Easy Cheese Ball

Excellent cheese ball! This recipe is fast, easy and good. I did find the chill time in the recipe to be too short. The mixture is still very gummy at that time and the nuts sink right into the cheese. I let half the mixture set overnight and it was much easier to work with. This makes a LARGE cheese ball. I made two smaller ones. I believe the sour cream keeps this at an excellent consistency for dipping and spreading. It is not hard and difficult to spread as some cheese balls are. Five stars for ease, taste and consistency. Thanks Rucinda!

Super cheese ball! Raves from all! Easy to make and actually can be made into a ball (versus a blob) but needs an overnight stint in the fridge. Used light everything - cheese, cream cheese, sour cream and taste was great. Used only 1/2 packet of regular sized HV ranch dip. Thanks for sharing!

I made this on New Year's Eve and everyone loved it. Will definitely make it again.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can control the amount of fat by choosing non-fat or lo-fat ingredients. The only thing that had me worried was the hi sodium from the ranch dressing mix BUT then I saw that someone had used only 1/2 package and it was still delicious. So a real winner!

I have given 5 stars because I loved it, despite some necessary changes due to location. I am in the UK, 'Cheese Balls' are not something seen at parties, so I didn't have a reference point for consistency, though reviews say some are too stiff to spread. I wondered if this was because the type of cream cheese used for stiffer cheesecakes is used? I used Kraft Philadelphia, had no idea how how to make a ball from this soft mix, so divided the mix into 250g butter dishes (500g is close to 1lb weight). I used Hazelnuts as I had some & Pecans are only sold in large supermarkets which are not close to me - I wanted to try it before my next home delivery! I don't think this affects the recipe though. I have never noticed Ranch Dressing Mix on sale, I would have had to wait for delivery, so found a good recipe online that I had all the ingredients for. There is no need to have added salt if homemade either, but I used it because I wanted to keep the spreads for a while (if they last that long, I KNOW they are in my fridge lol) & because I thought it may help the texture not be runny. The cheese I used is runnier, but it has set reasonably well in the fridge after 4 hrs & will make sandwiches later well. I'd appreciate some feedback from US cooks as to how to achieve the 'ball' shape, use film or foil, palette knives? Also, I think smaller shapes are better, maybe butter shapes, as if the ball is huge, most people won't have nuts in a party setting. Oh, I also mixed some of the nuts into the cheese & put the rest on top - because I put the mix into butter dishes (then everyone has some nuts) - did for a domestic breakfast/teatime/lunchbox setting though - 'dips' as a party thing isn't found here either. I'll use Pecans next time.