Heaven on a plate.
My tummy’s delight.
Best stuff I’ve eaten all decade.
That pretty much sums up this chocolate chip cheeseball.
The idea of a sweet, desserty cheeseball has been on my mind lately and after perusing the internet and basically finding one main recipe out there for a chocolate chip cheeseball, I came up with my own version, since, sorry, even though it is dessert, I couldn’t stomach the thought of adding an entire stick of butter to the mix, also.
The end result is such a creamy, decadent, and utterly refreshing concoction that I am already scheduling in the ways I can make this at least daily for the next year.
For more appetizer ideas, go here. Happy New Year!
One Year Ago: The Best Cheeseball
Two Years Ago: Slow Cooker Italian Beef
Ingredients
- 12 ounces cream cheese, light or regular, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 cup crushed chocolate cookies, like chocolate teddy grahams or oreos, for rolling
- Graham crackers, pretzels, apples (or whatever you like!) for dipping
Directions
- In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, vanilla, powdered sugar and brown sugar until well mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours to give the mixture time to firm up a little bit.
- Place the crushed cookies on a dinner plate or shallow pie plate. Using lightly greased hands, mold the cream cheese mixture into a ball. Even after chilling it will be slightly soft so don’t worry if this part gets a little messy. Drop the ball into the crushed cookies and roll around and/or scoop up the crushed cookies and lightly press them into the cheeseball.
- Place the cheeseball on a serving platter and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with graham crackers, pretzels, apples, chocolate cookies or whatever your little heart desires!
Recipe Source: from My Kitchen Cafe
what a great easy and fun dessert (or appetizer:-))!
The whole stick of butter is exactly why I haven’t made this yet – kept seeing the recipe, but just couldn’t do it! So glad you tinkered with it and came up with this version!! Can’t wait to try it!
I have never seen a sweet cheese ball…what a fun idea for an appetizer.
Yes, yes. But isn’t this more sugar rush?
What’s for dinner!?
One of my all time favorite recipes. LOVE it with pretzels!
This is the perfect New Years Eve snack. I know what I’m taking to the party….thanks for sharing.
Isn’t that a good idea! Happy New Year, Melanie. Have loved drooling over all of your wonderful posts this month. Have a good one!
Oh my…this looks amazing! Another “why didn’t I think of that?” moment!
Yum!! I Will be makimg this for new years eve.
P.S. My sister made your orange rolls, monkey bread style, for Christmas brunch, um, om my goodness!! Those things disappeared in no time! so so good!
oops, was signed in as my husband, he probably wouldn’t appreciate sounding like a girl
We love the choc chip cheese ball! I like to roll ours in finely ground pecans instead of cookies. Might have to make this for New Year’s Eve!
Oo! I can’t wait to try this. That’s really creative!
That’s my kind of cheeseball!
Oh..MY!! This looks unbelievably good!! : )
Genius idea! Can’t wait to try this out for our New Year’s party!
Now I know what I’m taking to the New Years Eve party we’re going to! I’m already bringing a spinach and artichoke dip but wanted to come up with an extra thing and this is just perfect.
i have never even heard of something like this. how fun. I will have to give it a try. thanks
I LOVE this cheeseball!! It is so wonderful that just eating it with graham crackers is good for me!
yum! Sounds perfect! I know what I’m bringing to our new years eve party!
Brittany – I’ll definitely have to try those orange rolls monkey bread style…what a great idea!
A dip like this is always served at work parties, and I’ve never got the recipe! Thanks!
We are hosting a New Year’s Eve party for our daughters and their friends this year and looking for fun appetizer ideas. Looks like I found a dish I know they will love!
I just made one of these tonight! Well, the other version you mentioned – with the full stick of butter
Delicious! I made it to take to work, but if I was going to eat more of it, I’d make your version to keep it a little healthier.
yum! we don’t really have cheeseballs here in australia but this would be great conversation starter – great for kids parties too! yum!
corrie:)
This sounds fabulous!
P.S.
Love your new header!
This is crazy! I just saved a recipe for chocolate chip cookie dough dip, and now I’ve got a recipe for a cheeseball. I wonder what other creative things can be made with this idea? You go girl, this sounds so good.
