A beautiful Cookie Charcuterie Board is the perfect option for any party! Use a variety of cookies and treats (store-bought or homemade!) and arrange on a board of your choice.
It's easy to put together and the presentation will be sure to impress your guests! I include lots of tips for how to arrange your charcuterie board for a show stopping presentation.
Grazing boards have become all the rage! They're easy to put together, beautiful to serve, and allow guest to pick and choose what they like. While charcuterie means cold cooked meats so a traditional charcuterie board is made up of meats like prosciutto and salami. The term charcuterie board has evolved in usage to represent lots of varieties of grazing boards! If you're looking for another unconventional board, try this Fruit Charcuterie Board or Christmas Tree Charcuterie Board!
Jump to:
🧐What is It?
A Cookie Charcuterie Board is a grazing board filled with sweets and treats like cookies, candies, chocolate, and more. It's a fun way to serve dessert for the holidays.
⭐Why I Love It:
- Party Ready Presentation - I promise it will impress your guests!
- Perfect Time to Go Store-Bought - While you totally can make some cookies and treats from scratch, this is a great way to use store-bought treats to make your life easier.
- Customizable - The options and things to add are endless! This is a great option to let guests pick out the treats they like best.
🥘Ingredients
Pick and choose from the below list to suit your preferences. You can use all store-bought or a mix of store-bought and homemade. This is a great option to arrange your holiday cookies in a pretty way. For the board pictured, I bought all of my ingredients at Trader Joe's (pictured below).
- Cookies - Pick a variety of cookies in different shapes, textures, and colors. You can use store-bought or make your own, such as these 3-ingredient palmier cookies or brown butter sugar cookies.
- Chocolate Covered Pretzels, Nuts, or Fruit - Can't go wrong with more chocolate on a dessert charcuterie board!
- Plain Pretzels - These are a great addition to dip into the chocolate spread. Or try making these festive Christmas Pretzels!
- Nutella or Other Chocolate Spread - I love to include a small bowl of a chocolate spread for guest to spread on fruit, pretzels, or the plain cookies
- Fresh Fruit or Dried Fruit - Like strawberries or raspberries to add color and that are also great with the chocolate spread.
- Nuts - I added candied pecans but you can use any nuts (like pistachios, cashews, plain pecans, or almonds).
- Candy - Such as caramels, fun size candy bars, M&Ms, or nut butter cups. Or even add fudge like this White Chocolate Fudge or Microwave Nutella Fudge.
- Cheese - I didn't include any cheese on my dessert board, but you can add some like Brie, Goat Cheese, Fontina, or Gouda.
🍪Cookie Board Variations
If you're making your dessert board for a special occasion or holiday, then you can coordinate the options to suit the occasion! Here are a few ideas:
- Valentine's Day Dessert Board - Stick with lots of chocolate treats (a mix of white, milk, and dark to add variety and contrasting colors). Add pops of red from strawberries and raspberries (even chocolate covered berries). Then fill in the small gaps with candies like pink and red m&ms and chocolate covered nuts.
- Birthday Party Dessert Board - For this board, go for lots of fun colors along with white (so it is reminiscent of birthday cake/funfetti)! Think sugar cookies with colorful sprinkles, mini cupcakes with sprinkles, white macarons, colorful candy like taffy and lollipops.
- Christmas Tree Dessert Board - Instead of arranging the treats to cover the whole board, use a rectangle board (or baking sheet) and form the treats into the shape of a Christmas tree placing the cookies/treats in rows. Bonus points for using red and green cookies and candies.
- Fondue Dessert Board - Place a bowl of melted chocolate in the middle of a board. Around the bowl arrange piles of fresh fruit, marshmallows, cubed pound cake, and pretzels. Give guests skewers so they can dip the items in the melted chocolate. Make sure to melt the chocolate right before serving and enjoy immediately!
🔪Equipment
- Small Bowls - You'll want to use small bowls for the Nutella and nuts, if using. I love to place these on the board first to serve as anchors/focal points that you arrange the treats around.
- Wooden Board or Other Platter - The most important part is having a board or platter to arrange the fruit 'charcuterie' board. If you don't have a board or platter, you can even use a sheet pan!
🍽Boards to Use
Don't have a classic wooden charcuterie board? That's okay! There are lots of options:
- Wooden Board - This is the classic option (like pictured).
