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Bacon Pecan Cheese Ball

Source of Recipe

From "Southern Snacks" by Perre Coleman Magness


Recipe Introduction

"The cheese ball gets a bad rap. Maybe people have memories of those shrink-wrapped, shelf-stable, processed cheese lumps that came in the Christmas gift box from the bank or the insurance company. But a homemade cheese ball is a different thing all together, and well worth making. And of course, bacon makes everything better, so this version is definitely a keeper."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 10 strips of bacon
â—¦ 1 cup pecan halves, divided
â—¦ 2 tablespoons parsley
â—¦ 8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
â—¦ 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
â—¦ 2 tablespoons snipped chives
â—¦ 1 tablespoon bacon grease
â—¦ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
â—¦ ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
â—¦ ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper


Recipe

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Place a wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet and arrange the bacon strips on the rack. Cook the bacon until very crispy, 20 to 25 minutes. Pat the bacon strips on both sides with paper towels to blot off any fat. Leave to cool.

Break 5 strips bacon into pieces and place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add ½ cup of the pecan halves and the parsley. Process until the bacon and pecans are the texture of coarse bread crumbs. Scoop the crumbs out onto a flat plate.

Switch to the grating blade and grate the Cheddar cheese. Switch back to the metal blade, add the cream cheese, cut into cubes, the remaining bacon, broken into pieces, the remaining pecans the bacon grease, and the chives, salt, and paprika. Process until smooth and all the ingredients are incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Use your good clean hands to shape the cheese mixture into a ball, then roll the ball in the bacon crumbs, pressing them into the sides of the ball. Refrigerate until firm. The cheese ball can be made up to three days ahead.

If you want to be fancy, you can roll the mixture into small "truffles" and serve with toothpicks.


Makes 1