How to Make a Halloween Snack Board (aka Char’Boo’terie Board)
A Halloween snack board is a fun way to graze on snacks while you’re having a scary Halloween movie night, handing out candy to trick or treaters, or for a Halloween party! We’ve got a variety of cheese, fun snacks for the kids, and so much more!
Spook-tacular!
A Halloween snack board is the most fun way to make a meal out of snacks! Essentially, this is a Halloween-inspired grazing board. It’s also a fun activity you can do with kids or a significant other! I honestly had the best time shopping for all the ingredients. It’s fun to think of ways to use fresh veggies and fruits to make monster-inspired treats.
If you’re hosting a Halloween party, making a Halloween cheeseboard is a total no-brainer. Everything is game for a Halloween charcuterie board, and you can use just about anything you like! Load a board with various fun cheeses, use cookie cutters to make shapes out of them, dip strawberries in white chocolate, and don’t be afraid to grab the orange candy slices or caramel corn at the grocery store.
I started my board with a few fresh fruits and veggies in monster form. Next, I add a few spooky elements – chocolate-covered strawberry ghosts, mummy-wrapped brie, and guacamole dip with a swirl of sour cream ‘spider web’ on top. Use crackers or chips in various shapes and sizes to fill the empty spaces; they’re great with the formage and guacamole. Caramel popcorn and chocolate-covered pretzels add sweet elements. And what would a Halloween board be without a few plastic spiders and candy eyeballs to make things more fun!
What you need to make a Halloween Snack Board:
- Cheese: Use a good variety for your Halloween cheese board. I’ve got a mummy brie, which I wrapped in puff pastry, as my main centerpiece, with cubed cheddar, veiny blue cheese, marinated mozzarella [eye]balls, a gouda with green herbs, and a goat cheese log with cranberries—more on how to choose the right cheeses for your cheese board below.
- Decor: You’ll want to use a few fresh pumpkins on the board; I also happen to grab plastic spiders, mini cauldrons, Molcajete salsa bowls (great for holding salsa or guacamole and they look like cauldrons,) candy eyeballs, a mini skull, and a skeleton hand. You can use a large platter, baking tray, a charcuterie board, or a wooden breadboard to place everything on.
- Candy + Cookies + Chips: I opted for more adult candy treats like chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered coconut almonds, and multi-grain crackers, but you can undoubtedly use veggie chips, stick pretzels, pretzel rods, peanut butter cups, gummy worms, or even candy corn! You can make your snack board as sweet or as savory as you like! I also picked up some cute mousse-loaded pumpkin cookies from Trader Joe’s, but any Halloween cookies, such as Halloween frosted animal cookies, or Oreos would work here.
- Fresh elements: I love fresh apple slices on my board, beautiful bell-shaped moon drop grapes, and mandarins are the perfect pumpkin shape! I also made little Frankensteins out of kiwis, dipped my strawberries in white chocolate to make ghosts, and stuck a few eyeballs on my sweet peppers to make them more fun. You may also want to grab a can of sliced black olives to make ‘eyeballs’ for the mummy brie and to pop a few in the marinated mozzarella too.
Inspiration for your tricks and treats!
- Focus on orange foods and black foods. Look for foods that would instantly add Halloween flair to your board. When you’re looking for orange foods, think mandarins, fresh pumpkins, candy corns, caramel popcorn, and cheese puffs. Think along the lines of black olives, Oreo cookies, blackberries, and licorice wands for black foods.
- Add pops of green here and there! I think green is the perfect color to add to a creepy Halloween-inspired cheeseboard. You can add pops of castelvetrano olives, pimento-stuffed green olives, cucumber slices, celery sticks as stems for mandarins, cheeses with green herbs, kiwis, and guacamole in a cauldron is perfect for a witches brew!
- When in doubt, add candy eyes! I bought a pack of those candy eyeballs, sliced black olives, and mini chocolate chips to add them to a pile of cubed cheese or give my strawberry ghosts some eyes. You can also use them on the Frankein-kiwis and sweet peppers.
