Mini Bacon Cheddar Cheese Balls

It’s holiday party time, friends! The parties have begun and it’s time to start planning your menus! I feel like I’m always invited to a lot of pot lucks this time of year so I love having lots of good appetizer recipes on hand. You guys love my Cranberry Pecan and White Cheddar Cheese Ball seeing as it’s one of the most popular recipes on the blog so I decided to do a twist on that one with these mini-sized cheese balls!

The mixture for these is quite simple, just cheddar cheese, cream cheese, some walnuts, chives, and then instead of cranberries, I coated these guys in bacon bits! I love the added crunch from the bacon bits. Also, how festive are the red and green colors?! If you don’t want to do bacon bits, you can use cooked chopped bacon. Or, if you want to keep these vegetarian-friendly, dried cranberries or currants work well too!

I used pretzel sticks to serve these and actually didn’t mind not eating them with other crackers, the pretzel stick was enough for me, but you could also serve these with crackers if you wanted to.

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Yield: 10-12 mini cheese balls

Mini Bacon Cheddar Cheese Balls

Prep Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

These Mini Bacon Cheddar Cheese Balls are made with cheddar cheese, chives, pecans, and rolled in bacon bits! Perfect for holiday parties!

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) package plain cream cheese, softened
• 8 ounces good quality sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 5 tablespoons chopped chives, divided
• 1 1/2 cups bacon bits
• 12 pretzel sticks

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese and the cheddar cheese. Add in the walnuts, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and 3 tablespoons of the chives. Continue mixing for another minute or two until everything is well-combined. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the mixture and form into a ball, repeat with remaining mixture. Place the formed cheese balls into a container and chill for at least 1 hour (I do overnight).
2. Remove the chilled cheese balls. In a shallow bowl, stir together the remaining 2 tablespoons of chives and bacon bits. Place a pretzel stick in the top of each cheese ball. Then, dip the cheese balls into the bacon and chive mixture, using hands or a spoon to cover completely, pushing in lightly to secure them into place. Serve or cover and place back into the fridge until serving. Serve.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12

Serving Size:

1 cheese ball
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 227Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gCholesterol: 46mgSodium: 563mgCarbohydrates: 4.4gFiber: 1gProtein: 11.5g

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