Dessert Board with Mascarpone, Brie and Dark Chocolate

A dessert board is what you put out when dinner is over and nobody is quite ready to leave the table. This Dessert Board builds the whole thing around cheese: mascarpone, brie and honey goat cheese, with dark chocolate, salted caramel, shortbread, almond biscotti and fresh fruit around them. It serves 8, and the portions are smaller than on a party board, because everyone already ate. Nothing is baked or cooked. You set a dark tray on the table, spoon, break and place, and the result looks far more deliberate than the effort behind it.

Why this works

• Three cheeses give three textures. Mascarpone is soft and creamy, brie is ripe and a little earthy, and honey goat cheese is tangy with a sweet edge.
• There is no meat here, on purpose. Dark chocolate and salted caramel give the salty sweet contrast that cured meat would give on a savory board.
• Shortbread fingers and almond biscotti are sturdy enough to scoop mascarpone and brie without breaking.
• Strawberries and orange segments reset the palate between bites.
• Pale desserts stand out against a dark slate or a black tray, so the board reads as styled instead of piled.

What to know about the ingredients

Mascarpone is the center of the board, and it is the item most affected by temperature. Straight from the refrigerator it is dense and tastes of almost nothing, so take it out early. The same goes for the brie and the honey goat cheese. If you cannot find honey goat cheese, a plain goat cheese with a drizzle of honey over it is a fair stand-in.

For the chocolate, the recipe calls for dark chocolate at 70 percent. It is bittersweet enough to balance the caramel and the shortbread, and it breaks into clean shards by hand. Choose a salted caramel sauce that is thick enough to sit in a bowl without running off a spoon.

Shortbread fingers and almond biscotti give you a buttery crunch and a dry, nutty crunch. If one is hard to find, use extra of the other. For the fresh row, strawberries and orange segments are the pair in the recipe, and they should be cut and peeled just before you set the board out.

Dessert Board

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Smaller portions than a party board, because everyone already ate.

Serves8

Ingredients

Cheeses

• Mascarpone — 9 oz (250 g)
• Brie — 8 oz (225 g)
• Honey goat cheese — 5 oz (150 g)

Sweet

• Dark chocolate, 70 percent — 5 oz (150 g)
• Salted caramel sauce — 4 oz (120 g)

Crunch

• Shortbread fingers — 7 oz (200 g)
• Almond biscotti — 5 oz (150 g)

Fresh

• Strawberries and orange segments — 14 oz (400 g)

Instructions

1. Set a dark slate or a black tray on the table. Dark stone makes pale desserts look intentional.
2. Spoon the mascarpone into a shallow bowl and set it slightly off center, with the caramel bowl next to it.
3. Place the brie and the honey goat cheese on opposite corners, both already cut.
4. Break the chocolate into shards by hand and scatter them in two loose drifts.
5. Edge the whole board with shortbread, biscotti, strawberries and orange segments until the stone shows only as a border.

Notes

• Serve dessert cheese at room temperature. Cold mascarpone tastes like nothing at all.
• No meat on this one, on purpose. The two chocolates in the sweet row do that job: they are the salty sweet anchor the meat would have been.

How to build it

1. Set a dark slate or a black tray on the table. Dark stone makes pale desserts look intentional.
2. Spoon the mascarpone into a shallow bowl and set it slightly off center, with the bowl of caramel right next to it.
3. Put the brie and the honey goat cheese on opposite corners, both already cut, so no one needs a knife.
4. Break the chocolate into shards by hand and scatter them in two loose drifts. Hand-broken edges look better than neat squares.
5. Edge the whole board with shortbread, biscotti, strawberries and orange segments until the stone shows only as a border.

Check the board from a few steps back before you carry it to the table. If you can see large patches of slate in the middle, move some fruit or biscotti inward.

How to store, freeze and make ahead

The recipe gives no make-ahead or storage times, because a dessert board is meant to be eaten right away. A few steps ahead of time are safe: you can break the chocolate, cut the brie and goat cheese, and portion the caramel into its bowl. Keep the dairy in the refrigerator until you are ready, then let it warm up so it tastes like itself. Cut the strawberries and peel the oranges last. Wrap leftover cheese and put it back in the refrigerator, and keep the biscotti and shortbread in a closed container so they stay crisp.

What to serve with it

Coffee and espresso are the easy answer, since they work with chocolate, caramel and almonds. A sweet dessert wine or a tawny port suits the cheeses, and a small glass of something sparkling cuts through the richness. For a no-alcohol option, hot tea or a pot of decaf coffee keeps everyone at the table longer.

Variations

• Seasonal fruit: swap in sliced pears, figs or grapes for the strawberries and oranges.
• Nut crunch: add toasted almonds or hazelnuts near the chocolate.
• Different biscuits: use ginger snaps or another plain cookie in place of the biscotti.
• A second caramel bowl: serve the caramel in two small bowls so both ends of the board have some.

After a heavy meal, a lighter finish helps, so keep the portions small. If you are planning a larger spread, the Fall Harvest Board and the Holiday Showstopper Board cover savory courses, and the Girls Night Board suits a lighter evening. All of them are collected in Baked Brie and Cheese Boards.