Any Thanksgiving or Halloween table would look fantastic with these! really elegant appearing, but very simple to construct. (Preparation time includes downtime.)
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 2 dozen |
Ingredients
- 2 ½ teaspoons butter
- 3 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1 ½ teaspoons white sugar
- 2 cups shredded aged Cheddar cheese
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup chopped green onions
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 cup finely crushed cheese-flavored crackers (such as Pepperidge Farm® Goldfish)
- 12 pretzel sticks
- 1 small bunch fresh parsley, or to taste
Instructions
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until sizzling, about 30 seconds. Add garlic and sugar. Cook, stirring constantly, until garlic just starts to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Immediately remove from heat. Transfer garlic mixture to a bowl. Add Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, green onions, and garlic salt. Beat using an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Cover and refrigerate until firm enough to handle, about 30 minutes.
- Shape chilled cheese mixture into golf-ball-sized balls. Roll each ball in crushed crackers and slightly flatten the bottom. Press 1/2 a pretzel stick into the top. Repeat with remaining cheese mixture.
- Spread parsley out on a serving plate and place mini cheeseball pumpkins on top, leaving enough room in between for parsley to show through.
- When decorating, rip off tiny leaves of parsley and place under the pretzel sticks on top of the balls, if desired.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 180 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 19 g |
| Cholesterol | 21 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 631 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 9 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made as written and hubby really liked these. They were cute too. The one thing I would change next time is the crackers. Goldfish crackers are too light in color or at least the original ones are. I recommend using one that is darker orange in color.
The cheese balls turned out pretty good. I did overdo it on the garlic so make sure you follow the recipe exactly!! They were adorable though! Also, I found the crackers got stale if I rolled them in the crumbs the night before.
I thought these would make very good individually sized cheese balls but they were much too big. They are packed with flavor and I would recommend just making one big cheese ball instead. Very few were eaten at my gathering of 40 people and they don’t save well due to the pretzel getting soggy.
Everyone at the Church potluck loved these. They were eye catching and they taste great!
came out great