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smoky cheese eyeballs with mist

Smokey Cheese Ball or Eyeballs

A slightly smoky and spicy cheese ball is perfect for any occasion, but if you make eyeballs, they are fantastic for Halloween!
Course Appetizer, Brunch, Entertaining
Cuisine American
Keyword almonds, cheddar cheese, cheeseball, comté
Prep Time 10 minutes
chilling 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
  • 6 oz good cheddar cheese grated
  • 6 oz Comté or Gruyere, grated
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
  • 1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke
  • 2 teaspoons chipotle tabasco
  • ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
  • ¼ teaspoon white pepper
  • 2 tablespoons Worchester sauce
  • 2 green onions thinly sliced about ½ cup
  • 1 cup lightly toasted sliced almonds if making eyeballs or pecans
  • 3 tablespoons black sesame seeds if making the eyeballs

Crackers for serving.

Instructions

  1. In a food processor or mixer, using the paddle attachment, blend the cream cheese with the grated cheddar and Comté. Blend very well until the cheeses have become very smooth and homogeneous. This will take several minutes, if you are using a mixer it will take even longer (about 6-8 minutes)
  2. Add the remaining ingredients and blend well for a minute or two.
  3. Have 1 or (2 if making the eyeballs) pieces of plastic wrap spread out onto a counter
  4. Scoop out the mixture onto the center of the plastic wrap. If you are making the eyeballs divide the mixture evenly onto the center of 2 pieces. The mixture will be very soft.
  5. Pull up the plastic wrap to make a package sealing it in. It will be too soft to form a ball at this stage. Just make sure it is all sealed. Place it or them onto a plate or tray and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
  6. Take the wrapped shapes from the fridge and using your hands with the plastic still wrapped around the shapes, mold them into a ball. It may take a bit, and the mixture will moving around. You can unwrap the balls and rewrap them as needed but keep the plastic between you and the mixture to be neater.
  7. Let the balls chill until set again for a few minutes before covering them in nuts. The balls can be frozen for 6 months at this point before covering them in nuts.
  8. If you are just making a cheeseball roll the ball in the nuts using a bowl or plate, pressing the ball into the nuts to cover the ball entirely in the chopped nuts.
  9. To make the eyeballs.
  10. Press the sliced almonds in an overlapping pattern leaving a round section for the eye. Using a piece of paper and some scissors, cut out of a circle smaller than the eye-opening, place the piece of paper over the eye area and sprinkle the black sesame seeds to make the pupal of the eye. Repeat with the second eye.
  11. Serve with your favorite crackers.

Recipe Notes

If you have access to some dry ice, I put a glass behind the eyeballs with some warm water and a piece of dry ice to make some mist.