Brynn's Olive Cheese Balls

Brynn’s Olive Cheese Balls

I’m pretty sure these treats were created in the 1950’s. I have no data to support that, it’s just it feels like the sort of thing you’d have in the fifties. I can imagine a plate of these sitting next to a wiggling Jell-O mold, and Ritz crackers sprayed with cheese product.

Don’t be mislead, though. These balls are delicious. They’re crispy, salty, cheesy, with that bite of the olive.

Plus, you’ll have a great time rolling these balls around your palm.

THE RECIPE

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (basically a bag if you buy the pre-shredded stuff)

1 cup all purpose flour

1/8-teaspoon onion powder

1/8-teaspoon garlic powder

½ cup melted butter

A bunch of green olives with pimento

Mix everything together (except the olives). It’ll form a kind of clumpy dough. Take about a tablespoon of the dough, flatten it in your hand and then place a shiny green olive at its center. Then you pinch the dough around the olive.

Now for the fun part. Roll that ball in the palms of your hands. Make it nice and round. Your ball will be slightly misshapen, but that’s okay. A slightly misshapen ball tastes just fine. If you’re really good, you can shape two balls at once! I’ve never been able to do that. I just don’t have the focus.

Once you have all the balls made, refrigerate for about an hour. If you don’t, you won’t have balls. You’ll have bare-naked olives with a sad party dress of cheese sloughed off.

Heat oven to 400. Back for 15-20 minutes, until there’s a slight browning. I find it’s best to taste test at this point for quality control, and also to make sure the dough isn’t gooey. It should be firm-ish on the outside but soft on the inside.

There you go! Olive Ball BITES! Perfect for that retro party. Serve with martinis and pineapple and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon, a cheese ball, marinated mozzarella on sticks and…I could on and on.