- Marble Board - Be aware that anything acidic (like citrus) may stain the marble.
- Serving Platter - Any serving platter can work!
- Large Plate - A plate is a great option, especially if you're making a smaller spread.
- Baking Sheet - Using a regular sized or half-sized sheet pan is another great option that you already have on hand!
🍫Step by Step Instructions
Assembling a beautiful cookie charcuterie board is easier than you think - see my tips for assembly and use the picture for inspiration!
Photo 1 - If using, prep the fruit. Adding the small bowls first serves as 'anchors' that you can arrange the other ingredients around.
Photo 2 - Start adding the cookies. For the best presentation, I like to add the treats in clumps trying to avoid putting similar colors/shapes next to each other. Check out the photo for inspiration! It's easiest to start with the bigger cookies first, then fill in the gaps with the smaller things.
🍰How many desserts should I have per person?
The size of the board will depend on how many people are attending your party and what other food options there are. But a good rule of thumb is to have about 1 cup of cookies/candy per person. If you don't have any other snack options at the party, then you will want more and if you are serving other food then guests may eat a little bit less.
If you don't have a board large enough, you can either refill throughout the night or make several smaller boards.
🍴Leftovers and Storage
I recommend storing the different ingredients with their like items. Leftover cookies and treats can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several days. The berries can be stored in the fridge. And nuts can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of weeks.
💭Recipe Tips
- Assemble Right Before Serving - Although you can assemble the board earlier in the day and cover with plastic wrap, I recommend assembling the board as close to serving as possible so everything is super crisp out of the package.
- Assemble in the Serving Location - Unless your board has edges (like using a serving tray or baking sheet), then I like to assemble in the actual serving location so you don't risk the cookies rolling off the board in transport.
- Contrasting Colors/Shapes - This is my number one tip when assembling any charcuterie board. For the best presentation, you want to have contrast! Try to avoid like-colored cookies together and instead aim for lots of contrast in both color and shape.
- Large Pieces First - I like to do the larger ingredients first (like the large butter waffle cookies and baton wafer cookies). Then it's easy to fill in spots with things like pretzels and small cookies.
👩🍳Recipe FAQs
A traditional charcuterie board is going to be focused on the meats (salami, prosciutto, etc.) and cheeses but you can make an untraditional, but fun dessert charcuterie board and load it up with sweets!
If you're looking for some cheese to pair with dessert Brie, Goat Cheese, Fontina, and Gouda are all great options!
🧁Related Dessert Recipes
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PrintRecipe
Cookie Charcuterie Board
A beautiful Cookie Charcuterie Board is the perfect option for any party! Use a variety of cookies and treats (store-bought or homemade!) and arrange on a board of your choice. It's easy to put together and the presentation will be sure to impress!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 6-10 servings
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 cup Chocolate Spread like Nutella, adjust amount as needed
- 2 cups Fresh Berries, adjust amount as needed
- 1 cup plain or candied nuts
- Cookies and Treats, variety and amounts as desired
- Wafer Baton Cookies
- Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butter Waffle Cookies
- Meringues
- Chocolate Covered Nuts or Pretzels
- Biscotti
- Toffee
Instructions
- Prep the Fruit (if using) - If you're adding fruit to the board, rinse and dry well. It's optional to slice the berries or leave them whole.
- Add Bowls of Nutella, Nuts, etc - Adding the small bowls first serves as 'anchors' that you can arrange the other ingredients around.
- Arrange Cookies and Treats - Start adding the cookies. For the best presentation, I like to add the treats in clumps trying to avoid putting similar colors/shapes next to each other. Check out the photo for inspiration! It's easiest to start with the bigger cookies first, then fill in the gaps with the smaller things.
Notes
Leftovers? I recommend storing the different ingredients with their like items. Leftover cookies and treats can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several days. The berries can be stored in the fridge. And nuts can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of weeks.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ~⅙ of the board (varies with selections)
- Calories: 503
- Sugar: 34.4 g
- Sodium: 178 mg
- Fat: 29.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 55.4 g
- Fiber: 5.1 g
- Protein: 6.5 g
- Cholesterol: 4.3 mg
Keywords: Dessert Charcuterie Board, Dessert Board, Chocolate Charcuterie Board
Katie says
Love doing this for a party when I don't want to bake anything.
★★★★★