Cranberry Nut Goat Cheese Ball

This Christmas, deck your holiday snack table with bursts of Yuletide flavor by serving these merry maple-glazed cranberry nut goat cheese balls. With a festive pretzel skewer sticking out of the middle, these cheese balls are covered in a colorful medley of ruby red cranberries, emerald pistachios, golden toasted walnuts and crisp chives that evoke the very spirit of the season.

Course Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword cranberry nut goat cheese ball

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Total Time 15

Servings serving

Calories 159

Author Mary Thatcher

Equipment

1 parchment paper
1 mixing bowl
1 spatula
1 hand mixer optional. You can do everything by hand too.

Ingredients

10 oz goat cheese
8 oz cream cheese
2 tsp cinnamon
⅓ cup cranberry sauce
4 tbsp maple syrup or honey and more for drizzling when serve.
½ cup walnut or pecan
1 cup pistachios divided in halves
½ cup dried cranberries chopped
3 tbsp minced fresh chives or parsley
a pinch salt
Pretzels sticks optional

Instructions

In a large bowl, beat together the goat cheese and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Set aside. Note : Do not beat it for too long or it will turn into a too soft spread and will be harder to form a ball.
Use a spatula for folding. Add 1/2 cup pistachios chips, cinnamon powder, cranberry sauce, a pinch of salt, and maple syrup folding to combine.
Line your countertop with parchment paper. Toss together remaining pistachios chips, walnuts, dried cranberries and chopped chives in the center of the parchment paper. See the video below.
Using a meatball scooper, scoop out one or 1 1/2 round of cheese filling and toss in the cranberry/nut/chives mixture. Continue until all cranberry nut goat cheese balls have been rolled in coating.
Refrigerate cheeseballs until ready to serve. You can make these up to three days before, just make sure and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
To Serve: Serve with crackers, pretzels or a piece of sourdough toast.
Note : If some how to spread turns out too soft to form a ball, simply cover the bowl then put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. The cheese will harden but still soft enough to form a ball or balls and still easy to spread. Enjoy!

Video

Nutrition