Charcuterie Chalet
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 0 minutes
Serves: 10-12 people
- 2x mini loaves bread, unsliced (I bought mine from Baker's Delight)
- 650g/1.4lbs cream cheese, softened
- 2x200g/7ozs. dip of your choice
- Crackers for windows
- 160g/5.6ozs sliced pepperoni
- 100g/3.5ozs. thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into tiny rectangular pieces
- 150g/5ozs. twiggy stix
- Slice of tasty cheese
- Fresh thyme for decorating
- Rosemary for Xmas trees
- 1 red capsicum
- 1x small pretzel and 3 long pretzels
- 1 small rectangle tasty cheese for chimney
- 100g/3.5ozs bocconcini for snowballs
- Small handful of pepitas
Step 1 - Firstly take one loaf of bread and place it on a serving board securing it with a dab of cream cheese. With a sharp knife cut out two cavities for dips. Line with foil and then fill with the dips. Take the second loaf of bread and cut out a triangular roof. Place half the cream cheese in a large piping bag and snip the end into a 3/4cm opening. Pipe cream cheese around the edges of the top and affix the roof to the main house.
Step 2 - Pipe cream cheese all over the house thinly to make a "crumb coat" to catch the seeds and cover the whole house. Then place in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm up and then spread another thicker layer of cream cheese on top. If you have a plain loaf you may not have to do this but the only two loaves left were seeded ones which left a lot of seeds visible. Place two crackers as windows and then add the prosciutto bricks making sure to alternating each row like real bricks. Cut the tasty cheese into a rectangle and place on the front of the house. Add straight pretzels around the border of the door and thyme. Place the pretzel on top of the door as a wreath.
Step 3 - Spread cream cheese over the roof and layer with salami pieces. Then place the remaining cream cheese in a piping bag and pipe "snow" on top of the chalet. Place the cheese chimney on top in the snow. Place logs of twiggy sticks on the side of the house. Make a small path using pepitas as "tiles".
Step 4 - Spread cream cheese around the plate with a palette knife to resemble snow. Add bocconcini snowballs and rosemary as trees using a ball of piped crema cheese to stand them up. Make a snowman with three balls of bocconcini a tiny tomato and a skewer and use black sesame seeds for eyes. Slice the red capsicum into a sled shape trimming it back as needed. Slice the yellow capsicum in two long slices and place under the red capsicum sled body and place on the side of the chalet.