Halloween Charcuterie Board - Easy Halloween Party Food
This Halloween Charcuterie Board is spooky, fun and surprisingly easy to make in just 30 minutes! The centrepiece is a creepy brie eyeball wrapped in prosciutto, complete with olive pupils and red veins. You'll also make chocolate cockroaches filled with peanut butter, little blue cheese rats with curly tails and salami worms. It's impressively gruesome but easy!
About This Halloween Charcuterie Board
A Halloween Charcuterie Board is the easiest, fun dish for a Halloween party. I'll show you how to make an easy but fun spooky charcuterie platter that is achievable and effective in around 30 minutes. You can make all sorts of spooky details and motifs using regular supermarket ingredients that your goblins aka guests can graze on all night long!
Prosciutto - Ask for a classic thin cut of prosciutto from the deli, they should be whole pieces. Prosciutto is very hard to slice thinly without a meat slicer so avoid buying whole prosciutto (I did it once by mistake!).
Brie - Single, double or triple cream brie or camembert.
Green olive - a large pitted green olive that is bigger than a kalamata olive.
Kalamata olive - pitted black kalamata olive
Red food colouring - To draw the red veins on the cheese. I find a gel works better than a liquid. Use sparingly.
Medjool dates - For the bodies of those roaches! Make sure to remove the pits.
Peanut butter - Use your favourite peanut butter or nut butter alternative.
Chocolate - dark or bittersweet chocolate works best as milk or white chocolate are too soft. You can also use chocolate melts.
Small salami - a small salami log, around 180g-200g/6-7oz. You can make two "worms" out of each log. I used a goat and fennel salami from the Gourmet Goat Lady so it was darker in colour than a pork salami.
Edible eyes - You can find these at the supermarket, especially around Halloween time.
Blue cheese - To make little rats. I bought blue cheese that was already portioned into triangles but use a semi circle of blue cheese like a Castello blue cheese (not sponsored).
Vermicelli noodles - Use the curly parts of uncooked vermicelli noodles to make little curly rat tails.
Halloween Charcuterie Board Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 0 minutes
Serves: 6-8 people
Ingredients Needed
For Brie Eye
10 slices prosciutto
200g/7oz brie
1 large green olive, cut in half
1 pitted kalamata olive
Red food colouring
For Halloween Cockroaches
6 Medjool dates
60g/2oz peanut butter
50g/1.7oz dark or bittersweet chocolate
For Rest of the Board
100g/3.5oz salami sausage, cut into slices
Edible sugar eyes
Crackers
Blackberries
Green kiwifruit, cut in half
Dried apricots
Blue cheese, half circle
Vermicelli noodles, uncooked
Stuffed green olives
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 COCKROACHES - First make the cockroaches. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Remove the pits from the dates (6 Medjool dates) and fill with peanut butter (60g/2oz). Freeze for 15 minutes (while they're freezing I do the rest of the charcuterie board). Then melt the chocolate (50g/1.7oz) and place half of it (25g/0.85oz) in a small piping bag or a ziplock bag.
Draw 6 ovals with a spoon with the rest of the chocolate (25g/0.85oz), just slightly smaller than the dates and then using the piping bag, draw legs sticking out of the oval. Add a date on the chocolate before it sets hard. Place back in the freezer for 5 minutes to set.
Step 2 EYE - Place the brie (200g/7oz) in the centre of the chopping board and layer prosciutto (6 slices) on the top eyelid (I place the fat side up). Then layer prosciutto (4 slices) on the bottom lid. With a small brush draw red veins in the eye. Then scoop out a little ball of cheese from the centre (I use a melon baller but a small knife also works). Make sure that the olives are completely dry. Place the kalamata olive (1 pitted kalamata olive) in the centre and the green olive halves (1 large green olive, cut in half) on each side. Draw veins on the green olives too.
Step 3 RATS & WORM - Cut the blue cheese into triangles and poke a curly piece of vermicelli noodle in the end. Cut salami (100g/3.5oz) into slices and arrange cascading pieces to form a worm. Add edible eyes on the end piece.
Step 4 FILL- With any gaps fill these in with crackers, fresh blackberries, dried apricots and stuffed green olives.
Personal Note
I made this Halloween Charcuterie Board for Mr NQN's nephew's birthday this past weekend. Finn was turning 6 years old and we were having our usual Elliott birthday picnic at Shelly Beach in Manly for his birthday. He always loves Halloween so this idea was perfect for him.
We noticed Mr NQN's brother Manu was off carrying a box in the distance. We wondered what he was doing and it turned out that he had found a bush turkey with a broken foot. He had called WIRES and was trying to capture it in a box for them. The Elliott siblings then went on a bush turkey chase. It was Mr NQN, Manu and Amaya and they tried to corner the bush turkey to put it in the box for WIRES.
It became quite a spectacle as they climbed up high rocks on the side and you'd think three against one bush turkey with a broken foot would be easy. But no, every time they got close to the bush turkey it eluded them. They gave up eventually as they had no idea when WIRES would arrive, if even they arrived that day!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like making charcuterie boards? Would you eat a chocolate cockroach?
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