Char-Spookerie Platter
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 0 minutes
Serves: 8
For Pumpkin Cheese Ball:
- 250g/8.8ozs cream cheese (not low fat or spreadable)
- 1 cup/100g/3.5ozs. cheddar cheese, grated
- 1/4 onion, finely diced
- 2-3 tablespoons Sriracha
- 100g/3.5ozs. tasty cheese corn chips, crushed finely
- 1 cinnamon stick
For Pretzel Broomsticks:
-
16 straight pretzels
-
8 string cheese sticks
- 2 baby spinach leaves
To serve
- An assortment of 5 cheeses (I had a triple creme Langres, Bleu de Rambouillet, Crottin, Delice de Bourgogne and Ossau Iraty)
- Pepper crusted chilli salami
- Twiggy sticks
- Fresh figs cut in half
- Dried fruit (apricots, quince and dates)
- Charcoal wafer crackers
To make the pumpkin cheese ball blend the cream cheese with the cheddar cheese, onion and Sriracha and place in some clingfilm and shape into a ball and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight (this can be done 2-3 days ahead of time). Roll in the corn chip crumbs and insert a cinnamon stick in the centre.
To make the pretzel broomsticks, cut each string cheese in half and pull apart at one end to create a broom effect but do not peel all the way to the top. Stick a pretzel in the other end. Slice a baby spinach leaf into thin slices and wrap around the top of the cheese - the spinach should stick to the cheese.