This spooktacular Halloween charcuterie board combines traditional charcuterie meats and cheeses with festive Halloween snacks like a ghostly brie, Halloween pretzels, and a fun pumpkin dip!
It’s the perfect way to elevate your Halloween party snacks and the perfect addition for pretty much any Halloween party theme! Or just make it for people to snack on before trick or treating – no matter when you make it, this Halloween char-boo-terie will be a hit with everyone who gets to enjoy it!
Halloween Charcuterie Ideas
When it comes to Halloween parties, there’s no better way to get people in the spooky spirit than with a Halloween themed charcuterie board!
I’ve shared a couple of different Halloween charcuterie board ideas in the past – a Halloween dessert board, a Halloween snack board, and even a Halloween frosting board.
Since Halloween is already filled with tons of sweets and treats, I thought it’d be fun to finally share a non-sweet Halloween charcuterie board, one that’s more traditional and filled with meats, cheeses, fruits, and all sorts of festive Halloween snacks!
Charcuterie boards are my favorite because you can include a variety of flavors and textures and this bone-chilling charcuterie is no different. I’ve included all sorts of different meats, cheeses, fruits, snacks, and more so there’s something for everyone!
Halloween Charcuterie Highlights
- Easy – it may look impressive but this board is actually super easy to put together. It’s just getting the ingredients and putting them onto a board!
- Festive colors – we used a lot of black, orange, and white to tie in the Halloween colors in a more elegant and upscale way than say my green and purple witch board!
- Skull brie cheese – one of the highlights of the board is the skull cheese, which is actually much easier to make than it looks! I’ve even included a template in this post you can use to recreate it yourself!
Ingredients
What to put on a halloween charcuterie
One of the best things about charcuterie boards is that you can really make them your own. I’ve included a list of all of the ingredients we used in our board below but feel free to use whatever fits your guests’ taste AND your budget.
- Brie cheese wheel – we used a 16 oz one with this skull template to make our skull (print it at 60% for the right size!)
- Cheese cubes – we cut up cubes of pepper jack, gouda, sharp cheddar, and colby cheese. You could also buy these precut into cubes to make things even easier!
- Sliced cheese – we used slices of a variety of cheeses including swiss, white cheddar, and manchego cheese!
- Goat cheese – we combined the goat cheese and apple butter to make a “dip” of sorts in the pumpkin. You could also do something like this pumpkin dip or a fruit dip too!
- Charcuterie meat – we did various meats including pepperoni, charcuterie, and a trio of salami.
- Fruits – we used raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and black grapes
- Olives – black and green olives both work well
- Nuts and granola – we used mixed nuts but you could also just do one kind of nut OR even something like these crockpot candied nuts. We also used pieces of granola bars but you could do granola clusters, nut clusters, or something similar.
- Crackers and breads – we used a variety of different crackers (just bought an assortment), pretzels, and mini naan pita bread rounds. Plus, the white chocolate dipped skull pretzels.
- Ghost peppers – we sliced mini yellow peppers, filled them with cream cheese, and added eyes to make “ghost peppers.” You could also just do the peppers but the ghostly ones are way more fun.
- Candy – since this is a charcuterie board, I only included a small amount of candy corn and kept everything else pretty savory.
- Herbs – I finished off the board with some fresh thyme sprigs to give it that living and creepy feeling.
Recommended Tools
In addition to the ingredients, we also added a number of Halloween items to make this appear more Halloweenish! Things like plastic cauldrons, spider rings, mini pumpkins, and candy eyes really give it the spooky look!
For the skull filled with meat, we bought one at Joann’s but you could use this one or this one from Amazon that are similar in size and look.
How to make a halloween charcuterie board
This board is pretty simple to make. You’ll need to prep your Halloween snacks first that will go on the board but then it’s just a matter of putting it together!
1 – Prep Your Skulls
The first thing to do is make the brie skull. Print out this template (at 60% size) on food safe paper, place it on top of the wheel of brie cheese, and use a sharp knife to create the outline of the skull in the cheese.
Watch the video in this post to see exactly how I did this but it’s pretty easy once you get started!
Once your cheese skull is ready, it’s time to stuff the meat skull! First, line your skull container with parchment paper unless you found one that is food safe (most are not!) then carefully fold up the meats you want to add and place them in tightly to give the appearance of a brain!
2 – Make Your Other Halloween Snacks
If you haven’t already done so, make the other Halloween snacks you want to put on the board. Cut the peppers in half and fill with cream cheese and olive bit eyes, make the Halloween pretzels, fill the pumpkin with the goat cheese mixture!
3 – Add Your Large Items
Once everything is prepped, it’s time to put your charcuterie board together!
I always start by putting my large items and containers on the board first. For this Halloween charcuterie board, I started with the skull cheese, skull meat, filled pumpkin, and candy corn cauldron.
