Give Your Store-Bought Charcuterie Board A Christmas Twist With This Cookie Cutter Trick

Cookie cutters may live forgotten in the back corner of a kitchen drawer for 11 months out of the year, but come December, they tend to get a real workout. Since you've gone to the effort of digging them out and dusting them off, don't put them away once you finish your last batch of cookies. Instead, put them to work turning your store-bought charcuterie board into a festive centerpiece by cutting the ingredients into holiday shapes.

Charcuterie meats like salami, pepperoni, and other cured sausages are best sliced with metal, rather than plastic, cookie cutters since the latter's blunt edges may not be up to making clean cuts. If your store-bought charcuterie board includes cheese, most pre-sliced varieties are soft enough to cut into stars, Santas, and gingerbread figures using plastic cookie cutters. Harder cheeses like cheddar and parmesan may benefit from the sturdier metal shapes.

While you can't really cut a cracker without it crumbling, you could carry out the holiday theme by replacing them with soft, crustless breads sliced into festive shapes. Should you wish to add fruits and vegetables to your store-bought board, try using those cookie cutters on slices of apple, bell pepper, or cucumber.

If your charcuterie board includes sauces and dips, these, too, can get a cheerful holiday upgrade with the aid of cookie cutters. A thicker consistency like Boursin can be shaped by using a cookie cutter as a mold, while jellied canned cranberry sauce (which many prefer over the homemade kind) can be sliced and then cut into Christmassy patterns.

If you want to simply upgrade your charcuterie board with a few festive drizzles, the cookie cutters can serve as stencils. (This would work with dry spices, too.) To make new dipping cups for mustard or cheese sauces, wrap the bottoms of the cookie cutters with a few layers of foil to close them off. Cookie cutters with or without foil bottoms can also be used to corral nuts, fruits, olives, cornichons, or other small embellishments that come with a charcuterie board. Of course, you could also employ them for their original purpose, but with a twist: Bake a batch of savory holiday cookies to add to your Christmas charcuterie spread.