How To Create A Valentines Charcuterie Board

By Katrina Lander

There are numerous reasons why I love my Cole & Mason Barkway acacia board, I use it all year round, it’s beautifully designed and looks elegant which makes it the perfect board for all occasions. 

Charcuterie boards definitely don’t have to revolve around savoury items, and what better time of the year to incorporate some sweet nibbles than Valentines. A Valentines board would work great for sweet or savoury, but I thought I would go with the best of both and combine the two.

In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with a charcuterie board, combining all the foodie items you enjoy the most, ensuring you have plenty of fresh ingredients and bright colours (especially for Valentines) and they always look aesthetically pleasing. I always want to make sure my board looks full, includes a variety of shapes and textures and creates a flow. Here are my top tips to create your own:

Look at what foods work together:

Before you start, it’s important to think about the produce you know you want to include, this gives you a good starting point and you can then look at what foods work together. It’s important to think about different sizes; you will want to include larger items i.e. blocks of cheese and/or crackers, and smaller items to fill in gaps i.e. nuts and/or sweets.

Here are a few examples of items that work well on a charcuterie board:

• Cheeses - Popular cheeses are goat cheese, brie or camembert and cheddar.
• Meats - Prosciutto, salami or pepperoni
  
• Crackers – The perfect accompaniment for your cheeses and meats 
  
• Fruits – Strawberries, red grapes, cherries and cranberries  
  
• Chocolate and sweets – As this is a Valentines board why not include heart shaped chocolates or sweets
  

Start with your largest items

Once you’re ready to start arranging your board, ensure to start with your largest items, which will make it easier to create a base and build around. Separate the large items on the board, rather than putting them close together. 

Add small bowls:

After arranging your larger items onto your board, I like to add some small bowls. These act as focal points and are great to hold items that would otherwise create a mess, for example I’ve used mine to hold honey and melted chocolate. If you’re creating a sweet and savoury board like I have, placing small bowls on your board will also help with keeping sweet and savoury items slightly apart. 

Assemble your ingredients in a fun way:

Rather than laying all your ingredients flat, think about adding dimensions and different heights. I used the crackers to make a fan shape, this made use of the space on the board and looks more interesting than placing in a row. For the prosciutto, I folded each one back and forth as opposed to laying the slices flat.

Fill in the gaps:

In my opinion a full platter is a good platter, I try not to leave many gaps on the board by filling these with smaller, picky ingredients. As this is a Valentines board, I have filled the gaps with some love hearts and also included walnuts to keep in with the theme of sweet and savoury.  

Keep it colourful:

Choosing some vibrant produce really brings your board to life, and makes it look aesthetically pleasing. Valentines is the perfect excuse to add shades of red, pink and deep purple. Think strawberries, raspberries, pomegranate seeds or red cheeses (I opted for the cranberry wensleydale). 

Ingredients on my board: 

• Strawberries/Chocolate covered strawberries
• Cranberry wensleydale 
  
• Prosciutto 
• Pink jammie dodgers
• Sea salt crackers
• Honey
• Melted chocolate
• Walnuts
• Love hearts 
  

Chocolate covered strawberries:

1. Using a small saucepan fill with around 2cm of water and bring to a simmer.
2. Choose your chocolate of choice and place in a heatproof bowl, rest on top of your saucepan. Continue to stir the chocolate until melted.
3. Wash your strawberries and ensure they are dried well (there’s no need to remove the leafy top). Dip your strawberries in the chocolate (or use a spoon to drizzle/decorate), tap off any excess chocolate and place on some baking parchment paper to set.
4. Pour any leftover chocolate to a small bowl to add to your board.