Fall Dessert Charcuterie Board

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This fall dessert charcuterie board is such a fun idea for an autumn party or get-together. This is an especially great idea for kids, as they’ll love all the snacks on this board!

With red and green apples, caramel corn, and cute pumpkins and acorns, there are also some cheese slices to balance all the sweetness.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Fall is one of my favorite seasons, and it’s partly because of all the delicious food. Delicious scents of cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice fill the air.

When my kids were younger, we loved visiting a local pumpkin patch and then cooking the pumpkins we brought home to make homemade pumpkin puree. There’s so much you can make with pumpkin, like pumpkin butter and pumpkin muffins. If it’s still hot out in October (which it often is here), we love to make pumpkin ice cream. And every year we made sure to make our autumn cut-out sugar cookies. My kids looked forward to these traditions every year.

If you need a special but unfussy fall dessert or snack that everyone loves (particularly kids), this fall dessert charcuterie board is the perfect choice! (It’s hard to know if I should call this a dessert or a snack—it could be a healthy-ish dessert because it includes both fruit and cheese!)

With colorful apple slices dipped in caramel sauce (you could also sub homemade cream cheese apple dip in place of the caramel sauce), crunchy caramel corn, and candy corn with mini pumpkins, family and guests will love all of the fall flavors. The stars of the show may be the pumpkins made with oranges, and the acorns crafted from Nutter Butter cookies. Kids and adults alike will enjoy making and eating this extra-special autumn dessert board.

But one of the main things to love about this charcuterie board is just how simple it is to make! This is seriously so easy!

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Supplies Needed for This Recipe

To make this fall dessert charcuterie board, you’ll need some supplies:

• 13″ Round charcuterie board
• Small bowls
• Medium bowl
• Paring knife
• Butter knife

Ingredients Needed for This Recipe

The full ingredient amounts and instructions are found below in the printable recipe card.

• Caramel Corn: premade or make your own caramel corn
• M&Ms: (regular multi-colors or fall-colored Reese’s Pieces)
• Mixed Autumn Candy Corn (candy corn & candy pumpkins)
• Mandarin Oranges
• Mini Thin Pretzel Sticks
• Celery: for making the pumpkins
• Cheese Cubes: Colby Jack was used here, but feel free to sub your favorite cheese!
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Nutter Butter Cookies: These are for making the cute acorns
• Chocolate Frosting: You can either make your own or use store-bought
• Chocolate Sprinkles: These make the acorn cookies look extra-special
• Red Apples: Use whatever type of apple you prefer
• Green Apples: Again, the type of apple is up to you or whatever you have available
• Premade Caramel Apple Dip: (or make homemade cream cheese apple dip)

How to Make Fall Dessert Charcuterie Board

1. Make the popcorn mixture by combining popcorn, candy corn and half of the red/orange/yellow/brown M&Ms or Reece’s Pieces.

2. Make the pumpkins by peeling the oranges and slicing the celery into thin 1 inch strips. Put the celery into the top of the orange for a stem.

3. Make the acorns by cutting the Nutter Butters in half. Using a butter knife, frost the top third of the cookie (front, top and sides but not the back). Then dip the cookie into a bowl of sprinkles. Cut the pretzels in small pieces and place a stem on top of the frosted cookie.

4. Slice the apples, add the caramel dip into a small dipping bowl and slice the cheese.

5. Assemble your board by first placing the bowl of popcorn, bowl of caramel dip, orange pumpkins, acorns and cheese. Then fill in the empty spots with M&Ms, candy corn and candy pumpkins.

How to Store

Once the apples are sliced and the oranges peeled, they will need to be consumed pretty quickly. You can coat the apple slices in lemon juice to prevent them from browning.

Leftover cheese and apple dip should be refrigerated and used within a few days.

The Nutter Butter acorns can be stored in an airtight container for a week, and the candy doesn’t have any special storage requirements.

Fall Dessert Charcuterie Board Tips

How to Make It Healthier

If you’re trying to cut down on sugar and artificial coloring, here are some tips to make this charcuterie board healthier:

• Instead of using store-bought caramel corn that may have artificial flavors or unhealthy sweeteners, make your own homemade caramel corn sweetened with honey.
• Instead of M&Ms that have artificial colors, use chocolate coated candy with natural coloring.
• Instead of using store-bought apple dip that may contain high fructose corn syrup, make your own easy cream cheese apple dip sweetened with brown sugar.
• Consider using organic apples and celery if possible, or at least be sure to use something like this homemade natural fruit and veggie wash spray to clean off the produce before using.

More Things to Add to a Fall Dessert Charcuterie Board

Here are some more ideas if you want to change things up:

• Nuts like pecans, pistachios, walnuts or almonds
• Add this fall harvest snack mix
• Marshmallows
• Maple leaf cookies
• Dried sweetened cranberries
• Ginger snaps
• Graham crackers and jams or fruit spreads like cherry or apple butter or pumpkin butter
• Vanilla wafers
• Pumpkin spice cookies
• Frosted autumn sugar cookies

More Fall Dessert Recipes

• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Apple Spice Cupcakes
• Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Chocolate Covered Apple Slices
• Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies
• No-Churn Pumpkin Ice Cream
• Fall Harvest Snack Mix

If you make this recipe and enjoy it, please leave a comment with a 5-star recipe rating and let me know! Thank you!