This Halloween Charcuterie Board is perfectly customizable and devilishly delicious. Make your own Guacamole Spider Webs and Blood Pretzels!
This Halloween Charcuterie Board is filled with devilishly delicious snacks, perfect for All Hallow’s Eve. Fill it with Nutter Butter Ghosts, Apple Monster Teeth, or Mummy Pretzels. For more sweets try our Halloween Candy Charcuterie Board!
A spooky spread
Charcuterie board (pronounced shär-ˌkü-tə-ˈrē) is a tray of mainly meats and cheeses along with crackers, nuts, preserves, and produce. A Halloween Charcuterie Board uses all the traditional elements with a splash of Halloween mixed in.
A Halloween-themed Charcuterie Board is perfect for your little trick-or-treaters, or for any festive ghoulish gathering! Mix in both sweet and savory for all snacking needs.
This board can be so versatile, but we’ve included some recipes and ideas to help you get started.
Building the Board
Once you have all your different elements it’s time to assemble the Halloween Party Charcuterie Board.
- Start by placing the small bowls of dips, berries, or nuts on the board. Space them out evenly.
- Add any larger decorative elements, like the mini pumpkins.
- Add the meat and cheese to the board. Be sure to space them out so the board is balanced.
- Add your crackers and bread spread evenly on the board.
- Fill in the spaces with produce, nuts, and anything else you want to include.
TO MAKE BLOOD PRETZELS
PREP. In a small bowl, melt the red candy melts per package instructions along with the ¼ tsp of coconut oil. Spread the pretzels out on a large piece of waxed paper with some space in between.
BLOOD. There are a few ways to sprinkle the “blood”.
- Use a small paint brush, dip it into the candy melt, and kind of splatter it onto the pretzels.
- I found the best way was to use a straw, dip the straw into the melted red candy and gently blow it onto the pretzels. Blowing the melted red candy onto the pretzels gives you a small dot splatter.
- You can also do some small drizzles by dipping the straw into the red candy melts and flinging it across the pretzels for some lines of “blood” on the pretzels.
SET. Allow the pretzel “blood” to dry at room temperature or can chill in the refrigerator.
You can also read our post all about making Halloween Pretzels for more tips and tricks.
GUACAMOLE SPIDER WEB
GUACAMOLE. Place the guacamole in a new round container, if desired, or leave it in the container it came in if using store-bought.
SOUR CREAM. Place about 2 Tablespoons of sour cream into a sandwich-size resealable plastic bag. With scissors, snip off just a little bit at one of the corners, the smaller the snip the thinner the spider web line will be.
WEB. To make the web first pipe out a cross shape onto the guacamole. Next, make diagonals across the cross shape. Finally, pipe small curves between the lines.
More snack suggestions
Meat. Use thin slices of meat such as prosciutto, salami, ham, turkey, pepperoni, pastrami, peppered beef, or sliced sausage. Larger slices can be rolled or folded before being placed on the board. Plan for guests to have 3-4 total slices of meat.
Cheese. Use a mix of soft cheeses and hard cheeses. You can also use a Cheeseball. Provide enough for guests to have 2-3 oz total.
- hard cheese: Parmesan, cheddar, Asiago, Gouda, Gruyere, Manchego, or Havarti.
- soft cheese: Mozzarella, burrata, goat’s cheese, Brie, blue cheese, or cream cheese
Produce adds a lot of color, flavors, and textures to the board. Use both fresh and dried produce. Some common fall produce you may wish to use include: carrots, broccoli and cauliflower florets, figs, grapes, sliced pears, cranberries, olives, berries, dried apricots, or Strawberry Ghosts.
Crackers/bread: Add small slices of bread and crackers to the tray. Not only can they be eaten on their own, but can be topped with meat, cheese, and jams.
- Ritz Crackers, Pita Chips, Grissini Breadstick, Parmesan Crisps, Toasted Crostini, Artisan Crackers, Baguettes, Pretzels, Wheat Thins, Triscuts, or French Bread Cubes
Extras:
Halloween garnishes. Mix in a few Halloween/Autumn elements by adding mini pumpkins, plastic spiders, skulls, candy eyeballs, and candy corn.
