Cheese balls, they’re the perfect party food! You can make them into the shape of a round ball, a log, I’ve seen them shaped as footballs, pumpkins, birds, reindeer, snowman I could go on and on.
Since we’re deep into the holidays right now I made this festive looking cheese ball that’s shaped into a Christmas tree.
The key ingredient in this cheeseball is muffuletta salad, it comes in a jar and it’s pretty easy to find. Jars may vary ingredients but normally they’re filled with things like Kalamata and green olives, red peppers, cauliflower, carrots, garlic, capers and some spices. If you can’t find muffuletta salad you can sub in an olive salad which is similar and just as good.
You’ll want to drain the salad of any excess oil really well, then add it to a mix of cream cheese and mascarpone.
Honestly when all is blended together there’s no need to add anything else except some fresh chives if you like.
After everything is blended together shape it all into a cone for your “tree”.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place it into the fridge for a few hours so it can harden up again. Then you can fine tune your tree with an offset spatula to shape it better and make it smooth all around when it comes out of the fridge.
Press chopped parsley onto the cone shape to make it look like a tree, then begin to decorate it by added nuts, peppers or whatever your creative mind wants to do, there’s no set rules, make it your own.
I placed a star on top made of cheddar cheese, just do it freehand. At this point if I loosely drape it with plastic wrap it can sit in my fridge for a couple of days ahead to serve at a party and it will be just fine.
One thing to keep in mind is that you’ll want to serve this cheese ball with fairly sturdy crackers to hold up to the dipping, flimsy crackers just won’t do.
Start your holiday party off with this festive Christmas tree cheese ball, it’s a showstopper, it’s fun to eat and you and your guests will love it!
- 2 8oz, packages of full fat cream cheese, room temp
- 1 16oz, container of mascarpone cheese, room temp
- 1 heaping cup of muffuletta salad or olive salad, drained well of excess oil
- 3 tablespoons of FINELY grated cheese like cheddar or mozzarella
- salt and pepper to taste
- snipped chives, optional
- chopped parsley, enough to go around the "tree"
- 1 piece cheddar cheese to make a star shape
- almond slices, chopped red peppers and whatever else you want to decorate your cheeseball tree with
- Combine the mascarpone, cream cheese, grated cheese along with the muffuletta salad and chives into a large bowl.
- With a hand mixer on low speed blend everything together.
- Taste for seasoning or if you want to add more of something else.
- on a small cookie sheet or tray place a sheet of wax paper down and then plop the cheese mixture onto that.
- Place plastic wrap over your hands and start to form the cone as best you can. Check your hight and width.
- Keep the formed cone shape on the pan and place the whole thing into the fridge loosely covered with plastic wrap and let it harden for a few hours or even overnight if you want.
- Remove from fridge and on the same tray press in the chopped parsley all over your cone.
- Decorate it with the nuts and peppers and make sure you cut out a star with cheddar cheese for the topper.
- If loosely draped with plastic wrap this can stay in the fridge for a couple of days before serving.
- When ready to serve place a large spatula underneath the tree and lift it onto your serving platter.
- Scatter sturdy crackers all around.
- Enjoy!
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
I love it!!Happy Holidays!
Doing this! Fun and festive. Thanks, Marie.
Such a delicious, easy and festive idea, Marie. Now to find that mufaletta mix.