It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas! Sandra shared this recipe with me after we met at a food show earlier this year. I love its retro vibes, party looks and Christmassy taste. Serve it with plain crackers, crisp apple slices or even plain sweet biscuits.

Ingredients:
2 x 240g Angel Food plant-based cream cheese (preferably room temperature)
6 - 8 pieces of crystallised ginger (c. 50g)
3 small sweet gherkins (c. 40g)
¼ cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit
227g tin of crushed pineapple in juice
70g chopped peanuts
2 tablespoons sherry (you could also use brandy, or if you want it to be alcohol-free, use some of the juice from the can of pineapple)

Method:

1. Grate the cream cheese (preferable) or cut into small pieces (next best option!). 

2. Chop ginger, gherkins and dried fruit finely. 

3. Drain the pineapple, squeezing to remove as much juice as possible.

4. Mix all ingredients except the chopped peanuts in a large bowl.

5. Place the chopped peanuts in a large shall bowl and set aside.

6. With clean hands (obviously!) mix everything together. If the cream cheese is too cold this will be a bit tricky, so leave it on the bench to come to room temperature. 

7. When everything is well mixed, form into as round a ball as possible.

8. Roll the ball in the chopped nuts until it’s completely covered.

9. Place on a serving plate if you’re using it straight away, or store in a covered container in the fridge (wrap in cling film if you don’t have a suitable sized container). 

10. Remove from the fridge an hour before serving.

Cheese balls were popular with home entertainers of the 1960s and 1970s but after that became to be seen as old-fashioned. Now they’re back, as ‘retro’ rather than ‘old-fashioned’ – and let’s face it, they’re delicious.

Bizarrely the first cheeseball is said to have weighed an incredible 500kg – it was made in the early 1800s in Massachusetts by a Baptist minister as a gift for President Thomas Jefferson. Travelling for more than a week with a giant cheese ball is an unusual way to express patriotism and appreciation for religious liberty, but that’s how the story goes (on the internet, anyway). The story gets less plausible when it’s claimed that it was rolled across the White House lawn upon arrival… and that it was still being served at Republican party functions two years later!

Cheese balls are very versatile – even if you choose not to roll it across your lawn. They can be sweet or savoury, large or small, and can be coated in any manner of things such as nuts, seeds (black sesame seeds would look great!), dried fruit, fresh herbs, crushed biscuits, or spices such as paprika.

And although it’s called a cheese ball it is a very malleable substance which can be made into all sorts of shapes by creative cooks – including owls, pineapples, reindeers, snowmen and even a gruesome severed foot.