Are You A Baller? No Worries: Just Make Curried Cheese Balls!

Sometimes cookbooks unexpectedly show up at my front door. There are worse things in the world! Most of the time I look through the books and right away decide whether I'll keep them or donate them. When I received a preview copy of Michelle Buffardi's Great Balls of Cheese cookbook, I knew I'd keep it. First of all, it is an adorable size. Second of all, it has cute photos. Thirdly, it has recipes with CHEESE! Who doesn't love cheese?

I'll admit the book sat on my coffee table for months. Finally, this past weekend I decided to make one of the recipes. It wasn't hard to choose which recipe to try first: Curried Cheese Ball called my name! Not only did it have curry (duh), but it was encrusted with one of my favorite nuts ever: pistachios!

It was also an excuse to use the newest kitchen toy I splurged on!!!

The recipe below is copied directly from the book. The only changes I made was to leave out the onion and to form the mixture into a log and then into 3 balls instead of making one giant ball. BALLS!!!

Curried Cheese Ball(s)

Serves 15 to 20 

Excerpted from Great Balls of Cheese, © 2013 by Michelle Buffardi.

Some people think they don't like curry powder; they assume it's spicy--but it's spiced, not spicy. If you have those kinds of guests at a party, just call this a cheese ball and don't mention the curry until after they've eaten a whole bunch and want to know the source of the unbelievable flavor.

Ingredients

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup chopped dates

1 tablespoon finely chopped sweet onion

1 tablespoon mango chutney (optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons mild curry powder

Pinch coarse salt

Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)

1 cup chopped unsalted pistachios, toasted, for coating

Crackers or crudités, for serving

Instructions

Using a stand mixer or a bowl and a spatula, mix together the cream cheese, cheddar, dates, onion, mango chutney, if using, curry powder, salt, and cayenne, if using, until combined. Form the mixture into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Before serving, roll the cheese ball in the pistachios to coat.

Serve with crackers or crudités.

This was a great recipe: incredibly easy to make, delicious and huge quantity! I've been eating this for breakfast with mini bagels or Wasa crackers.

Have you ever made a cheese ball???
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book free of charge but was under no obligation to blog about it and was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.