How to Make a Cheese Platter

This was my first time making a cheese platter.  The fancy French name for this is called charcuterie. If you google that shit yo, you can see how it is pronounced. The English name is called delicatessen.  On a cheese platter, you can typically find dry or cured meats, aged cheese, dried fruits and nuts, crackers, bread, and dried apricots just to name a few things. For my cheese platter, I used almonds, dried apricots, smoked gouda cheese, an herbed cheese, salami, prosciutto, raspberry pepper jelly, and honey. 

Appetizer night is slowly approaching. On Christmas Eve my family usually gets together and everyone brings a different appetizer to share with everyone. A cheese platter is something that is easily transportable and can be made ahead of time. Just keep the crackers off of the platter so they don’t get stale if you plan on keeping them in the fridge. What does your family do for Christmas Eve? Do you have any holiday traditions?

Tips for Assembling a Cheese Platter

1. Choose a board. You can use slate, a white plain old boring plate, (that’s what I did) or a cutting board.

2. Say cheese! Mix it up with a variety of hard, soft and crumbled cheeses.

3. Add salty and sweet. Pile on Italian meats, dried and fresh fruits and roasted nuts, honey, or even jam!

4. Finish off your cheeseboard with savory crackers, pretzels, or some kind of crispy flatbread.

Cheese Platter

How to make a Weight Watcher Friendly Cheese Platter

Lots of zero point fruit such as grapes, apples, and oranges

Hard Boiled Eggs

Good Thin crackers

Laughing Cow Cheese, Light String Cheese (If they are square cut them into wedges) (just make sure to weigh the cheese to find the exact amount of points used)

Thinly sliced Ham and 98% fat free Turkey

Nuts and Olives

Cheese Platters are like the grown-up version of Lunchables. Do you remember eating those when you were a kid? I sure do. Now I’m an adult and can make my own version. 🙂 If you’re looking for tips on how to lay out each item on the cheese platter, my only tip is to just lay them out where ever you think it will look good. I started off with two kinds of cheese and just kind of placed the items around that. The raspberry pepper jelly I used was the bomb.com and I got that at Cash Wise. You can probably find a similar type of jam at the grocery store you normally go to.