Cheese Please: Fruit and Cheese Pairings to Liven Up Your Holiday Parties
With the holiday season rapidly approaching, many people are in the beginning stages of planning parties to enjoy with family and friends. While some holiday parties include cooking complicated dishes or costly catering, there are ways to throw less expensive holiday parties that are sure to impress your guests, including the children. Fruit and cheese platters offer endless options. Here are a few great fruit and cheese pairings for those cozy nights spent with your loved ones!
I scoured the internet for charts and comment boards with other food lovers’ favorite pairings. With so many different fruits and types of cheeses, the possibilities really are plentiful! The best part about the following list? All of these fruits are in season!
Apples
Sharp Cheddar
Brie
Aged Gouda
Fontina
Feta
Swiss
Cranberries
Mozzarella
Bijou
Figs
Brie
Smoked Gouda
Bleu
Manchego
Asiago
Goat Cheese
I’m going to take this moment to personally advocate the fig and goat cheese combination. This past January, when one of my friends picked me up from the airport to go back to school, we went out for tapas and tried an incredible variation of this. It was served as toasted bread with goat cheese and a fig on top, and I have been having food fantasies about it ever since.
Also, I’ve seen people serve fig jelly over cheese. It’s especially good on warm brie!
Grapes (Red)
Camembert
Brie
Parmesan
Pecorino
Cheddar
Bleu
Gouda
Havarti
Feta
Fontina
Asiago
Pears
Brie
Fontina
Bleu
Aged Gouda
Cheddar
Feta
Swiss
Gorgonzola Dolce
Pears are one of my favorite fruits, and they are so good with cheese! I like them served with warm brie.
Persimmons
Coupole
Pomegranates
Goat Cheese
Quinces
Manchego
Some people serve the manchego with quince paste, also known as “membrillo.”
The easiest way to make a good fruit and cheese plate is probably to pick cheeses that go with a lot of different kinds of fruit. For example, brie, cheddar, gouda, and goat cheese go with a lot of different fruits on this list. With about three or four cheeses and the same number of fruits, you can create a cheese plate with a lot of options. If you add bread or nuts, which go great with fruit and cheese, the possibilities are almost endless.
Another good way to serve an easy cheese dish is to use cream cheese and some kind of jellied fruit spread. My mom used to serve sweet jalapeno jelly over an eight ounce block of cream cheese. We would just spread it on crackers for a delicious party snack. Fig jelly could also work really well for this.
If you’re planning on throwing on a holiday party and want some easier fare to balance out the time of making a lot of different dishes, try some of these awesome fruit and cheese combinations!
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