Holiday Blue Cheese Ball Recipe

We all love a festive holiday party, complete with color-coordinated décor, clinking glasses and plenty of cheer. Not to mention delicious seasonal food! But if you’re the host, there’s no denying the time, energy and hard work that goes into pulling off the perfect holiday bash. This year, it’s time to make the “effortless host” role a reality with a few entertaining time-savers made possible with Litehouse® Simply Artisan Cheeses.

First up we have a festive and plump cheese ball perfect for spreading on your favorite crackers. This holiday appetizer takes less than 10 minutes to throw together, just one bowl, and it can be made ahead of time. That’s three major wins on your hosting checklist.

Here’s how it’s done:

The base of our bright and flavorful cheeseball relies on silky cream cheese and savory flavor pops from Litehouse® Simply Artisan Blue Cheese. Mixing gets a bit easier if you let the cream cheese soften up. Room temperature cream cheese is best, but you can make the cheeseball with cold cream cheese too, it just takes a bit more elbow grease to combine thoroughly.

A bit of bright lemon zest brings a nice hit of acid to your holiday cheeseball. Acid is important for cutting through the creamy cheeses to help the blue cheese flavor shine. Finally, minced scallions heighten the savory flavors and add some satisfying crunch.

On the subject of crunch, no cheeseball would be complete without a beautiful dressing. We roll our quick cheeseball in crunchy toasted pecans and sweet-tart dried cranberries. These fun dressings add to the flavor and transform your cheeseball into a show-stopping centerpiece decorated for the occasion.

At this point, you can store the cheeseball, wrapped tightly in plastic, in the fridge for up to three days before serving. When it’s party time, simply arrange your favorite crackers around the holiday cheeseball and enjoy!