Serve these cheese balls as a canapé or as the cheese course after a meal. I make them a day ahead so the flavours mingle well.
Ingredients
For the pretzel cheese balls
- 1⁄4 cup pistachios
- 1⁄4 cup pecans
- 250g cream cheese
- 100g feta
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1⁄2 teaspoon horseradish cream
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1⁄2 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1⁄4 cup chopped dried cranberries
- 1⁄4 cup finely chopped dried apricots
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley
- Pretzel sticks, to serve
Method
For the pretzel cheese balls
- Dry roast the pistachios and pecans in a pan until just turning golden. Chop to a fine crumb in a food processor. Set aside.
- Add the cream cheese, feta, mustard, horseradish, lemon zest, chilli flakes and pepper to the food processor and blitz together, or beat with a wooden spoon until evenly combined.
- Stir in the cranberries, apricots, chives and parsley.
- Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Roll the mixture into 16 truffle-size balls, then roll in the chopped nuts.
- Place a pretzel stick in the centre of each ball before serving.