You'll have a ball!

If there’s one dish that reminds me of the holiday season (from Christmas to New Years), it’s a good cheese ball. I remember as a child I used to help my mom make a dozen or so of these and we would give them out to neighbors and friends.

We’d save a few for ourselves of course and I would snack on them for days on end.

It really is one of my favorite appetizers. I’m not sure why but I don’t make it at any other point in the year than in December.

There are a lot of cheese ball recipes out there but this is my favorite one which I stole straight from my mom.

Cheese Ball

Yield: 1 Cheese Ball

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

8 ounces cream cheese
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice (I used 1/2 a lemon)
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (be sure to use vegetarian if you're feeding vegetarians)
1 Teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 bell pepper, minced
2 scallions, minced
1/2 Cup pecans, chopped
Crackers for serving

Directions:

1) Combine cheeses, chopped vegetables, and spices in a bowl. Stir well until combined.

2) Chop pecans and roll ball in pecans.

3) Chill the ball before serving if you have time.

Mixing the ball

This is a great recipe for kids to help out with. It has just a few ingredients and takes only a few minutes to pull together.

This will work just fine.

This is easiest to make if you let your cream cheese come to room temperature before you start. It’ll make the mixing easier, but you should be able to mix it no matter what.

Combine your cheeses in a medium bowl.

So cheesy.

Then dice up and add all your green stuff. Make sure to mince the veggies finely so there aren’t any huge chunks.

Toss those into the mix.

Crunch and flavor!

Next, add all the spices! Remember that Worcestershire sauce isn’t vegetarian. It has anchovies in it! So if you have vegetarian guests you can use the veggie version which tastes almost identical in my opinion.

Stir this all together really well.

Sloppy but tasty.

Rolling the ball

If you’re lazy, you could just use the dip like this and spread it onto crackers right out of the bowl, but if you like a good presentation then chop a few handfuls of pecans and roll the cheese ball out in the pecans so it forms a tight round ball.

Givin' it some shape.

I think this is best if you let it sit in the fridge for an hour or two to set up but it’s definitely not essential.

You can also just eat it right away.

I only ate three. Yea right.

I like my cheese piled high and deep on my cracker.

Food porn shot.

While this appetizer reminds me of the holidays, I’m not really sure why. This is such a quick and delicious appetizer you should feel free to use for any occasion. Say New Year’s which is right around the corner!

Even though I ate 2 or 3 of these by myself over the last few days, looking over this post still makes me want more!

I’m also fairly certain that Tipsy loves this new obsession of mine because I’ve caught her twice now licking the salt off my baked goods!

These crackers though… I’m telling you that I’m in love with them.

Lavish indeed!

You can put all kinds of fun spices and seeds on them and then bake them in one large sheet and break them up into shards. Man they are good and a snap to make. (Get it? Snap!)

Lavish Crackers

Yield: 2 sheets of crackers

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1.5 Cups all-purpose flour (The book recommends bread flour)
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon instant yeast
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 to 1/2 Cups water, room temp.

Directions:

1) Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the honey, oil, and water. When adding the water, add it slowly and only add as much as you need for the dough to come together.

2) When the dough comes together in a ball, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough for about ten minutes until it passes the famous windowpane test.

3) Put the tiny ball of dough in an oiled pan and let it ferment (rise) for about 90 minutes.

4) After the 90 minutes is up, the dough will be doubled in volume (or should be) and will be very pliable.

5) Chop it in half!

6) Take one half and slowly roll it out to the length of a sheet pan.

7) Flour both sides of the dough lightly to keep it from sticking and go slowly. You should be able to get this dough almost paper thin.

8) Transfer the dough carefully to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper that has been lightly oiled.

9) Spray the top of the cracker dough with some water and then go crazy with the toppings!

10) Bake about 18 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees (turn the pan half way through to get both sides cooked evenly).

11) Once the cracker is cool, which just takes a few minutes, break it into pieces.

Recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

Mix all your dry ingredients together and then add your honey, oil, and water. When adding the water, add it slowly and only add as much as you need for your dough to come together. I didn’t need 1/2 cup of water, but you might. When the dough comes together in a ball, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.

A basic dough. Simple stuff.

Knead the dough for about ten minutes until it passes the famous windowpane test. I found this dough to be especially stretchy.

That's some good windowpane!

Then put your tiny ball of dough in an oiled pan and let it ferment (rise) for about 90 minutes. I like to use spray olive oil for this as it coats the pan evenly and then I spray the top of the dough also to keep it from drying out.

You can use any oil really though. Just make sure there isn’t a pool of oil in the pan. A light coating is enough.

A very smooth dough.

After your 90 minutes is up, the dough will be doubled in volume (or should be) and will be very pliable.

Next thing is to chop it in half! Just half of this dough will make enough cracker to cover a standard half sheet pan.

A little goes a long way here.

Then take one half and slowly roll it out to the length of a sheet pan. Mine ended up being about 12 by 16 inches. Flour both sides of the dough lightly to keep it from sticking and go slowly. You should be able to get this dough almost paper thin.

Then transfer the dough carefully to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper that has been lightly oiled (again I used spray oil).

This is very thin. Almost paper thin.

Now comes the fun part. Spray the top of your cracker dough with some water and then go crazy with the toppings! These are the ones that I decided to use, but really you could use almost anything. It’s okay to use a pretty good dose of spices because some of them will fall off after cooking.

These are some of the spices I grabbed.

Also, if you are a very orderly person and don’t like the idea of shards, you could use a pizza cutter or knife to lightly cut the dough into whatever shape you want and then after it bakes it will easily break into uniform pieces.

Frankly, I despise uniform pieces!

After about 18 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees (turn your pan half way through to get both sides cooked evenly), you’ll end up with a super crunchy cracker layer.

The cooked sheet.

Once the cracker is cool, which just takes a few minutes, you can break it into pieces. Personally I like big shards that have some of each spice on them. But there aren’t any rules. These are crackers people. Go crazy.

Shards are the best.

Just another shot for good measure.

Crunchy and good.

If you make both halves of dough, you’ll end up with a good amount of crackers, but don’t worry. They go quick. Especially if you have a very nosey cat who loves people food.

After not too much work I tracked it down, and trust me. You want to make this.

This will blow your mind.

What’s fantastic about this stuff is many things. First, it marries salty and sweet perfectly which is my favorite. Second, it is super easy to make. Third, it is best kept and eaten frozen so it is awesome for summer time.

Brickle (Thanks Meredith!)
Feeds a party… or one.

- 40 Saltine crackers (one sleeve about)
- 1 Cup salted butter (don’t substitute)
- 1 Cup brown sugar
- 1 12 ounce package of chocolate chips
- 5-6 Heath bars, crunched up for topping

This is all you need! The Saltine crackers are the key to the saltiness and they are kind of hard to identify in the final product because it is all broken up.

Simple ingredients actually.

The next part is simple. Take your largest sheet or baking tray (make sure it is rimmed) and line it with foil. Then toss down your crackers. Make sure that they don’t overlap. That’s pretty much the only rule. The crackers should fill up the baking sheet perfectly. If you have a smaller baking sheet, then you will obviously need less crackers.

Crackers laid out.

Ok. Now the only actual hard part in the whole recipe and it isn’t that hard: making the caramel. Just melt your butter in a saucepan and then stir in your brown sugar. Once it starts bubbling, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer for 3 minutes. Stir continuously or it might burn.

Stay close to this stuff.

The caramel will be pretty runny and that is good. Once it has simmered for a few minutes, pour it straight on the crackers. Try to get it kind of even, but don’t worry about covering everything.

Doesn't have to be even.

Next, stick your baking sheet in the oven at 325 degrees for 5-10 minutes. The original recipe called for 5 minutes, but mine took 10. Basically, you want the caramel to spread out nicely over the crackers. It should bubble a bit.

When you take it out of the oven, pour your chocolate chips on the tray right away. The residual heat from the oven will be more than enough to melt the chocolate. Let it sit for 5 minutes to melt.