Charcuterie Tips
The board. A wooden cutting board is often used as the base, but any type of tray or platter will do. For this Festive Board, use a classic wooden board or find a Halloween-themed tray. I always have great luck finding unique trays at TJ Maxx or Marshalls or the local thrift store.
Aesthetics. Make the different elements look randomly placed or have symmetry.
Serving. Provide a cheese knife, serving spoons, and tongs. You can often find these with a Halloween theme to them like skeleton hand serving forks or tongs. Provide festive plates and napkins near the charcuterie board.
Refills. Only place a few of each item on the board and have extras in the kitchen. Refill the board as needed.
Storing Info
Make ahead of time. Many of the different elements can be prepared ahead of time and stored in separate containers until you are ready to arrange the board.
STORE. If you have leftovers, I suggest storing them in their own containers that you can pull from to serve again later.
Halloween Decor and Activities:
For More Halloween Recipes:
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To build this Halloween board first choose your base tray, board, or container.
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Next place an odd number of bowls on the board spaced out and staggered to allow for room in between for additional items.
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small pumpkin cookie cutter
Salted Chocolate Mandarin Orange Slices
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Build the board by adding in groupings of the above ingredients considering varying the different colored items on the board.
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Roll the lunch meat into small rolls to place on the board.
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Using the small pumpkin cookie cutter cut the pumpkin shape out of the cheddar cheese slices.
To Make Nutter Butter Ghosts:
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Melt the almond bark per package instructions.
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Dip the cookie part way into the melted almond bark. You can also place the whole cookie into the melted almond bark and use a fork to lift the cookie out allowing the almond bark to drip off.
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Place the coated cookie onto a parchment or wax paper lined sheet.
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For the eyes place two mini chocolate chips. For the mouth, place one chip turned upside down onto the front of the cookie.
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Sit at room temperature or can chill in the refrigerator to allow the almond bark to harden.
To Make Pretzel Mummies:
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Melt almond bark per package instructions.
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Place the pretzel stick into the melted almond bark and use a fork to lift it out allowing the excess almond bark to drip off, also tapping the fork on the side of the bowl will allow more to drip off.
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Lay the pretzel on a parchment or wax paper lined sheet. Allow it to harden.
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Once the almond bark has hardened in a small microwaveable bowl melt 4 oz of white almond bark per package instructions. Transfer to a small sandwich bag. Snip off a corner of the bag and drizzle melted almond bark in lines back and forth across the hardened pretzel sticks.
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Place two small candy eyes on the melted almond bark.
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Allow the sticks to sit at room temperature or place them in the refrigerator to chill and harden the almond bark.
To Make Salted Chocolate Mandarin Orange Slices:
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Melt the candy/chips per package instructions.
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Dip the orange segments halfway into the chocolate and lay on a parchment or wax paper-lined pan.
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Sprinkle with coarse salt.
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Refrigerate to harden the chocolate or if using candy melts it will harden at room temperature.
To Make Blood Pretzels:
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In a small bowl, melt the red candy melts per package instructions along with the ¼ tsp of coconut oil.
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Spread the pretzels out on a large piece of waxed paper with some space in between.
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There are a few ways to sprinkle the “blood”. You can use a small paint brush and dip it into the candy melt and kind of splatter it onto the pretzels. I found the best way was to use a straw, dip the straw into the melted red candy and gently blow it onto the pretzels. Blowing the melted red candy onto the pretzels gives you a small dot splatter. You can also do some small drizzles by dipping the straw into the red candy melts and kind of fling it across the pretzels for some lines of “blood” on the pretzels.
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Allow the pretzel “blood” to dry at room temperature or can chill in the refrigerator.
To Make Guacamole Spider Web:
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Place the guacamole in a new round container if desired or leave it in the container it came in if using store-bought.
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Place about 2 Tablespoons of sour cream into a sandwich-size resealable plastic bag. With scissors, snip off just a little bit at one of the corners, the smaller the snip the thinner the spider web line will be.
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To make the web, pipe out a cross shape onto the guacamole.
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Next, make diagonals across the cross shape.
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Next pipe small curves between the lines leaving some space as you move out toward the edge of the bowl.