The Best Holiday Classic Cheese Ball Recipe

Cheese Ball Idea

Need a really tasty classic cheese ball for this holiday season? You need to look no further! Searching for a good cheese ball recipe, I came across this winner on Pinterest. Lauren from Tastes Better From Scratch shared her recipe for a classic cheese ball.

The ingredients listed seemed to assure a flavorful appetizer. Cheddar, Worcestershire, Garlic Powder, oregano, green onions, and hot sauce made this recipe sound like a winner. In the last couple of years, I have made the cheese ball from another recipe and ended up adding more garlic and some other seasonings because the original recipe was too bland for our taste. This one doesn’t need that!

In the past, for Thanksgiving, I also formed the cheese balls into a pumpkin shape. Each was wrapped in plastic wrap and manipulated into a round shape and pumpkin-like gores were formed with my fingers and the help of a rounded chopstick. Thin slices of cheese accentuated the gore lines. A thick pretzel was used as the pumpkin stem. I also got this idea from Pinterest.◄Follow me here!

Last year, I saw where someone had wrapped the cheese ball in plastic wrap and used large rubber bands to make the indentations in the pumpkin shape! Brilliant! I have been anxious to try this new method and it worked perfectly! I love the results!

[ctt template=”8″ link=”iKkB1″ via=”no” ]This pumpkin-shaped classic cheese ball will be a great addition to your yearly Thanksgiving menu! Click through for the recipe. [/ctt]

New And Improved Cheese Ball

So, here, you can compare the two. I definitely like the newer version better. Shaping the cheese ball with the plastic wrap, some of the pecans got smashed into the cheeses but it still looks much better. Don’t you think?

Instead of the pretzel, a piece of celery was used for the stem. I’ve seen bell pepper stems used as stems, but I didn’t have any of those. We were fresh out of pretzels, too. Brainstorming, I came up with the celery.

I’ve also seen the cheese squares served on a wreath of rosemary and decided to combine the two, with the cheese ball in the center surrounded by the rosemary and the cheese squares. These were placed on a clear glass platter. The colorful tablecloth shows through the clear glass. Be aware that the cheese squares actually pick up some of the rosemary flavors, which is not a problem for me. I love rosemary.

An assortment of crackers was displayed on a Wilton Armetale platter next to the cheeses. (We are an Amazon affiliate and may receive a small percentage of any sales through this link at no cost to you. Thanks for supporting this website!) We have several pieces of Wilton Armetale and I love them all.

We had fresh parsley on hand and instead of the teaspoon of dried parsley in Lauren’s recipe, a tablespoon of fresh parsley is used. The bright fresh green of the parsley and the green onion added color as well as flavor. Oh, and I doubled the recipe. Here it is!

Classic Cheese Ball

Ingredients:

2 – 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese softened
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 green onions, chopped
1 tsp.Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup pecans, finely chopped

Directions:

With a spoon, blend the softened cream cheese and the cheddar cheese together well. Add the chopped green onion, the Worcestershire, the hot pepper sauce, fresh parsley, garlic powder, oregano, and black pepper. Mix well. Shape into a ball with your hands.

Roll the ball into the chopped pecans, covering the entire ball. Then, place on a sheet of plastic wrap. Pull the plastic wrap up and around the ball. Use large rubber bands wrapped around the ball to create the pumpkin – like indentations.

Refrigerate overnight or for several hours. Then, remove the plastic wrap and insert a piece of celery for a stem.

Yes, I think this will be a great addition to our yearly Thanksgiving menu. But, hey! Christmas is coming and we always have appetizers available all-day Christmas Eve. This holiday classic cheese ball will, undoubtedly, be on the menu then, too.

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