Wowzer! I am speechless! Seriously…I might have to swing by! LOL Brilliant idea!
I had a chocolate chip cheeseball on my list of things to make for New Years Eve…but I too was worried about that stick of butter! I think I’ll try yours instead…sounds fab. Thanks for being so awesome Mel! Happy New Year!
My mom just brought a cheeseball similar to this to our Christmas Eve gathering. It is so good!! A woman at her office had given them out as Christmas gifts and she served it with graham crackers. I didn’t have any in the house when my mom brought it over for me to try, so I used pretzels and it was soooo good. The combination of the sweet and salty was perfect! The recipe that we tried also had chopped up nuts in it–pecans, maybe? Not sure exactly but it was delish!
Wow. That’s just about all I can say. Wow. Also, I love the sweet cheeseball I got from the Sisters’ Cafe – sweetened shredded coconut, powdered sugar, cream cheese, and maraschino cherries. Add some chocolate chips and a chocolate/crushed pecan coating and it would be the best of both!
my cousin made something eerily similar to this for christmas, and i obviously chose to sit very close to it during the unwrapping of gifts. needless to say, there wasn’t much left by the end of the evening.
I’ve been dying to try one of those–thanks for the reminder! Happy New Year!
I took this to our New Years Eve party and it was a hit! Stole the show. My husband thought it tasted like the filling of a pumkin roll (his favorite dessert). I liked it best with graham crackers, but the honey wheat pretzels went the fastest. Another winner-I’m not surprised.
Thanks for the recipe!
Christiana – so glad this recipe was a hit!
Major hit at the New Years party today. WOW. We had a HUGE spread of food and this was the one thing that only had a small bit left on the plate. So yummy. Thanks!
I love that you tweaked this recipe! I cannot wait to try it soon.
Anissa – thrilled this worked out so well!
One of my friends must have been psychic because I didn’t have a chance to make this for new years eve but it showed up at the party we were at and I seriously ate half of it!!! It was delicious!!! Definitely a great little dessert
We had a family game night shortly before the New Year holiday, and I presented this cheese ball at the party. I just wanted to let you know that it was HUGE hit. Everyone loved it. This will definitely be put on my holiday recipe list permanently. Also, I rolled mine in snickerdoodle cookie crumbs. Very yummy!!
Angie – loved the idea of you “presenting” this because really, it deserves a presentation. Glad it was so well received! And the snickerdoodle cookie crumbs are just brilliant!
That ball looks so good. I need to get back to cooking and making all your wonderful dishes.
One bite and I am hooked!!! I didn’t take the time to really soften the cream cheese, I just threw it in my Kitchen Aid, so it was still fairly cold and I skipped the step of chilling it before shaping it and it worked just fine. Thanks for the recipe definitely a keeper!
Cari – glad you love this and am glad your variations worked out!
Did I do this wrong? It just tasted like sweetened cream cheese, nothing special. I googled it and it has rave reviews everywhere…wondering if the problem is user error.
Rachel – I’m not sure if you did something wrong or not but I’m sorry you didn’t like it! It definitely has a strong cream cheese flavor so it may just boil down to a taste preference.
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Delish. Made this for a group of 12 and everyone loved it. It goes a long way. We especially enjoyed the apple/cheeseball combination.
I have been searching for a chocolate cheese ball recipe that I lost from several years ago. I couldn’t find a recipe online without the butter until I found this one. The lost cheese ball recipe was chocolate, not with chocolate chips and I can’t remember if I melted chocolate or added cocoa powder. It was coated just before serving with the nuts. It had creme de menthe in it and the ball was served with Famous Chocolate Wafers. I am going to use your recipe as a base and try an recreate this Minty Chocolate Cheese Ball. Thanks!!
I made this last year and it was a hit with all the girls. I added 2 T. of Ameretto last year. This year I used 2 T. of Kahlua. The consensus amoungst the grown-ups is that pretzels are the best with this as it tones down the sweetness a bit. I messed up this year and forgot to add the chocolate chips into the mixture, so I just combined the chips and nuts together and rolled the cheese ball in both. That turned out great as well. Thanks for a great get away from all the savory cheese balls during the holiday season!
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