Cheese Ball
By Ocado
Published on 08 December 2022
This homemade cheese ball makes a brilliant showstopping sharer for your Christmas party. It’s the ultimate party food because it can be made in advance, refrigerated and then brought back to room temperature before serving. Three types of rich cheese are mixed together with some of your favourite festive food flavours including cranberries, figs and clementine zest. The fruity cheese mixture is then formed into a snow globe and rolled in an array of toasted nuts including Christmassy roasted chestnuts. Serve with a variety of crackers and toasted bread to scoop into the cheese ball – just make sure you don’t fill up on cheese before the main course is served.Time and servings
20 minsTotal time
15Servings
20 minsPrep time
Ingredients
- 50 g of dried cranberries
- 100 g of dried figs
- 500 g of full-fat cream cheese
- 350 g of extra-mature cheddar cheese, grated
- 100 g of parmesan, grated
- 0.25 red onion, finely chopped
- 1 clementine, zested
- 200 g of pistachios, toasted, roughly chopped
- 50 g of walnuts, toasted, roughly chopped
- 80 g of peeled and cooked chestnuts, toasted, roughly chopped
Method
Step 1
Soak 40g of the cranberries and the figs in a small bowl of hot water for 10 mins, then drain them, pat dry with kitchen paper and roughly chop them together.Step 2
In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, cheddar, parmesan, red onion, clementine zest and chopped cranberries and figs. Make sure everything is well-combined so that each scoop has a bit of everything in it.Step 3
In a separate large bowl, combine the pistachios, walnuts, chestnuts and remaining cranberries and transfer the mixture to a large plate or dish. Carefully roll the cheese ball in the nuts until it is fully coated.Step 4
Transfer the cheese ball to your chosen serving platter, cover and chill in the fridge for 15-20 mins before allowing it to come to room temperature and serving it with your favourite crackers or toasted sourdough.