full moon. Begin adding fruit between the pretzel branches, as you add up the fruit on each side of the pretzel branches, add more pretzels as you go. I added a strip of charcoal crackers within the branches as well as a small pot of Jam. Place the goat cheese headstones, adding dried cranberries and pistachios. Add pumpkins cheese to the other side of the trunk. Add cut apricots to mimic fall leaves and garnish with thyme sprigs, adjusting as you go.
- Happy All Hallows' Eve! Enjoy!
