Holiday Dessert Charcuterie Board: If you’re hosting party guests or company this holiday season, you definitely need a great dessert. I’ve got you covered with this holiday dessert board, filled with sweet and salty snacks with a to-die-for cinnamon toffee cream cheese dip for dipping everything in sight!
FRIENDS!! We’re in the home stretch until Christmas now and I’m SO SO excited to share this latest creation with you today!
If you’ve been stressing over what to bake for your holiday parties these next couple of weekends, for Christmas Eve dessert, or for your Christmas Day dessert table, I’ve got you covered.
This holiday dessert charcuterie board gives a big update to those good ol’ cookie platters and takes them up a few notches with the addition of a couple of easy dessert dips.
What is a Charcuterie Board?
If you’ve been on social media for a minute during the past 2 years, you’ve probably seen a slew of different snack boards that have been popping up. There are cheese and charcuterie boards. And then there’s this adorable candy cane caprese board! Gah!
A charcuterie board, simply put, is a platter or board filled with snacks.
A dessert board is just like those savory charcuterie boards except that it’s filled with desserts! The desserts are arranged on a rectangular board (a cutting board, slate cheese board, etc.) or something like a large baking sheet or a short-sided open box, like I used here.
Why Make a Dessert Board?
There are a couple of major advantages to putting a dessert board together.
First, it’s a great way to use up all those small amounts of leftover cookies you have hanging around in your tins or from the latest cookie swap you were at. I mean, what do you DO with all those cookies??
Second, a board like this doesn’t require a lot of effort. Buy some items and make some items. Or just buy them all! Hey, I know that it’s a busy time of year and sometimes all those cookies just never get made. Been there!
For my board, I included a mix of homemade and store-bought. We made the chocolate orange linzers, this pretzel dulce de leche linzers, an incredible cinnamon toffee cream cheese dip, a cannoli dip, and some pretzel M&M kisses. And we filled in the rest of the board with store-bought treats.
This was a SUPER easy way to make a beautiful dessert for a big crowd and what’s best is that there’s a little bit of everything included, which is surely enough to please everyone.
Dessert Charcuterie Board Ideas
As with any cookie or dessert platter that you’ve assembled or munched from in the past, you could add just about anything to this dessert board. I’ve listed out a number of dessert charcuterie board ideas below in the recipe card but some other desserts you could add are oreo truffles, slices of cheesecake, peppermint brownies, peanut butter truffles, and your favorite type of fudge.
I also feel the need to include something salty and some type of fruit when I’ve laid out a table of sweet desserts and my thoughts were no different for this holiday dessert board.
On the salty side, I included pretzels and those fun little pretzel M&M kisses. If you’ve got some chex mix, salted nuts, or puppy chow laying around, those would be great too!
For fruit, apple slices were soooo perfect dipped in the toffee dip. But sliced pears or clementine slices would be nice ways to brighten up the sweetness of this dessert board as well.
What to Serve with Your Holiday Dessert Board
If you’re going to make this dessert board for a party, you’re going to need drinks! I mean, what’s a party without a few drinks, whether they’re boozy or non-alcoholic, amiright?
The Mistletoe Kiss is a holiday drink for the ages with vodka, lemon juice, and a special and insanely easy simple syrup that ties the whole drink together. For the chocolate peppermint lovers, this is a boozy peppermint, coffee, and chocolate flavored dessert cocktail that's as easy to make as it is to drink. 'Tis the season! Mulled wine with a Scandinavian twist. This warm traditional wine recipe is meant to warm your spirit and comfort your taste buds. Coffee eggnog punch can be made with or without alcohol and is a delicious holiday drink for dessert or brunch. A peppy winter cocktail to remind you that Jack Frost won't be here forever. With rum, blue curacao, pineapple juice, and coconut cream, this one packs a punch! Eggnog Lattes are the cozy, warm Christmas drink that smells and tastes like the holidays in a glass. Skip the coffee shop and make this latte recipe at home with real eggnog instead of flavored syrup for a creamy, frothy espresso drink for winter! The Saint Nick Special cocktail is perfect for the holiday season! Coffee, whiskey and irish cream come together to create a comforting, delish drink! A traditional holiday drink from Puerto Rico, it’s like a coconut eggnog. Gingerbread lattes are a warm and cozy holiday lattes made with a real gingerbread syrup, freshly brewed espresso, steamed milk, and whipped cream. Grab a blanket and crank up your favorite Christmas music while you enjoy this one at home.Holiday Boozy and Non-Alcoholic Dessert Drinks
The Mistletoe Kiss (Christmas Cocktail)
The Peppermint Mochatini
Glogg Recipe – A Traditional Scandinavian Holiday Drink
Coffee Eggnog Punch Recipe
The Jack Frost Winter Cocktail
Eggnog Latte Recipe
Saint Nick Special Cocktail - Bailey's and Coffee Christmas Cocktail
Coquito: Puerto Rican Eggnog (without eggs)
Gingerbread Latte
How to Build a Holiday Dessert Charcuterie Board for a Crowd
Holiday dessert charcuterie boards are a fun and delicious way to jazz up your holiday dessert table. Filled to the brim with sweet and salty snacks along with creamy dessert dip, your guests will be blown away by the beautiful presentation of this board. Make it your own by customizing your treats too!
Ingredients
Suggestions for dipping and serving:
- Cinnamon toffee cream cheese dip
- Cannoli dip
- Salted caramel sauce
- Sliced apples and/or pears
- Extra toffee in large pieces
- Classic Linzer cookies
- Chocolate orange Linzer cookies
- Shortbread cookies
- Spritz cookies
- Stroopwafel
- Gingerbread men and/or gingersnaps
- Graham crackers, store-bought or homemade
- Cannoli shells
- Pretzels
- Pretzel kisses
- M&Ms
- Hershey's Kisses
- Peanut butter cups
Instructions
- Arrange the dips on either end of a rectangular board. Mine was 10.5 x 27 inches so it held a lot of snacks.
- Start filling in the spaces with the larger pieces of your desserts first. Then fill in the smaller spaces with cookies stacked and layered in different ways. Finish by filling in the small holes with pretzels, M&Ms, Hershey's Kisses, and peanut butter cups. You could replace any of these small pieces with small handfuls of nuts or caramel popcorn. Be creative and add what YOU like!
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