Tips for making the best Halloween Snack Board:
- For an authentic charcuterie board, add meat. If you prefer a more ‘adult’ board or are making this as a meal, be sure to grab a package of salami and prosciutto di parma to add to your board. I was going for a board that was more ‘snack’ focused, so I skipped the meat entirely and added extra cheese, veggie, and fruit.
- Think textures before you buy. When it comes to cheese, think of a variety of textures. You don’t want all the cheeses to be just soft or firm. I like something fresh, such as burrata or marinated mozzarella. Something soft, like the wheel of brie I used to make the mummy brie recipe. A semi-soft cheese, like the gouda or my fontina bats. And something firm, like the cubed cheddar on my board. If you’re serving this at a party, have at least one cheese that is familiar to most people, such as cheddar, goat cheese, or brie.
- Make sure to buy enough cheese for your Halloween cheese board. Depending on the size of the party, you’ll want to have roughly 3 ounces per guest. So if you’re serving this to, say, 12 people, you’ll need 36 ounces in total. I suggest using a minimum of 3 types of cheese in a small group. Or 6 for a larger group of 18 or more.
- Melt chocolate with a bit of coconut oil. If you’re melting chocolate chips to add eyes or mouths to your fruit or veggies, add a bit of coconut oil. The coconut oil will melt in the microwave with the chocolate and help the chocolate harden faster.
- Make this your own! This is your board and you have to like what’s on it so don’t be afraid to add oreo spiders, or blueberries, skip the peppers, and double up on the fruit, add dried apricots, pistachios, ants on a log, or even string cheese!
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
- Homemade Apple Cider
- Toasted Marshmallow Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats
- Maple Honeycrisp Apple Fritters
- Crunchy Baked Buffalo Chicken Jalapeño Poppers
- The Best Fruit Pizza
How to Make a Halloween Snack Board (aka Char'Boo'terie Board)
A Halloween snack board is a fun way to graze on snacks while you're having a scary Halloween movie night, handing out treats to trick or treaters, or for a Halloween party! We've got a variety of cheese, fun snacks for the kids, and so much more!
Ingredients
Cheese:
- 6 ounces cheddar
- 6 ounces Gouda
- Marinated mozzarella
- Prepared mummy brie
Fruit/Veggies:
- Kiwis
- Blackberries
- Strawberries
- Mandarins
- Sweet peppers
- Moon Drop grapes
- Green apples
Other ingredients:
- Olives
- Caramel corn
- Chocolate covered pretzels/almonds
- Dried apricots
- Pistachios
- Guacamole
- White or semi-sweet chocolate for melting
- Crackers, for serving
Instructions
- MANDARIN 'PUMPKINS': Cut a small 'x' in the mandarin. Place a small 1 inch piece of celery in the 'x' and gently push down so that it goes through.
- FRANKEN-KIWIS +SHOCKED PEPPERS: Cut the kiwi in half. Use a paring knife to score where you'd like the 'hair line' to be. Then use a peeler or a paring knife to peel away the rest. Add a small squeeze of chocolate for the eyes and mouth as you'd like. Pat the peppers dry, add a squeeze of chocolate for the eyes, add candy eyes, and mouth.
- CHEESE: Cut the cheese using ghost, pumpkin, or bat shapes. If the cheese is white, I like to put a dark colored fruit below, then place the cheese on top. Place cheeses on your board. Add fresh or faux pumpkins or a skull.
- ADD THE FUN STUFF: Add cauldrons full of olives, chocolate covered almonds, place the guacamole on the board along with all the prepared kiwi, peppers, and mandarins.
- FILL THE BOARD: Scatter the board with caramel corn, chocolate covered pretzels, dried apricots, pistachios, and an assortment of crackers.
This is absolutely adorable! Just wow! Using it!
Thank you, Laurie! Hope you make one too, it’s so fun!