Simple Cheese Ball Recipe
This simple cheese ball recipe has been a mainstay on my family's holiday table for years now, and it always keeps people coming back for just one. more. spoonful. Serve it with your favorite crunchy carbs and crudités, and it is sure to be the star of your party!
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Simple Cheese Ball Recipe
- ⏱ Prep Time: 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes chill time
- ⏰ Cook Time: 5 minutes
- 🧀 Flavor Profile: Creamy, savory cheeses wrapped in crunchy pecans and bright, fresh parsley.
- 🎉 Good For: Being the belle of the ball on the Christmas appetizers spread, wow-ing your holiday guests, and ringing in the New Year.
- 🧡 Difficulty: Incredibly simple!
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🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Hi friend: If you go into any gathering in the Midwest around the holiday season, you are bound to find a cheese ball just waiting to be snacked on...probably right next to the crockpot sweet and sour meatballs! Cheese balls are inherently unfussy, but they are delicious crowd favorites that are stupendously easy to make.
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Super easy: Simply mix together all the ingredients, form into a ball, and then enjoy with your favorite pretzels, crackers, pita chips, or crudités like celery or carrots.
- Fan favorite: While I absolutely love a simple cheese platter (check out my charcuterie wreath for a festive take), I can't resist a great cheese ball at the holidays...and neither can my family!
- Tested by generations: I truly believe my recipe is the best cheese ball around! This recipe has been handed down for generations (almost as long as my sweet potato casserole with pecans and pannukakku), and it's been a winner for so long for good reason.
🧀 The Ingredients You Need
- Goat cheese and cream cheese: The goat cheese and cream cheese are particularly important, because their creaminess holds the whole cheese ball together.
- Blue cheese: I know blue cheese isn't everyone's thing, but in this recipe, the small amount gives the cheese ball an umami flavor that's hard to replicate otherwise.
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Skip the blues: If you're staunchly anti-blue cheese, no worries. Just leave it out, and you'll still have a great cheese ball!
- No tears: Skip the minced onion and replace it with 1 teaspoon of onion powder. This will also make your cheese ball last longer!
- Change the cheese: This is my tried-and-tested cheese combination, but you can try mixing in other cheeses as well. I would just minimize the amount of hard cheese (like Parmesan) you use, just because it won't mix as well!
- Fry it: Instead of one big cheese ball, try making a bunch of bite size versions with my fried goat cheese balls recipe!
- Serve it up: Imagine the cheese ball as basically just a spreadable dip, so anything you can dip, you can serve with a cheese ball! I love it with buttery crackers like Ritz, sliced baguette, bagel chips, pita chips, and raw veggies like celery, baby carrots, and bell peppers.
🥣 Simple Cheese Ball Recipe How-To
Step 1: Set your ingredients on the counter to warm up a bit. Get the pecans a little toasty in a skillet, and set them aside for later. Then grab a mixing bowl, and combine the cheeses with the onion, garlic powder, Worcestershire, and hot sauce. Everything will blend together well if you've brought your ingredients to room temp.
Step 2: When your cheese mixture is evenly distributed (a silicone spatula or a stand mixer can help you get there), wrap it in plastic wrap and shape it into a ball. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
Step 3: Chop up the toasted pecans and fresh parsley. Unwrap your cheese and roll it in the pecan mixture until all the sticky spots on the outside are coated.
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🙋🏻♀️ Simple Cheese Ball Recipe FAQs
There are two tricks to making sure your cheese ball comes out smooth: including a soft cheese or two (I use cream cheese and goat cheese here), and making sure the ingredients are at room temperature before you try to blend them!
This is a great dish to meal prep for your holiday parties-you can make it up to two days in advance. In fact, some time in the refrigerator will allow the flavors to develop and meld, making the flavor even better. If you plan to make it ahead of time, I recommend waiting to roll the cheese ball in the nuts until just before serving so that the pecans keep their texture.
Because of the fresh onions in this cheese ball, it's pretty perishable, but wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, your cheese ball will be fine in the fridge for up to 4 days. The pecans will soften slightly while in the fridge, but not so much that they won't still be enjoyable.
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Warm it up: Don't try to make this cheese ball straight out of the fridge, or you will have a clumpy mess and a major arm workout ahead of you. Instead, bring all your cheese to room temperature to make it easy to mix.
- Longer life: You can extend the life of your cheese ball by swapping in onion powder for fresh minced onions (more info on that swap in the recipe card below).
- Shred it yourself: Make sure you shred your own sharp cheddar cheese for this recipe. Pre-shredded bagged cheese has anti-caking ingredients that can detract from the creaminess of this dish.
- Freeze it: Wrap the cheese ball well in plastic wrap before rolling in the pecans, and place it in a zip-top freezer bag. Freeze for up to a month. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, remove from the plastic wrap, and then roll in the nuts once completely thawed.
🎉 More Festive Appetizer Recipes:
If you tried this simple cheese ball recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Simple Cheese Ball Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup pecans halves
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 ounces crumbled blue cheese plus more to taste
- 4 ounces soft goat cheese
- 2 cups freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons finely minced onion or 1 teaspoon onion powder see notes
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce optional
- ¼ cup finely minced parsley
- Crackers and fresh veggies for serving
Instructions
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, toast the pecans, stirring constantly, until they are lightly browned and fragrant. Remove from the skillet and chop finely.
- In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, blue cheese (use more or less depending on how much you enjoy blue cheese), goat cheese, cheddar cheese, onion, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce, if using.
- Using a silicone spatula, combine the cheese mixture until evenly distributed. You can also do this in a stand mixer fitted with a silicone scraper.
- Scoop the mixture into the middle of a large piece of plastic wrap. Close up the wrap around the cheese mixture, then use your hands to form into a ball. Refrigerate the cheese ball for at least 30 minutes, but up to 2 days.
- Before serving, mix the chopped pecans and parsley in a shallow dish (a pie plate works great). Unwrap the cheeseball and roll in the pecan mixture to coat.
- Serve immediately with crackers and fresh veggies.
Notes
- Make sure to let the ingredients come to room temperature before mixing.
- The small amount of blue cheese in this recipe adds a nice flavor without being overpowering. If you love blue cheese, add more-up to 4 ounces. If you're truly anti-blue cheese, you can also leave it out completely.
- Make sure you shred your own sharp cheddar cheese for this recipe. Pre-shredded bagged cheese has anti-caking ingredients that can detract from the creaminess of this dish.
- To extend the life of this cheese ball, swap out the fresh minced onion for onion powder.
You cannot have a holiday gathering in the Midwest without a cheeseball! And this simple recipe is my version. You can also form the mixture into mini "meatballs" and poke them with a pretzel stick to make individual servings.