This World Chocolate Day, Make This

Dessert Grazing Board

Working With Dark, Milk, and White Chocolate

Different types of chocolates exist because their components differ in terms of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids. This governs the behavior or dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate when they are melted.

• Melted dark chocolate makes a great ganache, as dark chocolate holds its shape best, so it works well as a dip that doesn't run across the board.

• Milk chocolate is softer once melted and pairs well with nuts, caramel or biscuit pieces tucked into brownie bites. Treat it like a fondue dip. 

• Chocolate purists shrivel up their nose at white chocolate, because technically it lacks cocoa solids, the main component of cocoa, which makes up chocolate. But it does have cocoa butter, which makes it stay liquid the longest, and it also needs much less cream to stay liquid.

If you're making ganache at home for the board, dark chocolate ganache typically uses a 1:1 ratio of chocolate to cream; milk chocolate needs slightly more chocolate to reach the same set; and white chocolate ganache needs the highest chocolate-to-cream ratio of the three, since too much cream keeps it from firming up at all.

Chocolate-Covered Fruit and Brownie Bites

Strawberries, banana slices, apple slices, grapes, and berries are the easiest fruits to add to your dessert charcuterie board. They are the perfect fruits to be covered with chocolate because they hold their shape and don't leak their juices onto tempered chocolate. Make sure to pat fruit completely dry before dipping and serving; the water will impact the chocolate texture. Keep tempered chocolate at these regulated temperatures for the best shine and snap (the sound made when a bar is broken): 

If tempering feels like too much on a weekend, a simple ganache drizzle over baked brownie bites gives a similar visual effect, though it won't have that same hard snap that tempered chocolate will produce. Brownie bites are the easiest make-ahead item for a chocolate grazing board because they can be baked a day in advance, cut into small pieces, and dressed up with a dip in ganache or a scatter of flaky salt before serving. Cut them into two-bite squares rather than large slabs, since smaller pieces disappear faster on a board and keep the whole spread looking generous.

Bringing Fabelle Chocolate into The Board

You need something really luxurious for your dessert grazing board, like a luxurious chocolate bar. You should try  ITC's luxury chocolate label, Fabelle. Its cocoa beans are sourced from cocoa-growing regions including Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and São Tomé, so you get to sample a wide variety of flavours in its products. A few ways to work Fabelle products into a World Chocolate Day dessert charcuterie board:

• Break a bar from the Fabelle Bars Trilogy, which includes Hazelnut Mousse, Intense Dark and Tiramisu-inspired centre-filled bars, into rough pieces.

• Add a small box of Fabelle pralines or ganache pieces as the ‘centrepiece’ item that guests might reach for first.

• Use Fabelle's dark chocolate ganache, made from Ghana cocoa, as the dip if you want something more intense than a homemade version.

Placing one or two finished, unwrapped Fabelle pieces near the centre of the board gives it an anchor that doesn't need any last-minute prep. This is a good idea if the rest of the board is homemade and leaning towards messy.

How to Layer and Style the Board

As chaotic and messy as any charcuterie board looks, with desserts, it tends to be a disadvantage, as there is a limit to the colour you can add. So building the board in the right order keeps it from looking crowded or lopsided:

1. Start with the bowls, ganache dip and any sauces, placed off-centre rather than dead in the middle. Pick your finest ceramic or glass bowls.

2. Add the largest solid items next: brownie bites, whole Fabelle bars, or a cluster of dipped strawberries, working around the bowls.

3. Fill gaps with smaller pieces, solo pralines, chocolate curls, or fresh berries, in clusters of three or five rather than long straight rows.

4. Finish with fresh mint leaves or a dusting of cocoa powder or powdered sugar (keep humidity in mind to avoid a sticky mess) over open spaces for contrast.

Cluster similar items in two or three spots around the board rather than a big pile, so guests standing on different sides can reach without leaning across the whole board.

Comparison of Dark, Milk, and White Chocolate

Balance Matters More Than Quantity

Quality over quantity should always be the goal, as this is a dessert charcuterie board. You also need to strike a balance about the kinds of chocolate you are adding, just because you might like dark chocolate and might be catering to a health-conscious crowd (it's a dessert board, put your blinders on), a board loaded with only dark chocolate reads as heavy after two or three bites. One built around only white or milk chocolate will start to get to guests because it will be overly sweet, with nothing much to cut through the sweetness. 

Grazing boards are a team effort, and every kind, be it fruits, desserts or broken chocolate bars, is added in small amounts, so people have the opportunity to taste small amounts of contrasting things rather than committing to one large dessert. That's also why fresh fruit and crackers earn a spot on a chocolate board even though they aren't chocolate. Fruits add an acidic element, which can be refreshing after sampling rich chocolate, one after the other.

Making it Ahead of World Chocolate Day

Most of a chocolate grazing board can be prepped 24 hours in advance. Brownie bites, tempered chocolate shards, and unwrapped Fabelle pieces hold well at room temperature, all covered, and some can be stored in the refrigerator, too. Ganache can be made a day ahead and rewarmed carefully before serving. Fresh fruit is the one component that needs to be prepared the same day as your party or gathering. Cut strawberries and bananas start to release moisture or brown within a few hours, which affects both the look and how well the chocolate coating sets on them.

Celebrate With a Sweet Charcuterie Board

A chocolate grazing board earns its place on World Chocolate Day because it doesn't ask for one showpiece dessert. So you don’t have to spend hours crafting a tiramisu or trifle with complicated chocolate layers. A dessert board demands variety in both the types of chocolate you add and the bite-sized desserts you include. In addition, you can add firm, fresh fruit with minimal moisture-releasing properties, crackers, and any other sweet baked goodies to complete the spread this World Chocolate Day.