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Fruit, Chocolate and Cheese Dessert Platter

A lovely fruit, chocolate and cheese platter that requires very little prep. You can make all the suggestions or just one. Keep dried fruit in wrappers until just before serving so they stay crispy. The oranges stay crispy for days so no worries there!

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword easy appetizer recipe, easy dessert recipe, party recipe
Author Linda Spiker

Ingredients

Dried fruit crackers: buy or make your own. Instructions below.

  • I use dried orange, dried pear, and dried apple slices.
  • granulated sugar (if making your own slices)

Fresh Fruit:

  • Ripe Strawberries, washed and dried, kiwi, blackberries

Cheeses:

  • Soft goat cheese (chevre)
  • mascarpone, a soft, sweet Italian cream cheese
  • five year aged gouda, cut into small cubes

Suggested Toppings:

  • walnuts. chopped
  • peach preserves
  • roasted salted pistachios, chopped
  • dried cranberries, chopped
  • good quality local honey
  • melted dark and white chocolate (melt to package instructions)

Instructions

How to Dry Fruit Slices in the oven: you can do this the day before if preferred. Just be sure to keep apple and pear slices in a bag so the stay crisp.

  1. To Dry Oranges: Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Use serrated knife to slice 3 navel oranges very thinly (no thicker than a 1/4 inch). Line a baking sheet with a nonstick baking mat or parchment. Top with orange slices in a single layer, and generously dust with sugar. Turn and sprinkle with more sugar. Bake until the peels are dry and the flesh is translucent, about 2 hours, turning slices halfway through cooking time. If needed, cook in 15 minutes increments until dry to liking. Cool before dipping.

  2. To dry pears and apples: Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Use 2 to 3 Bosc, Comice, or Red Bartlett pears (unpeeled) Place a sheet of parchment on cookie sheet .Cut each pear lengthwise into 1/8- to 1/4- inch-thick slices. Remove seeds and fibrous bits from each slice; arrange on pan, spaced 1/2 to 1 inch apart. Sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar. Place pan in oven; dry until pears become firmer, slightly chewy, and shriveled around edges, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. Transfer to a wire rack until cool. Store in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to 2 days.

Orange Crisp Suggestions:

  1. Melt good quality white or dark chocolate according to package directions, when melted stir and the dip orange crisps (covering about 1/3 of crisp) Set on wax paper, leave plain or sprinkle with chopped pistachios and cranberries. Allow to cool and firm up before serving.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries:

  1. Melt white or dark chocolate according to package instructions, stir well. Dip berries and place on wax paper until chocolate cools and begins to firm up. Serve or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Apple Crisp Suggestions:

  1. Spread apple crisps with mascarpone and top with diced strawberry and kiwi.
  2. Mix two parts soft goat cheese with one part peach preserves. Spread on apple crisp, dab with a little more preserves and top with chopped walnuts.

Pear Crisp Suggestions:

  1. Spread with soft goat cheese, top with a blackberry and drizzle with honey
  2. Top with aged gouda and drizzle with honey.