This recipe is great for a crowd and can be made a day in advance. Set your cheese ball out about 15 minutes before your guests arrive to soften a bit.
Course Appetizer
Servings 1cheese ball
Author Elyse
Ingredients
4ozgoat cheese
4Medjool dates
5Tbspbutter
4ozcream cheese
2Tbspfinely chopped scallions
1tsphot sauce
1cuptoasted pecan pieces
1cupchopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
Instructions
An hour before preparation, take the goat cheese, butter, and cream cheese out of the refrigerator to soften.
Remove the pits from the dates and coarsely chop.
In a bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all of the ingredients except the chopped pecans and flat-leaf parsley. Mix until well incorporated.
The mixture will be fairly sticky at this stage and too difficult to work with. Place in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes. You want the mixture to firm up enough for you to be able to mold into a ball in your hands but not so firm that it comes back to a hardened state.
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Spread the chopped pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast for 8-10 minutes or until you see them slightly darkened and smell their aroma throughout the kitchen.
Once the pecan pieces come out of the oven let them cool for 5 minutes.
Combine the flat-leaf parsley with the pecan pieces and coarsely chop them together until you have a fairly uniform mixture. Spread in an even layer on a cutting board, counter or parchment paper.
Take your cheese mixture out of the refrigerator. Using a spatula scrape the mixture into your hand or onto a piece of parchment paper. Form into a ball. This part can be a bit messy but as soon as you drop the mixture onto the parsley and pecans it will start to really come together.
Drop the cheeseball mixture onto the spread out parsley and pecan mixture. Roll the cheese ball around until the entire ball is coated with the parsley and pecans.
Using a flatted spatula transfer the cheeseball to your favorite plate and surround with crackers and grapes. Enjoy!