After the largest focus items are on the board, add on other large items like crackers, breads, etc. Separate these throughout the board since they tend to be similar in color (e.g., various shades of orange and tan) and size!
4 – Add the Meats and Cheeses
Next up, you’re going to add in the meats and cheeses. I like to start with the ones that are folded and standing up since they have a bit more structure than say the cheese cubes and will need their own space.
Tip!
One of the best ways to add interest to any charcuterie board whether it be a Halloween charcuterie board or some other theme is to mix up the shapes and presentations of your meats and cheeses. Cut cheese into long slices, thin slices, cubes, rectangles, etc. Same with meats – fold some, keep some in rounds, and just stack some.
5 – Fill the Halloween charcuterie board with small items
The last step in filling the charcuterie board is to add all of those small items that fit right into the gaps between the larger items. This means things like berries, nuts, olives, granola, and any other smaller snacks.
I always save these until later because they’re such good space fillers, fitting right into the gaps!
You can also add any fresh herbs (in this case thyme) to just give the book a fresher look!
7 – Finish your Halloween Charcuterie
Last but not least, it’s time to finish off your charcuterie with little finishing touches like spider rings and other Halloween decorations that make it look even more spooky!
You could even add some of these skeleton tongs or these Halloween cheese knives for people to use for serving themselves the snacks!
Charcuterie Board Tips
Make this Halloween charcuterie board the day of then place in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. You could also make it the night before and wrap tightly with saran wrap that you remove right before serving.
Don’t overfill the board. You can always add more later if you need to but don’t feel the need to add the entire box of crackers – it’s more fun to have more variety in small quantities than tons of one variety.
Use the right knife for the cheese you’re cutting. For soft cheeses (like brie), use a cheese knife with holes in the blade or a wire cutter to avoid sticking. For semi-hard cheeses (like gouda), let it sit for 30-60 minutes before cutting then use a cheese plane or sharp chef’s knife to slice!
Wrap any leftover cheese in wax or parchment paper before putting in an airtight container, then in the fridge, to store to enjoy later!
Recipe FAQs
What charcuterie board did you use?
I used this charcuterie board but you could really use any rectangle board you want! The actual board itself really doesn’t make any difference to this recipe!
More Spooky Halloween Snacks
If you’re looking for the best Halloween party foo, check out these next!
- Halloween dirt cups – our classic dirt cups get a spooktacular spin!
- Halloween punch – this fun kid-friendly zombie punch is always a huge hit!
- Cauldron cupcakes – the creepiest cupcakes that are fit for all the witches out there!
- Graveyard cake – this Halloween poke cake is decorated like a graveyard for a fun and festive Halloween treat!
- Mummy dogs – classic pigs in a blanket with a Halloween spin!
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Halloween Charcuterie Board
Ingredients
- 16 oz brie cheese wheel
- 5.28 oz manchego cheese wedge
- 8 oz pepper jack cheese cut into cubes
- 8 oz gouda cheese cut into cubes
- 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese cut into cubes
- 8 oz colby cheese cut into cubes
- 4 oz swiss cheese sliced
- 4 oz goat cheese
- 2 TBS apple butter
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 3 mini yellow peppers
- 12 oz salami variety of types
- 3 oz proscuitto sliced
- 2 oz pepperoni
- blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries
- black grapes
- mixed nuts
- green and black olives
- various crackers, pretzels, and naan
- white chocolate covered pretzels
- candy corn
- fresh thyme springs
Instructions
- Print out this template (at 60% size) on food safe paper, place it on top of the wheel of brie cheese, and use a sharp knife to create the outline of the skull in the cheese. Then place on the charcuterie board.16 oz brie cheese wheel
- First, line your skull container with parchment paper unless you found one that is food safe (most are not!) then carefully fold up the meats you want to add and place them in tightly to give the appearance of a brain! Then add to the board.12 oz salami, 3 oz proscuitto
- Cut the peppers in half and fill with cream cheese and olive bit eyes, make the Halloween pretzels, fill the pumpkin with the goat cheese mixture! Add all the items to the board.4 oz goat cheese, 2 TBS apple butter, 2 oz cream cheese, 3 mini yellow peppers, white chocolate covered pretzels
- Add crackers and pita bread to the board.various crackers, pretzels, and naan
- Ad the meat and cheese to the board.5.28 oz manchego cheese wedge, 8 oz pepper jack cheese, 8 oz gouda cheese, 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, 8 oz colby cheese, 4 oz swiss cheese, 2 oz pepperoni
- Add all the smaller items to the board, filling in any gaps. Garnish with fresh thyme sprigs, candy corn, and plastic spiders!blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries, black grapes, mixed nuts, green and black olives, candy corn, fresh thyme springs
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