Don't worry it will all melt.

You can use those 5 minutes while the chocolate melts to crumble up your Heath bars. Again, don’t worry about making them even or anything. Part of the charm of this dish is the random sizes of everything.

After 5 minutes, use a spatula to spread out your chocolate and make the chips flat. Then sprinkle on your Heath pieces.

Perfection is not essential.

Then just stick this whole thing in your freezer! You have to make sure you give this stuff time to freeze solid. I let mine sit for about 4 hours in there and that was more than enough time.

Then take it out and if your brickle is rock hard, flip it over and peel of the foil which should come off in one full sheet!

Cool.

Then just bust the stuff up! Take out some aggression! One note though… make sure you take the foil off before you break it up. That is, unless your idea of a good time is peeling hundreds of tiny foil pieces off of candy.

Um. Yes please.

Store this stuff in the freezer. It will keep for a month I’m sure. Not that anyone has ever actually let it sit that long. Mine was gone in a few days without any problem at all.

This will go quick at parties.

An easy recipe and a delicious dessert. It’s a perfect dessert for a party.

Make the brickle. Eat the brickle. Share the brickle. Love the brickle.

Granted these don’t look exactly like Cheez-Its, maybe because they don’t have any artificial colors or flavors, but I can assure you that they taste almost identical to the salty snack.

These are the cheese.

The recipe for these guys is really simple. As you can imagine, it requires a bunch of cheese.

Baked Cheese Straws, Squares and Other Random Shapes
(I used Mr. Bittman’s Cheese Straw recipe from this book)

- 1/2 pound cheddar cheese (a little over 2 cups grated)
- 1/2 pound Parmesan (try to get a decent quality cheese as the flavor really comes through)
- 2 cups flour
- 8 Tablespoons chilled butter
- Ice water
- Coarse salt

Start by grating your cheese so you can get that out of the way.

Turns out cheese is important to this dish.

Then you want to coarsely mix in your butter with your flour. Kind of like a pie crust you want pea-sized lumps. It helps if your butter is chilled. A pastry cutter is a good tool to use for this or your fingers.

Butter and flour mixed lightly.

Now mix in all your cheese. It is a lot. You will doubt the amount of cheese. Never doubt that you are putting in too much cheese. It is basically impossible. Again, use that pastry cutter to integrate the cheese, flour, and butter well.

Throw in your cheese.

Most likely you won’t be able to work with the dough so add a few tablespoons of ice water to help out. Go one tablespoon at a time. You want to be able to work with it but you don’t want it too moist. I had to add about 4 Tablespoons to my dough before I could work with it.

Plus a little water makes for a good dough.

Then put your dough out on your counter and shape it into two even balls. Wrap these in plastic and let them chill for up to 3 days. You might be able to freeze them but really you probably want to make these as soon as possible. You don’t have to chill them at all though. You can just roll them out right away if you want.

Wrapped and ready for the fridge.

This dough is similar to pie crust dough. It is a bit finicky when rolling out. The good news is that we don’t have to fit it in a 9 inch pan. In fact, we are just going to make little squares with it so it really doesn’t matter the shape as long is it is thin enough. You are looking for 1/4 inch thick on the dough.

Carefully roll this guy out. Fragile stuff.

Now take a sharp knife and cut out whatever shapes you want! The squares are the standard obviously, but you could do strips, twists, anything you can think of. I don’t recommend the balls though. They didn’t really work out that well.

I maybe went a little overboard.

Make sure you grease your pan with Pam or a bit of butter before you slap your designs down. Also, sprinkle them with some kosher salt if you want.

Bake these guys at 450 for just eight minutes. Ten if you want them extra crispy.

These are unreal.

These are so delicious and are great to have in a bowl at a party. People will try them and comment that they taste like the store bought variety – except better. Betsy and I ended up eating an entire tray of these without a problem.

If you have a favorite junk food that you want to see me make, leave it in a comment or shoot me an email! I have a running list.