The Best Cheese Ball Recipe - It's Spreadable! | The Hypertufa Gardener (2024)
I think I have the Best Cheese Ball Recipe ever!
And the main reason for it being the best ? You can SPREAD it! I hate to find myself at the buffet table faced with the little tiered dishes pimped out with delicious looking appetizers. And there it is, the cheese ball with a cute little whose handle is a tiny flip-flop or something equally as cute.
Well, with a lot of cheese balls, these spreaders should be tiny chain saws! I know I have flipped the cheese ball half off the plate trying to extract a small taste to put on my plate.
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No, seriously! I know some cheese balls will soften when they have been left out on the table for a while, but I like it fresh and chilled. Just give me a cheese ball recipe so that I can make several in advance, and then set them out as the need arises. Spreadable immediately.
When the cheese ball is good, that cheese plate will look “ravaged” pretty quickly. So have your fresh one ( or more ) ready to set out again.
How about this Cheese Ball recipe in Mini Cupcake Papers?
When you make up your cheese ball, roll individual small balls into the nuts and place in the mini cup cake liners matching your party’s theme. Then a guest can take a tiny cheese ball on his or her plate and then there is no ravaged main ball. Or do both!
I first had this cheese ball recipe at an office potluck. One of my friends, Tish, brought a cheese ball and it was so awesome. I realized it had a close resemblance to an old Kraft recipe, but we’ve changed it up a little to suit our tastes and I almost never eat another type any more.
Unless you bring out the sweet ones….with graham crackers or vanilla wafers…..( sorry, I am drooling. )
If possible, grate your own cheese for this recipe. There have been reports in the news about powdered cellulose aka sawdust or wood pulp in grated or shredded cheeses, so get a nice block of cheese and grate it yourself.
I’ve read they do add cellulose binders to pre-shredded cheeses to keep it from sticking together (which adds to the carb count). So I have changed and grate my own.
At holidays, the cheese ball can be served as a snowman, with each of the balls making a body and head. The spreaders can be little ones shaped like mittens.
Make it a Turkey for Thanksgiving pressing sliced almonds into the ball for a “feathered” look. Let your imagination go! It can be anything!
And it will SPREAD! Here is the recipe below.
Yield: 24
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
An easy cheeseball which is so spreadable! You need to chop up the onion and peppers very finely for best results. This amount makes two large cheese balls.
Ingredients
2 cups finely shredded cheese, I like sharp cheddar
2 8 ox blocks cream cheese
3/4 cup finely chopped red or white onions
3/4 cup finely chopped green peppers
3/4 cup finely chopped red peppers, you may use yellow instead
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp lemon or lime juice
2 tbsp Frank's Red Hot sauce
2-3 cups fine chopped pecans
Crackers or vegetables for serving
Instructions
Set cream cheese out of fridge 20-30 minutes ahead to soften, or nuke it for a quick 20-30 seconds to soften.
Mix in grated cheese and the rest of the ingredients.
Fold and stir, forming a couple of small balls or one large ball or assorted small balls about the size of a walnut.
Chill in fridge for 30 mins while you clean up
Spread a large piece of plastic wrap on counter. Put chopped nuts on this surface. Pull out the ball of cheese and place on the nuts on the wrap and roll gently. You can put your hands under the wrap help cover the surface of the ball with nuts. When it is fully coated, pull the wrap up around the ball and use it the seal the ball inside the wrap. Place in fridge overnight.
Best made ahead the day before so that all flavors meld.
Serve with crackers or crisp slices of vegetables.
Did you make this recipe?
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Cover the cheeseball in cling wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour to allow it to firm up. Take it out of the refrigerator about 20 minutes before serving to allow it to soften just slightly.
Your cheese ball is too runny: Once you have added all the extras, and it's all mixed in well, if the texture is more salad dressing-like than something you might spread on a bagel, you can tighten it up easily by adding unsalted butter, one tablespoon at a time, mixing before you add more.
By creating an airtight seal with plastic wrap and adding an extra layer of protection with foil, you'll ensure that your cheese ball remains fresh and delicious until it's time to impress your guests.
Why is my cheese ball so hard? You want your cheese ball to be firm enough to hold its shape, but soft enough to allow for easy spreading. To achieve this consistency, the key is making sure your cream cheese is softened before preparing.
Thing is, once cheese is heated too far beyond its melting point, the proteins firm up and squeeze out moisture—the same way protein does in meat. When this occurs you're left with rubbery, clumpy bits of cheese protein that separate from the fat and moisture.
For a cheese dip or sauce, the addition of cornstarch serves a similar function: Starch molecules absorb water and expand, not only thickening the liquid phase of the sauce, but also physically preventing the proteins from binding into long, tangled strands and the fats from separating out and pooling.
No need to worry – the liquid on the outside of your cheese is just excess moisture, or liquid whey. Wipe off your cheese with a napkin or paper towel and enjoy! It's common for naturally-aged cheeses to develop a small amount of moisture inside their packaging.
The cheese ball will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. If you are going to keep it in the fridge for that long, I would wait to add the pecans until ready to serve so they don't get soggy.
The U.S. Department of Health doesn't recommend keeping any perishable food sitting out of the fridge for more than two hours — and that's certainly the case for soft cheeses, like cottage or cream cheese, brie, or fresh mozzarella.
Cheese balls freeze quite well. Again, it's best to wrap the cheese ball in one layer of plastic wrap, then one layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to four weeks. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
A cheese ball should really only sit out for about 1-2 hours. I know, your party is going longer than that, but resist the urge to keep eating a cheese ball on the counter all evening.
Yes, Costco is renowned for selling big quantities of high-quality cheese at affordable costs. They frequently provide a selection of cheeses, including cheddar, Swiss, provolone, and others.
Ok hardness comes from the moisture level in the cheese. The more liquid you squeeze out the harder it will be. Aging cheese also hardens cheese because moisture evaporates in the aging process. The longer it is aged the more moisture is removed.
One of the most common ways to help cheese melt smoothly is to add starch: this is a process that works in sauces like mornay, or nacho cheese sauce. Starches and other thickeners will physically impede fat molecules from joining up into larger droplets, as well as making the water phase of the cheese more viscous.
Mix three tablespoons of cornstarch with a quarter cup of white wine, and whisk the mixture into your newly warmed cheese. If you're wary of adding too much slurry, start with a small amount and then continue to add more as you whisk.
Make sure that you use a high quality cheese. Bagged Kraft isn't high enough quality and won't provide stretch. Go for something you have to shred yourself and get the full-fat version of it. Make sure to shred it into fairly large pieces - the smaller your cheese shreds, the more likely they are to burn or brown.
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