[2] What’s inside the cheese ball? In this recipe, it’s red and green bell peppers (photo Claire Freierman | © THE NIBBLE).

[3] Cream cheese is the base in Recipe #1, goat cheese in Recipe #2 (photo © Philadelphia Cream Cheese).

Turn cheese balls into holiday ornaments with the right coatings. This recipe from Philadelphia Cream Cheese uses only cream cheese, but you can use your favorite cheese ball recipe.

Instead of one big cheese ball, you make mini cheese balls with different coatings.

We prefer to take the recipe one step further and flavor the cream cheese. We like bell pepper cream cheese, jalapeño cream cheese, olive cream cheese and scallion cream cheese; and for a splurge, smoked salmon cream cheese rolled in fresh dill.
 
 
DESSERT CHEESE BALLS

You can also make a dessert version to serve with cookies, like chocolate cream cheese (with cocoa powder and sugar), chocolate chip cream cheese (or other chip flavor), berry cream cheese (blueberry, raspberry, strawberry) and peanut butter cream cheese, rolled in cocoa powder, coconut or mini chocolate chips. But back to the savory:
 
 
RECIPE #1: HOLIDAY CHEESE BALLS

Ingredients

 
Plus

 
Serve With

 
Preparation

1. CUT the cream cheese brick into 6 two-ounce pieces; roll each into ball. If you’re flavoring the cream cheese, finely chop and blend in the mix-ins before shaping the balls.

3. ROLL 2 cheese balls in the sesame seed mixture, 2 cheese balls in the herb mixture and the remaining 2 cheese balls in the nut mixture.

4. WRAP each ball in plastic and refrigerate until ready to serve. Alternatively, you can place them in an airtight food storage container, lightly covered with plastic before you close the lid.

RECIPE #2: CHRISTMAS GOAT CHEESE LOGS

The glamorous goat cheese log in the photo couldn’t be easier. If you’d rather turn it into round “tree ornaments. See Step 2.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MIX roughly-chopped dried cranberries and pistachio nuts and place them on wax paper on a work surface.

2. ROLL the log of goat cheese in the mixture, pressing down lightly so the mixture adheres. If you’d rather have round balls of goat cheese, let the cheese soften, form it into balls, and return it to the fridge until it hardens enough to roll easily.

3. WRAP the finished log tightly in plastic and refrigerate until serving.
 
TIP: See if you can score some honey goat cheese logs (we get ours at Trader Vic’s). They’re a revelation.
 
 
MORE HOLIDAY CHEESE BALL IDEAS

[3] Goat cheese log from More Than Hungry.

[4] We love this Christmas tree cheese “ball.” Here’s the recipe from Betty Crocker.