Savory S'mores Board from Our Community Table
Greetings, Our Community Table readers!
This is more of a concept than a recipe, but a very exciting concept!
About two years ago, I came across an amazing Halloween dessert board idea on an Instagram account called The Food Dolls. The Food Dolls are two sisters who are extremely creative and have amazing recipes and food showmanship. This post showcased a super luxe Halloween s’mores board, featuring ghost shaped marshmallows, upscale graham crackers and various cookies and chocolate (of course). It pulled the theme together with the ingenious use of a very mini fire element used to toast the marshmallows, campfire style, on the board. So cool! Of course, thinking that I was totally going to do this, I immediately took to my laptop and purchased all the necessities, the very same mini fire pit, and the black wooden serving board, etc., so that I, too, could make this amazing idea come to life…and then, amazingly, they sat in my front hall closet, unused, unloved, and gathering proverbial dust…until now!
Fast-forward to last week, when expert food stylist and “food board” specialist Meg Quinn, of the website Ain’t Too Proud to Meg, popped into my feed with something very similar. A s’mores board, but with cheese. And crackers. But no chocolate. She called it a Savory S’mores Board and used a very mini fire pit, and I thought it was FABULOUS! Much to my surprise, my sister informed me that this concept of the savory s’mores board had gone viral for quite some time. But it was the first time I had seen it, and I just knew I had to share it with you!
The concept is a simple one. It takes the idea of traditional s’mores, only makes it cheese, and crackers, and any preserve-y, condiment-y things you love along with it. One basically skewers a chubby chunk of cheese, toasts it over the very mini fire pit until melty (but not falling in), uses dollops of delicious fruit-based condiments such as a fig preserve, or a chutney or whatnot onto a cracker or two, and sandwiches the chubby, melty cheese between the crackers. It comes out “s’mores-like,” for a savory, sophisticated little bite. How luscious does that sound?
Very luscious! And super simple. Inspired to bring this idea to you, dear readers, I ran to my front hall closet, and blowing the proverbial dust off the items previously mentioned, I set to work. Using the design concept from The Food Dolls’ 2022 Halloween s’mores board and the savory s’mores concept from Meg, I assembled the cheeses and crackers and voilà—as you can see in the photo which I took on my kitchen table last week— created a fusion of the two that I think you will really love. I think of this as a highly entertaining food offering meant to be shared with friends who will laugh and chat away with you as you’re all skewering, toasting, creating, and admiring your own perfect bites!
And now for the “recipe” part. To make the board in the photo, I sourced cheese from our local Trader Joe’s. You can see the little rounds of Babybel, and the individual Trader Joe’s brand mini-brie cheeses. I added chubby chunks of a lovely red cheddar, and a walnut studded Gouda. But you should use any and every cheese that you love. I wasn’t particularly discerning about this board; I was just experimenting with the idea for the first time. Ditto for the condiments. Whatever I had in my pantry—that’s what’s on this board. However, there are many very creative ideas and themes you might consider. The basic model, which is the one I created, is completely variable in its cheese, crackers, fruit-based condiments/honeys equation. For something a bit more themed, there could be a Pizza Bagel Board, featuring bagel chips, tomato sauce, chunks of mozzarella, and possibly a basil pesto or basil leaves. The Middle Eastern S’mores Board might include pita chips, hummus, halloumi or feta cheese, possibly some grilled eggplant and tomato condiment, muhammara, and/or harissa. How about a Passover Board for those dreary intermediate days, using matzoh, a lovely Gouda, a jazzy leftover charoset mince, a piquant whipped horseradish something. I just made that up now and might have to try it. But as you can see, the possibilities are endless.
And this doesn’t need to be done indoors, although there is something about that very mini fire pit that I love. The Savory S’mores board can be assembled and taken outdoors to be used over an actual fire pit, a grill, a campfire, or any heat source you prefer.
I hope you will love this “concept recipe” as much as I do. If you create boards of your own, please share photos of them with me via Steve Lotter at our Federation so we can post them on our website. I would absolutely love to see the amazing things you come up with!
Cristyne Porile
Community Contributor