Wuff's office held their annual Holiday celebration this Wednesday. Since we managed to have the event catered this year, there was no need for wuff to make any special entrée. But a nice appetizer or something to snack on while waiting for the main course to arrive would be appreciated. So Vrghr decided to bring in a couple of cheese balls.

You can find the Spicy Southwestern Chorizo version here: http://www.furaffinity.net/full/29817465/

Of course, this wuffy wasn't going to just make one of those "add some herbs to a block of cream cheese, roll it in nuts, and call it good" version! Nope, wuffy had to get a bit creative and make a sweet "almost desert" style, and a spicy and savory one.

The recipe below is for the sweeter one. The spicy one will be coming up next.

Both of these were VERY well received! Folks nearly devoured all of them before the food arrived, and only a few scraps were left after folks added them as side dishes to the catered foods.

This is a nicely sweet version, with lots of “holiday” flavors, like cranberries, oranges, and apples. It turned out rather soft and a bit difficult to mold into a ball, even after refrigerating.

If you have too much trouble with that, just serve it out of a bowl and simply coat the top with the extra berries and nuts, instead of the entire ball. But after letting it harden over night in the fridge, it was solid enough to coat with the nuts and cranberries, even if it was still a bit soft to handle.

It still ends up a delicious bite!

Ingredients:
2 ea 8oz packages Cream Cheese
4 oz Mascarpone Cheese
½ tart Apple (I used Granny Smith) (Leave the peel on for color)
½ sweet Apple (I used Gala) (Leave the peel on for color)
1/3 C dried Cranberries (for interior)
Zest of ½ Orange
2-3 TBS Honey (depending on how tart your apple and how sweet you want it)
½ C dried Cranberries (for coating)
2 pkgs “nut topping” (mixed nuts, can sub chopped Pecans)(for coating)

Plastic Wrap

DIRECTIONS:
Let the Cream Cheese and Mascarpone Cheese come to room temperature for easier mixing

In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients except “coating” items. Mixture will be rather soft. Place into refrigerator for at least 2 hours to chill and stiffen up

(You may need to put it in the freezer for a half hour or so, or refrigerate it overnight if it is still too soft for you to handle it while coating. Or just put the ball in a small bowl, and coat the top part only.)

Pull a rather large piece of Plastic Wrap (cling wrap) to cover your work surface. Remove bowl from fridge and empty into the middle of the cling wrap. Using your hands and lifting the edges of the cling wrap if needed, form the mixture into a ball. Cover with the extra cranberries and nuts

Wrap the ball up in the cling wrap and place it in a small bowl, just large enough to hold your cheese mixture, to help hold and form the shape. Return to refrigerator over-night, to blend flavors and stiffen up further

Serve with mild buttery crackers or graham crackers

DEVOUR!