Holiday Charcuterie House

I love a gingerbread house as much as the next lady, but do you know what I love even more? A cheese and charcuterie plate. Instead of making a gingerbread house this year, I decided it might be a fun baking experiment to bake my own crackers in the shape of a gingerbread house and decorate it with cheese, salami, nuts, olive, fruit, and veggies instead of candies and icing. I made my crackers with my favorite pasta flavor: cacio e pepe, but you can skip the cheese, if you’re not into it and just make a basic cracker. They’re easier than you think to bake, so if you’re into savory bakes, this is definitely a fun one. 

Here’s What You’ll Need:

For the Cracker Dough

3 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 Tablespoon of Freshly Ground Pepper (optional)

1 Teaspoon Sea Salt

1 Teaspoon Onion Powder (optional)

½ Teaspoon Garlic Powder (also optional)

4 Cups of Grated Italian Cheeses (I like a mixture of Pecorino and Parmesan) 

10 Tablespoons of Cold, Unsalted Butter

½ Cup Cold Water (if needed)

For the Decorations

For this, you can basically use anything you’d include on a cheese plate…

Cream Cheese to glue it together

Here’s How to Make It:

Step 1: If you have a food processor, do yourself a favor and make your cracker dough in it instead of by hand. If you’re like me and you don’t have a food processor, get out a few trusty mixing bowls and a pastry cutter. Mix your dry ingredients (flour, salt, and optional spices together) in one of the mixing bowls.

Step 2: Grate your cheese, if it isn’t pre-grated, and cut your butter into cubes. Cut them together to make a sort of paste, using your pastry cutter.

Step 3: Mix your cheese paste into your try ingredients using your pastry cutter until your dough is crumbly, like fine bread crumbs. Add a little cold water at a time, and knead the dough together in your mixing bowl, pressing it until it starts coming together. Dump the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap, pressing the dough together into a ball. Refrigerate it for at least an hour. I left mine overnight. 

Step 4: If you want a cracker roof, you can cut it out of your cracker dough. I decided to try a different type of roof to make it look more like a thatched roof on a fun English Cottage, so I baked some parmesan crisps. This is super easy. If you want to try it, just shape two rectangles out of parmesan cheese on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about seven minutes and let cool completely.

Take your dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Roll out your tough to about 1/8th of an inch thick, then cut out your house shapes. I cheated a bit and used a gingerbread cookie cutter set. Have fun and get creative. If you want your house to have star-shaped windows, there’s nothing stopping you!

Step 5: Preheat your oven to 325 degrees, while your oven is preheating, place your cracker cutouts onto a parchment lined baking sheet and put them in the fridge for about 15 minutes before baking.

Step 6: Bake your crackers for around 20 minutes, keeping your eye on them, so they don’t burn. I left mine in for 25 minutes to make sure they were nice and crisp. Let them cool completely before decorating.

Step 7: Decorate your house using whatever cheese, charcuterie, and other accouterments you like. I used cream cheese in a piping bag to glue my house together.

Step 8: Now that all the hard work is done, eat your charcuterie house.