Nutty Cheese Balls

We had a really lovely evening a couple of week's ago with some friends (outside and socially distanced of course) and alongside all the wine, Irene served these delicious little cheese balls. They are really yummy and very easy. You can make them with any soft cheese, any filling and any nuts. Because all I had in the fridge was a little soft goats cheese and an even smaller piece of Brie, that’s what I used. The fillings were quince jam in some and some small pieces of fresh fig in others. Irene used halved grapes. For the nutty coverings I used chopped hazelnuts, walnuts and chopped un-blanched almonds. A great little canapé for using up left overs.

Ingredients for 10

50g Soft cheese: choose from goats, Brie, blue etc (check out vegetarian cheeses on Tips page)

Fillings: choose from quince jam, figs, grapes, dried apricots

20g Nuts: choose from almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pistachio

Optional: runny honey or truffle honey (mine was from thetruffle.co.uk)

Method

Cut rind off the cheese, if there is any. Cut small pieces (approx 5g each).

Roll the cheese pieces into small balls.

Cut the fillings into approx 1cm square pieces.

Push the filling into the cheese balls and roll again to neaten up and cover the filling as much as possible.

Chop the nuts; a sharp knife is the best way to do this to avoid the nuts being too fine and dusty in parts, but a food processor is a much quicker option.

Roll the cheese balls in the nuts. Store in the fridge until needed.

Serve alone or with a small dish of runny honey or even more delicious, truffle honey. They will keep several hours in the fridge.