What better way to impress your family and guests this holiday season than with this festive cranberry pecan chive and garlic loaded cheese ball. This tasty crowd-pleasing cheese ball comes together in under 20 minutes, is self-serve, and doesn’t require anything fancy. Serve it with a box of crackers and your done! 
To get started, Holiday appetizers could not get any easier than cheese balls. For one, they look AMAZING, you can customize them to your liken, AND they’re ready in under 20 minutes from start to finish. There’s nothing better than a garlic and herb cheese ball loaded with chives, garlic, and your favorite herbs. For the Holidays, we like to make this festive version which includes dried cranberries and chopped pecans (or walnuts). The cranberries compliment the nuts and herbs perfectly and present beautifully.
HOW TO MAKE A CHEESE BALL
It all starts with an 8 oz bar of cream cheese (can substitute goat cheese if desired), 1 cup shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese (this isn’t written in stone so any kind of your favorite melting cheese should work), chives (or parsley or green onions or dried herbs), chopped dried cranberries, chopped pecans or walnuts, and a pinch of garlic powder.
Simply combine all these ingredients in a large bowl and shape into a ball or log with your hands or with plastic wrap. Roll into a mixture of chopped pecans, cranberries, and chives and serve with crackers and YOUR DONE! simple place on the table and let your guest do the work from here. 
Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup white sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 cup dried cranberries chopped and divided
- 1 cup Fisher’s Nuts pecans chopped and toasted *optional
- 1/4 cup chives or green onions chopped
- ½ tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- To Toast Pecans: Pre-heat oven to 375F. Place chopped pecans on a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes or until aromatic. Remove from oven and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ½ toasted pecans, ½ cup dried cranberries, chive or green onion, and garlic powder until well combined.
- Place mixture in the center of a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper and cover completely with wrap while forming it into a ball shape. Place in fridge until ready to serve.
- Just before serving, combine remaining ½ cup pecans, ½ dried cranberries, and 2 tablespoon chives on a flat surface or cutting board. Unwrap the ball and roll in cranberry-pecan mixture.
- Serve with crackers, pita chips, pretzels, carrots or celery.
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