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Why You’ll Love My Recipe

This is the perfect cheese ball to make the centerpiece of your snack trays this holiday season! Make an extra batch and freeze some for later, or try a few modifications.

Cheese balls are a great appetizer. Add some Spinach Dip, Whipped Feta Dip, or French Onion Dip to a snack tray and put out an assortment of different crackers and vegetables. For a bit of protein, make some Caprese Skewers With Balsamic Drizzle.

Karlynn’s Recipe Notes

Skill Level: This is a very easy recipe.
Total Time: Assembling these will take you about 15 minutes, and then they need to be refrigerated overnight.
Variations: This is a very basic cheese ball recipe, which makes it a great base for modifications. Use your favourite cheese or cheeses, add some dried fruit or nuts. Try a maple or hickory bacon. Use wholegrain Dijon mustard or add some heat with horseradish mustard variety.
Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need a large frying pan, a large bowl, a wooden spoon, a cutting board, and a sharp knife.

What You’ll Need For Ingredients

Cheese: Cream cheese is the base that holds this recipe together. You can use plain or flavoured (herb and garlic, or chive), low fat or full fat, even a non-dairy alternative. Then, for the grated cheese you can use cheddar or a different hard cheese.

Bacon: Use your favourite bacon for this, fried up crispy and crumbled or chopped into bits. Lower salt, thinner or thicker slices, hickory-smoked, maple, etc. So many options.

Deviled Ham: This ham spread is a bit different than canned ham. It has added seasonings and sometimes smoky flavours as well. You can find it in the canned meat aisle or make your own.

How To Make Cheese Balls

This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

In a large bowl, mix together the cheddar, cream cheese, ham, green onions, mustard, salt and celery seed until well combined. Use your hands to form into either a single ball or several mini balls.
Cook the bacon until crispy and crumble it. Put bacon crumbles on a plate and roll the cheeseball(s) in them until fully coated.
Wrap ball or balls in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Serve with crackers or veggie sticks for dipping.

Close up shot of mini cheese balls rolled in bacon — Cheese Ball Recipe

Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Cheese Balls

Make it in Advance: This cheese ball, like so many cheese balls, will taste its very best after a day or two in the refrigerator. So make them days, or even weeks, early. They freeze well and defrost easily. You can also fry and crumble your bacon beforehand, so that you don’t need to wait for it to cool at assembly time.

Make it Yours: There are even more ways to customize these than just with the cheese and bacon. Try making your own Ham Salad (Deviled Ham Spread) to use in this recipe so that you can decide how much flavour you want and exactly what seasonings to use. Try dill or chives instead of green onion if you’d like to change up the flavour a bit.

Storage Instructions

Wrap the ball or balls tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for a few days, or add a layer of foil and put them in the freezer. They’ll be fine in the freezer for a few months. Take them out about a day before you want to use them.

More Delicious Appetizer Recipes

Looking for more easy appetizers to make this holiday season?

Try some Shrimp Surprise Spread – The Best Shrimp Dip Ever! or Classic Shrimp Cocktail Recipe for your cracker assortment.

Make a batch of Cranberry Sauce Cocktail Meatballs or some Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies for some protein.

There you go, everyone. An easy recipe that you can customize for your family’s personal tastes. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Happy Cooking!

Karlynn