On today’s post, I thought I would show you how to create one of my favorite appetizer ideas… A cheese board! I love a cheeseboard because it’s the kind of thing that you can set and forget. If you have a house full of family and friends and you’re running around trying to get the meal ready or finalizing the details of the party,  you’ll love a cheeseboard, too. Let me show you my go-to selection for a flawless looking cheeseboard

Step 1 . Pick your favorite cutting board. You could use a rectangular cutting board. You could use a square cutting board. I really like a round cutting board, because I think it makes a pretty presentation. Actually the one I prefer, is a lazy susan, which means it can be turned around. This makes it easy for your guests to navigate to the selections they like with out having to reach across the board. But any board you have will do.

First thing we are going to do is create a little centerpiece for our cheese board. A cheese board is much like a table. You want to create visual interest by drawing your eye to the center. Especially when their in season, I like to do a selection of grapes. I like to take some green grapes, mix it with some red grapes, and then add some purple grapes. Again, just adding nice visual interest to the center of our cheese board

The first cheese I like to use is something runny. Usually this is a nice French brie. The second cheese I like is a salty cheese. For me that’s a really nice blue cheese. I also like to include a mild flavored, almost neutral cheese. For that, I’ll use a goat cheese log. And lastly, I like to include a  sweet cheese, like a stilton. Around the holidays, you can find stilton with dried fruit, like apricot, Cranberry or blueberry … like I’m using today.

When placing your cheese on the board, you want to place your triangles out, because it’s easier for guests to serve themselves.

Now that we have our cheese on the board, we want to go ahead and pair our cheese with some bread and crackers. Like we did with the cheese, I like to provide a variety of flavors and textures. For the brie, I love this cheese because it pairs well with salty things, as well as with sweet things. But because we already have some sweet cheese on the board (stilton), we’re actually going to turn it into salty, and pair it with some olive bread. I love nice sliced olive bread with brie, it’s such a nice combination. If you want the recipe to my homemade Mediterranean Olive Bread, click this blog post.When it comes to the goat cheese, were going to use some rosemary crackers. I love when you can find the little rosemary flatbreads at your grocery store. Broken up and nestled on your cheese board, rosemary flatbreads create visual interest. When it comes to the blue cheese, I like to pair it with something sweet. I think it’s a great combination between the saltiness of the blue and the sweetness of something like a raisin cracker. When it comes to the stilton, I like to pair it with something sweet and flavorful like a brioche toast.

The next thing that I think is really great on a cheese board is some texture. You want to have a combination of things that are chewy and things that are crunchy. For the chewy side, I like to add dried cranberries … especially this time of year, and some dried apricots. On the crunchy side, were going to add some candied pecans and some candied walnuts -two great nuts that are terrific with cheese.

Now you could stop here, and you would have a very lovely cheese board. But if you wanted to kick it up one notch, you could also offer a selection of spreads. For me, some of my go-to favorites are olive tapenade, for something salty. Honey, for something sweet. Pepper Jelly for a little bit of kick. Now if you’ve never had pepper jelly before, it’s really delicious paired with cheese. It’s basically jam that’s made from a selection of red peppers, green peppers and spicy peppers. It’s really nice on a cracker with some cheese. And lastly, a little bit of fig jam. I love fig jam because it can go sweet, it can go savory. It’s the perfect type of thing to serve with cheese and it’s also a great flavor this time of the year.

Now that you have all these delicious ingredients out there, just waiting to be combined, let me share with you some of my favorite combinations-

Mediterranean twist – take a rosemary cracker, top it with a little bit of goat cheese, add a dollop of tapenade, and you will head to the south of France in one quick bite.

Salty & Sweet – take a raisin cracker, a little blue cheese, a drizzle of honey and a candied walnut. Let me tell ya, this is another really great flavor combination.

Take a brioche toast, a little spread of brie, a dollop of fig jam, add some candied pecans. This is another winner in my book

But don’t hesitate to get creative and come up with your own combinations.

I love a cheeseboard because it becomes so interactive with your guests. Of course, everyone wants to try their own flavor combinations, and it keeps them really busy while your in the kitchen trying to get dinner ready. I hope you enjoyed this post and give this cheese board a try at your next gathering. Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think. Also, share your favorite combinations.

Easy Cheese Board

 

Save Print

An easy-peasy Cheese Board, sure to delight all your guests at you next gathering!

Author: Tracy Hensel

Recipe type: Appetizer

Ingredients

• 1 Runny Cheese: Wedge French Brie
• 1 Salty Cheese: Wedge Blue Cheese
• 1 Neutral Cheese: Log of Goat Cheese
• 1 Sweet Cheese: Wedge of Stilton with Dried Fruit
• Crackers:
• Olive Bread {French Brie}
• Rosemary Crackers {Goat Cheese}
• Raisin Crackers {Blue Cheese}
• Brioche Toasts {Stilton}
• Chewy + Crunchy, Sweet/Salty
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup dried apricots
• ¼ cup candied pecans
• ¼ cup candied walnuts
• ¼ cup Spanish almonds

Instructions

1. Select a large cutting board
2. Add a trio of grapes in the center
3. Create 4 quadrants, to place cheese
4. Nestle assorted crackers that pair well with different types of cheese
5. Add some dried fruit and nuts
6. Offer a selection of spreads {ex., Honey, Fig Jam, Pepper Jelly, Tapenade}
7. Offer a few favorite combos

Notes

Favorite Combos:
Rosemary Cracker + Goat Cheese + Tapenade
Raisin Cracker + Blue Cheese + Honey + Candied Walnut
Brioche Toast + Brie + Fig Jam + Candied Pecan

3.5.3208