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! Cranberry Pecan Cheese BallTo 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.
Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball

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

4.61 from 105 votes

Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball

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! 
Prep15 minutes
Total15 minutes
Servings 6 people

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.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 0.5cup, Calories: 192kcal, Carbohydrates: 18g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 13g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Cholesterol: 41mg, Sodium: 122mg, Potassium: 60mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 14g, Vitamin A: 510IU, Calcium: 39mg, Iron: 0.3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Appetizer
Keyword: appetizer, cheese ball, christmas, cranberry, holiday, log, pecan, recipe
like this recipe? Rate & Comment below!

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45 Comments

  1. Delicious, beautiful, and festive! The colors were a perfect festive sight for a holiday dinner. Also it was easy to make. The only thing I would change is to take it out of the fridge for an hour or so before rolling in the topping and serving. Rolling it right after taking out of the fridge was hard because the stuff didn’t stick to it. And guests had a hard time at first getting the stuff spread on crackers. After about an hour or two sitting out it was more spreadable. It was beautiful and fun and I will definitely make this every holiday in the future.

  2. Oh my goodness. I made this for a holiday party. I doubled the recipe. My wife said I was making TOO much. When cleaning up after the party, my wife said you were correct in doubling the cheeseball recipe, there was nothing left. Everyone raved about the recipe and wanted to know where I got it. I’m point them to your site, one of my all-time favorite food blogs. Happy 2024 and we all can’t wait to see what is in store for the upcoming year.

    1. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, Chuck! That means so much to me 🙂