Jalapeño Popper Cheese Ball

Jalapeño Popper Cheese Ball ready for a party.

Jalapeño jackpot makes a tasty Jalapeño Popper Cheese Ball

At the end of the summer, our garden struck the jackpot with jalapenos. I preserved Cowboy Candy, prepared Make as you Go, Pico de Gallo, and made Jalapeño Poppers near the end. The Jalapeño Poppers got me to thinking about incorporating these flavors in a different way. With the holidays coming up, it would be nice to have an appetizer that we could easily serve up from our garden goods. I decided a cheese ball sounded like the perfect holiday offering and a great way to use up jalapenos. The great thing about cheese balls is that you can adjust the flavor the way you like it. The recipe is approximate. Hint, you may want to double the recipe to have an extra stored away.

Jalapeño Popper Cheese Ball ingredients.

Ingredients for 1 cheese ball:

1 8oz. Block of softened cream cheese

2-3 deseeded jalapeños (depending on how much heat you’d like), chopped

2 crispy cooked slices of bacon, crumbled

1 stalk of green onions or a few wild ones if you have them, sliced

½ cup Colby-Jack cheese, shredded

EXCEPT for the cream cheese, divide the ingredients so you have some for the inside of the cheese ball, and some to roll the cheese ball in, to see the pretty ingredients on the outside.

While you CAN do all of this by hand, I enjoy using the food processor to deal with smoothing the cream cheese and ½ of the jalapeños.

Once cream cheese is whipped looking with bits of jalapeños, you can add ½ of each ingredient and mix by hand. You’ll want to have the remaining ingredients together on a plate that you can roll the cheese ball into to collect those tasty bits.

Make sure your hands are wet when you try to gather the cream cheese mixture together to form a ball. Wet hands keep the cream cheese mixture from sticking to your hands. Roll the ball onto the plate you previously prepared. Next, plate it up to be served with crackers.

You can also save this pretty appetizer like I am, by placing it on a piece of parchment paper and a plate to freeze a bit until it’s a bit more solid. Place it into a freezer bag for another time so going to a holiday party or hosting one yourself has been made easier.