This Dessert Charcuterie Board is the perfect, crowd-pleasing treat. It’s a fun dessert board, packed with all your favorite sweets, and customizable for any occasion!
Okay, technically a charcuterie board refers to a snack board of cured meats and cheeses.
Which is not quite what we’re doing here. We’re using the same idea, but making it sweeter!
This Dessert Charcuterie Board is loaded up with your favorite sweets. You can follow my guidelines OR get creative. It’s just so customizable! Add on fresh fruit, dried fruit, candies, chocolates, sweet dips, cookies, mini donuts…the sky is the limit!
If you love snack boards, you’ll definitely love my Kid-Friendly Snack Board!
Want to make a few homemade offerings to go on it? Try this Cream Cheese Fruit Dip: 3 ways, Easy Caramallow Fruit Dip, these Peanut Butter Balls or Oreo Balls.
Ingredients Needed:
- Fruit: use whatever variety of fruit you like. I love berries and/or grapes, then a stone fruit such as cherries, sliced peaches, or nectarines.
- Crunchies: this can be small cookies, pretzels, or graham crackers.
- Nuts: any combination of your favorite nuts will work. Try roasted almonds, praline peanuts, cashews, or any chocolate covered nuts.
- Dried Fruit: use dried apricots, strawberries, cherries, raisins, apples, etc.
- Candies: anything goes! Use your favorite chocolates, gummies, marshmallows, you name it.
- Optional Additions: feel like dipping? Add on a bowl of whipped cream, Nutella, peanut butter, cookie butter, or your favorite jam or jelly!
How to Make a Dessert Charcuterie Board
It takes just 20 quick minutes to put together your Dessert Charcuterie Board!
- Gather your items: Grab whatever items you want to include on your board. I like to include something crunchy, salty, chocolate-y, and fresh.
- Add the focal points: Pick the largest/most exciting ingredient, then add that to the board in a few different spots.
- Arrange the smaller ingredients: Working your way down in size, add the other ingredients around the board, filling in the gaps with things like small berries and nuts.
Dessert Charcuterie Board FAQs
Literally anything you want! Fresh fruit, dried fruit, chocolate covered fruit, you name it. You can’t go wrong. I love apple slices, blueberries, strawberries, dried apricots, etc.
Want to get your charcuterie board ready ahead of time? You can totally arrange everything except the fruit and store it covered for a couple of days. Just make sure you leave space for the fresh fruit so you can add it before serving!
Tips and Notes
- Distribute well. Balance is key when it comes to a visually pleasing charcuterie board. Make sure any pops of color are spread out around the board. Smaller piles all over is better than one giant pile of a single item.
- Adjust as needed. Serving a lot of people? Use a big wooden board as a serving platter. Preparing for just a few snackers? Use a small one. It’s better to fill the entire board, no matter what size you’re using.
- Pile it up. Make higher piles as opposed to wider, flatter piles. The more depth there is, the more interesting it will be to look at.
- Use bowls for smaller items. Anything bigger and easier to grab is just fine right on the platter. Smaller things like nuts are perfect in your favorite bowls.
Variation Ideas
- Valentine’s Day: Anything red or pink and anything chocolate is perfect for Valentine’s Day. Use strawberries, raspberries, conversation hearts, Valentine’s Day Chocolate Lollipops, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, or even cheeses to balance out the sweetness. Brie, gouda, gruyere, or goat cheese would all be great.
- Christmas: Use any of your favorite holiday sweets! Popcorn Balls, red and green M&Ms, candy canes, Christmas Sugar Cookies, No-Bake Mint Chocolate Bars, etc. Anything green, red, and white is perfect.
- Halloween: All Halloween candy is fair game! Fill in with apple slices and caramel, Caramel Popcorn, Snickers Brownie Bites, candy corn, etc.
- Birthday: Add your favorite cake balls, Grandma’s Candy Popcorn, mini cupcakes, Frosted Sugar Cookies, you name it.
- Chocolate Lover’s: Load it up with everything chocolate! Candy bars, chocolate kisses, Triple Chocolate Raspberry Brownies, M&Ms, Nutella and pretzels, you name it.
- Fondue: It doesn’t have to be sweet! Surround your favorite melty cheese dip with all things dip-able! Crackers, pretzels, chips, even fresh veggies.
- Summer: Pile on whatever summery thing you can think of! Cherries, strawberries, cheesecake bites, and more.
- Sweet and Savory: Fill your board with all your favorite sweet and salty foods. Try chocolate covered pretzels, popcorn, Double Chocolate Potato Chip Cookies, crackers and jam, cream cheese and crackers, your favorite olives, etc.
Dessert Charcuterie Board
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
- 2 cups variety of berries or grapes (i.e., strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)
- 1 cups stone fruits (i.e., cherries, sliced peaches or nectarines)
- 1 package small cookies, pretzels or graham crackers (200-300 grams)
- 1 cup variety of nuts (roasted almonds, praline peanuts, cashews, or chocolate covered nuts)
- 1 cup dried fruit (dried apricots, strawberries, cherries, raisins, apples, etc.)
- ½ cup variety of candies (chocolates, gummies, marshmallows, whatever you like)
- optional: whipped cream, nutella, peanut butter, cookie butter, jams or jellies depending on what kind of dessert board you are going for.
Instructions
- Pick a theme for your board and gather your items. Aim for a variety — something crunchy, something salty, something chocolate, something fresh, etc.
- Lay out your ingredients and begin by arranging your focal points on the board — this could be the largest or most exciting ingredient, or a key to your theme.
- Work your way down your list of ingredients according to size. Place the largest items, then the second largest, and fill in the gaps with the smallest items last. Aim for pops of color in different areas for visual interest.
- Keep in mind how long you will need to store it before people arrive. Most items can be left at room temperature for a couple of hours, but you may want to wait until just before serving if you have items that should stay cold.
Notes
- roasted, salted almonds
- dark chocolate covered almonds
- salted caramel pretzel pieces (Snyder’s brand)
- praline peanuts
- chocolate hazelnut roll cookies
- coconut flavor cookie chips (the flat cookies)
- mini powdered donuts
- chocolate covered pretzels
- dried apricots
- fresh strawberries
- fresh blueberries
- fresh white peaches
Nutrition Information
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