Friday, April 2, 2010

Mini Herb and Hazelnut Goat Cheese Balls

Mini Herb and Hazelnut Goat Cheese Balls

This fresh appetizer is great if you have a party with a lot of people. You can prepare the Goat Cheese Balls in advance and create a lot of variations, depending on the likings of your guests.
For this recipe, I used hazelnuts but at the end of this post, I'm sharing more ideas to garnish your cheese balls.

Serves 8
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: none
Difficulty: *

Ingredients:
- 1 log of herb & garlic goat cheese (or use a regular goat cheese and mix with 2 crushed garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon of herbes de provence - or savory)
- 10/15 hazelnuts

Prepare your herb and garlic cheese if you did not find one ready: mix the cheese, the herbs and the crushed garlic with a fork, until smooth.
Crash the hazelnuts and chop finely. Spread the hazelnut pieces on a flat baking sheet or plate.

For each cheese ball, take 1 big teaspoon of goat cheese. Form a ball with your hands and coat it in the hazelnut pieces. Proceed in batches and place the cheese balls on a plate.

Other ingredients to coat the cheese:
- freshly ground pepper
- spices: paprika, ground cinammon, ground cumin, ground coriander...
- any type of nuts, finely chopped: walnuts, brazilian nuts, pecan nuts...
- dried fruits, finely chopped: apricots, prunes, raisins, peaches, cranberries...
- seeds: flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds (white and black)...
and more!

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