How To Make a Butter Board
on Sep 18, 2022, Updated Oct 31, 2025
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Have you heard of a butter board 🧈? In my opinion, these are better than a cheese board, a charcuterie board, or any other board I have ever seen. In this post, I will show you how to make a butter board for your next date night, girl’s night, or any gathering.
I came across this viral video on TikTok shared by Justine Snacks and thought it was brilliant. The original concept is by Josh McFadden, but this is my modern take on it 🤌.
Key Takeaways
- A butter board is a platter topped with softened butter and various toppings, served with fresh bread.
- This dish offers rich flavors with ingredients like flakey sea salt, figs, and hot honey, making it a crowd-pleaser.
- You can customize your butter board by using spreadable cheese or making it vegan with plant-based alternatives.
- Serve warm, crusty bread alongside your butter board for an ideal pairing at gatherings.
- Prepare the butter ahead of time and add toppings just before serving for the best presentation.
Table of Contents
What is a Butter Board?
A butter board is a serving platter covered in softened butter and toppings of your choice. It is served with slices of fresh bread 🥖 and it’s meant to be enjoyed as a self-serve topping for bread. A butter board is an alternative to a cheese board: it has rich dairy, different textures, and colors. It can be served as an appetizer; it’s perfect grazing food to enjoy casually with a glass of wine 🍷. Using beautiful toppings, such as fresh, vibrant fruits and herbs, you can present a board that is both stunning delicious.
Why You’ll Love This Butter Board
My butter board is decorated with elite ingredients. This version has flakey sea salt, fresh figs, fig preserve, walnuts for crunch, and hot honey for a little bit of spice 🌶️. These flavors slathered on a fresh piece of bread will have you and your guests begging for more.
This butter board is perfect for a large gathering or party. You can serve it with lots of fresh bread on the side and individual butter knives for each guests. Bring this to a party, and I can guarantee it is going to be the most incredible show-stopping dish of the night. This board serves 10+ people so feel free to adjust depending on the size you’re entertaining.
Variations and Substitutions
There are so many ways to personalize a butter board, including some of these ideas:
- Instead of butter, feel free to use a creamy, spreadable cheese, like Boursin. Check out my Goat Cheese Board recipe.
- You can also make this board totally vegan by using a plant-based spreadable cheese or butter, and using agave instead of honey 🍯.
- If you don’t have hot honey you can use regular honey, make my Easy Hot Honey recipe, or mix honey with chili flakes.
- You can also use crushed or candied pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, or any nuts you love 🌰.
- In addition to or instead of lemon zest, you can also use lime or orange zest 🍊.
- Dress up your board for the winter holidays ❄️, by using vibrant fruit spreads and pomegranate seeds. Check out my full Holiday Butter Board recipe.
Nonna’s Tip 🧈
Soft, room temperature butter is easiest to spread. Use any board you have: a plate, a clean cutting board, etc.
Best Served With
- Warm, sliced crusty bread is a must alongside a butter board. A fresh baguette is the perfect choice 🥖.
- Try my incredibly easy recipe for No Knead Bread (or the Gluten Free Version).
- You could also serve this board with pita bread cut into triangles and warmed for a few minutes in the oven.
- For easy entertaining, serve this board as a starter, followed by a light and refreshing salad, such as my Fennel and Cherry Salad or Simple Green Salad.
Common Questions
Cutting boards, especially wood ones, can retain contaminants and germs, even after a thorough washing. To prevent cross-contamination with whatever was previously prepared on the board, use parchment paper to line it.
Absolutely! You can use vegan butter or a vegan, spreadable cheese and use agave syrup instead of honey.
You can line your board in parchment and spread the softened butter across the parchment the night before serving. Store in the refrigerator, and then add the toppings at the last minute, before serving.
There are no ingredients in the recipe that contain gluten. However, to keep things fully gluten-free, serve with gluten-free bread or crackers.
I like to put out a small butter knife for each guest. I love these small knives.
Warm sliced bread is a must! I recommend my recipe for No Knead Bread (or the Gluten Free Version).
How To Make a Butter Board
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter, salted or unsalted, softened
- fresh lemon zest
- flaky sea salt
- fig preserve, a few dollops
- 2 fresh figs, cut into round slices
- ¼ cup crushed walnuts
- hot honey, or regular honey, for drizzling
- fresh herbs or edible flowers , for presentation (I used lemon thyme)
- fresh bread , for serving
Instructions
- Line a serving or cutting board in parchment paper. Smear the softened butter onto the parchment. Make it look presentable and layer in swirls on the serving board.
- Sprinkle on the salt and lemon zest; measure everything with your heart. I take my knife and dollop on the fig preserve, add my fig slices and drizzle on hot honey. Add the crushed walnuts and garnish with lemon thyme, herbs of choice, or edible flowers. Serve with fresh bread and enjoy.
Nonna’s Notes
- Get Figgy with it: Fig preserves are like fig jam, but made with less sugar. Jarred fig preserves can often be found near the specialty cheeses in a grocery store. You can also use any kind of jam you like, but preserves are ideal because they are less sweet and more savory. Lemon preserves or an onion jam would also work well here.
- Texture and Color: The key to a stunning butter board is lots of texture and color. Fresh herbs and edible flowers add so much beauty and flavor. Some of my favorites: rosemary, oregano, thyme, or tarragon.
- Flakey Salt: I love the crunch and elegance that flakey salt brings to a dish. I always use a bit of flakey salt to garnish a butter board, even if I’m also using salted butter. You can also use a salt seasoning blend. Some blends even include herbs or dried flowers, which add flavor and color to the dish.
My Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I always overthink these boards…thank you for cutting out the guesswork!
You really can’t go wrong with a board like this…so yummy and flavorful! I used the regular honey instead of the hot honey and it was PERFECT! Add this to your must try list!