How to make a Charcuterie Chalet this Christmas!
Christmas is an overload of sugar – Rum balls, candy canes, shortbread and of course the traditional gingerbread house. While the yearly XMAS sugar rush is a must have in December, sometimes we need a savoury snack to balance out the sweetness of the festive season. Introducing the Charcuterie Chalet, a decadent structure, paved from crackers, cheese, and delicious cured meats (pork of course)!
If savoury is more your style, keep reading to find out exactly how to build this Christmas masterpiece!
What you’ll need:
While the typical gingerbread house usually sticks to a strict recipe, a Charcuterie Chalet can be made from almost anything – cured meats, breads, crackers, dips, cheese, olives, or even a selection of crudites!
The only key ingredient you will need to have is some quality cream cheese – this is so you can stick everything together to shape your chalet!
Base Construction:
We started with 4 large unsliced bread loaves to create the structure of the building. We placed two together for the house base and the other two were cut into a triangular shape to create a pitched roof.
To add some strength to our base and ensure our chalet did not collapse once topped with all its delicious features, we toasted the cobs until the outside was crunchy.
To add a ‘pinata’ like surprise, we hollowed out the base cob and filled it with delicious Cheese and Bacon dip! You can find the recipe for this here: Cheese & Bacon Queso Cob Loaf Recipe. After all this cutting and toasting – we ‘glued’ the roof cob to the base cob using cream cheese.
Time to decorate!
Firstly, we covered the entire bread base with cream cheese – this works as glue to hold all your ingredients to the chalet.
We used bread stick crackers on the sides to create a wood like cabin feel and lavish fruit crackers on the front for a staggered wood panel look. For the roof tiles, we carefully layered slices of Aussie pepperoni on top of each other held in place by cream cheese.
We crafted a chimney made of cheddar cheese, and a steppingstone pathway of plain crackers. A garden bed made of a soft cheese wheel with a rosemary pine tree in the front yard added a touch of nature, bringing the whole chalet look together!
To add some EXTRA detail, we toasted the top of our cheesy chimney with a blow torch, added some pretzel windows and created a Christmas Wreath from pork salami and sprigs of thyme.
Of course, these are just basic guidelines. You can swap and change any of the ingredients you don’t want and add your own personal touches. Maybe you would prefer to create a Charcuterie Condo or an Antipasto Apartment – the world is your cheese and pork platter! Go forth and create something magical this Christmas pork lovers!
