Christmas Cheese Board For Home Made Cheese

If you haven’t read my previous post on the Cheese Filled Brioche Christmas Tree, let me fill you in. I am having Christmas at my place this year and it inspired me to come up with a couple of ideas of how I can share my home made cheese for all of my family to enjoy.

Usually, I give out different cheeses, wrapped up nicely as gifts. This year, instead of giving them out, we will be sharing them together. I have decided to start off our Christmas meal with both the Brioche Christmas Tree (which turned out exceptionally well in my trial run) as well as a Christmas Cheese Board before serving the main meal.

christmas cheese board for home made cheese

How To Choose The Right Cheese For A Christmas Cheese Board

What do you put on a Christmas Cheese Board? Well that depends on 2 factors. Firstly, what cheese do you have stored in your cheese cave? And secondly, what will the weather be like?

To address the first factor, you will be able to work with whatever cheese you have made up and stored throughout the year, regardless of the weather. Get creative and use your cheese instincts; it will turn out great!

And if you don’t have any cheese already made up, there are still a couple of weeks until Christmas, which means there are a variety of fresh cheeses that you’ll be able to make before Christmas comes. Here are some that I would recommend trying your hand at.

christmas cheese board for home made cheese

A Quick Cheese To Make

Chevre This will only take a couple of days to make and you will be able to store it for 2-3 days in your fridge. It has a very mild taste so can be easily flavoured with herbs or condiments. This makes it perfect for a cheese board.

Cream Cheese Make this cheese in 2-3 days and store in your fridge for 2 weeks. Cream cheese may not be your first thought for a cheese board, however you can make a variety of dips with it, or serve it as is with chorizo or smoked fish.

Queso Fresco This beautiful cheese only takes a few hours to make and can be stored for 1 week in your fridge. This is the perfect cheese for beginners! It has a mild taste so will adopt any flavours you decide to make or serve with it.

Rich Ricotta Make this in a couple of hours and store for 5 days in your fridge. You can use this in a similar way that you would use cream cheese.

Feta Make it in 4 days and store for several weeks in brine or flavoured olive oil. This is a great choice for a cheese board as it can be served as pre-cut cubes or as a block for guests to cut themselves. Plus, if you store the feta in olive oil you can add some great flavours to it to make it the star of your board.

Mozzarella This will take 2-3 days to make and can be stored for 7 days in your fridge. Perfect for a summer board, it can be served up traditionally with tomato and basil.

You can pick any number of these to create a variety fresh cheese board. Yum!

christmas cheese board for home made cheese

Hot Christmas Verses Cold Christmas

And to address the second factor – the weather. Where I live Christmas is a hot summers day. And the cheese that I would normally serve up in summer is different to what I would pull out in winter.

This got me thinking about all of the Curd Nerds on the other side of the world who may want to serve up their delicious home made cheese for a White Christmas.

What better way to include the whole community than to create and share 2 beautiful Christmas Cheese Boards? One fit for a White Christmas and one for a Summer Christmas.

I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas

christmas cheese board for home made cheese

I have never had a White Christmas, and with family over in England I would love to head over there one Christmas and experience it for myself. Never the less, I have spent quite a bit of time in the snowy mountains of Australia and New Zealand and can get a good grasp on what sort of cheese board I would love to put together for a White Christmas.

These are the cheeses that I would recommend for a Christmas cheese board in the cold:

Creamy Rich Blue

Rich Ricotta

Gruyere

A well aged Manchego

Brie

Camembert

Farmhouse Cheddar

The reason I pick these cheeses for winter are for their hearty, warming, rich tastes and textures. Of course, if your personal favourite is not on the list, go ahead and use that anyway.

After going through my own cheese cave, I have decided that I will be using Brie, a creamy blue and Manchego

Loading Up The White Christmas Cheese Board

christmas cheese board for home made cheese

And of course, you can’t have a Christmas Cheese Board without a few other condiments. Here is my full list of what I am including in on the White Christmas Cheese Board:

Brie

A Creamy Blue

Manchego

Cranberry sauce

Caramelized onion jam

Bread

Chorizo

Walnuts and dates

How To Put It Together?

Quite simply, choose your favourite platter or cheese board, get all the ingredients on there and make it look good!

So there you have it, a perfect way to share your home made cheese with your family and friends for an extra special White Christmas.

I will be posting my take on a Hot Summers Christmas Cheese Board next week. So if your Christmas is hot like mine, stay tuned.

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