Bacon Ranch Cheese Ball YUM!

I LOVE cheese. In any shape, form, or fashion. Yes, I even like the string cheese from a can. One of my favorite forms of cheese is in the form of a cheese ball. No, not those cheese ball puffs that resemble Cheetos. The good ole Southern cream cheese cheese balls. 

I've had this recipe pinned on my Pinterest for awhile and made it a couple of weeks back. I've finally gotten around to blogging about it!

It was midnight when I made this and I was hungry. I ate about half of it before I realized that the recipe was blog-worthy and took a photo of it half eaten. (I admit... I ate about 90% of that half....)

Here's the link to the recipe!

The original recipe for this Bacon Ranch Cheese Ball is from My Recipe Book. The original recipe asked for green onions and olives, but I did not have any green onions and left those out. I did not add olives either. I chopped some whole pecans in my food processor and used that as my coating. 

Bacon Ranch Cheese Ball

Adapted from My Recipe Book

2 (8 oz each) packages cream cheese (light is fine)

1 (1 oz.) packet dry buttermilk ranch dressing mix

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

5 pieces of bacon, fried and crumbled (I used brown sugar, maple bacon)

Pecans (or almonds) - finely chopped in food processor for coating

1.  Mix together cream cheese and dry ranch seasoning packet.  Stir until smooth.  Add cheese, onions, and bacon.  Stir until well combined.

2.  Shape into a ball.  Roll in nuts to coat outside.  Fix shape if needed.  (You can make one big or more smaller) Store in refrigerator.

Tip #1: I found it too soft to coat in the pecans, so I shaped the cheese ball into a ball shape using plastic wrap, then put it in the freezer for a MINIMUM of 30 minutes to firm up. Once it was slightly firmer, I sprinkled the chopped pecans onto a sheet of plastic (or wax paper) wrap and rolled the cheese ball in the pecans. DON'T forget and leave it in the freezer or it'll be ruined!

Tip #2: If you don't have a flat platter with a lid or cake stand with lid to store this, I found that the best way to store this was to place the cheese ball onto an upside lid of a Tupperware (plastic storage) container, then place the container on top of it upside down. Make sure your plastic container is tall enough for the cheese ball or you'll flatten it!

Overall, it was delicious! You can eat them with crackers, carrot sticks, celery, or spread it on toast! They make great appetizers for parties, tailgating, or just for snacking. Thanks for reading and I hope that you'll make your own cheese ball! Hope you have an awesome Monday!