This is one of our favorite appetizers for holidays. I make my own dry ranch dressing mix and use a full pound of sharp cheddar cheese. You can use reduced fat cream cheese and not even notice the switch. If you really want the ranch flavor to shine make this a couple days beforehand and let it set in the fridge.
Be sure to use the powder DRESSING rather than the powder DIP. The dip has way more salt in it. We have made both kinds. Dip cheese all is way too salty. Just a heads up...
rolled a second one in real bacon bits kids loved them both!
Loved this cheese ball! The cheese the seasonings are delightful. I do as a recipe submitter have a problem with people who change everything in the recipe and then give it a bad rating. If you rate a recipe then make it the way it is specified or don't rate it at all.
I just made this recipe for our cozy New Year's Eve tomorrow night and for our New Year's Day party. I did add a few things like some others suggested. I very rarely make a recipe without tweaking it in some way so I hope no offense to Castoways who posted the original recipe. For starters I doubled the recipe. With that in mind I added in 2 tablespoons of dried onions a teaspoon of garlic powder fresh ground pepper and roughly 4 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce maybe more. The worchestershire sauce really completed this recipe. It added that little extra something that I thought it needed. I made 2 logs and then rolled them in toasted pecans. This made a delicious cheese spread and is exactly what I was looking for. My family will go nuts over it. I'll be using this recipe again. Thank you so much!
This is quick and simple to throw together and uses ingredients I generally have on hand. I made this to take to a family gathering and it was very tasty. I found that I actually liked this better after the flavors had a chance to meld together and the cheeseball warmed up a bit. I would definitely make this again!
I have been looking for an affordably priced cheeseball for the holidays and tried this. I made 1/2 recipe and I lined a small glass bowl with plastic wrap spread the mixture in that and it un-molded very easy in the 5 minutes. I then rolled that in the finely chopped pecans. I thought this wasn't seasoned much. The predominant flavor as the store bought cheese balls was the cheese. If for a party I would at least add some garlic seasoning. I would also experiment with adding pimentos or some other flavoring or color depending on the holiday.
This was a huge hit at our latest family gathering. It was a little bit salty for my taste but that didn't seem to slow anyone down. I like the idea of adding some bacon - will give that a try next time.
I made this for New Year's Eve. It was gone quickly. Everyone commented on how wonderful it was and I was thrilled with how easy it was. I made it the night before and left the ball in the refrigerator overnight. Before serving rolled it in the chopped pecans. Dynamite! Thanks for sharing.
I changed the sour cream to greek yogurt added 1 teaspoon of dried onions and 1/2 teaspoon of dried garlic bits and rolled in dried dill. rolled into a log and let sit refrigerated overnight. A big hit at our large family gathering.
