Cheese truffles

Cheese truffles – feta cheese and toasted walnuts, flavored with garlic and caraway, and rolled into delicious, festive-looking, cheesy bites, perfect to serve for the holidays.

Today’s post will be short and sweet, as all posts around this time of year tend to be.  With so many things still left to do, I am feeling completely pressed for time.  But before I get lost in chores and last minute Christmas shopping, I need to leave you with this recipe, because it just screams “Christmas” to me.  These cute little cheese truffles are the perfect holiday appetizer.  They will surely decorate my Christmas table.  Easy, and fun to make, they are also delicious, served with crackers on the side.

You can get creative and play with different coatings (topppings), and include the kids in this activity too.  Kinda like making cookies, only savory ones.  Try sesame seeds, poppy seeds, ground walnuts or other nuts, finely chopped fresh herbs like dill, or parsley, spices like paprika, smoked paprika… – you get the idea.  Finally, the rosemary sprigs are a great way to emphasize the Christmas theme.

It’s a simple idea – mix feta cheese with cream cheese and sour cream, add a bunch of toasted ground walnuts, and flavor with garlic and caraway.  You can make this as a spread too.  I love feta, and I’m used to its strong, salty taste, but for some it may be too powerful.  To tame the flavor,  you can do one of two things.  Either soak the feta in plain water for a few hours, to draw the salt out.  Or, add more cream cheese to the mix.

Enjoy with a glass of wine!

Happy holidays, my friends!

Here are a few more ideas for festive-looking appetizers, you can try:

Purple potato bites with horseradish creme fraiche and caviar
Pickled quail eggs with horseradish mayo and furikake
Steak bites with blue cheese butter
Crab deviled eggs

Print

Cheese truffles

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

Cheese truffles - feta cheese and toasted walnuts, flavored with garlic and caraway, and rolled into delicious, festive-looking, cheesy bites, perfect to serve for the holidays.

Course: Appetizer

Servings: 24 truffles

Calories: 46 kcal

Author: Viktoria

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup toasted ground walnuts, divided
• 150 g feta cheese
• 4 Tbs sour cream, or creme fraiche
• 4 Tbs cream cheese
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1/2 tsp ground caraway seeds
• Optional toppings: ground walnuts or other nuts, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, chopped dill
• Rosemary sprigs for decoration

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F, and toast the walnuts for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool completely.

2. Pulse the walnuts in a food processor, or nut mill, until finely ground.  Separate 1/2 cup to use for topping.

3. Mash the feta cheese with a fork, and add the sour cream, cream cheese, ground caraway, garlic and 1 cup ground walnuts. Mix well, until fully combined.  Taste, and adjust the flavors if needed.  Leave the mix in the fridge for 30 minutes if it gets too soft.

4. Form bite-size balls, and roll into sweet (smoked) paprika, ground walnuts, chopped dill,  sesame seeds, or other toppings.  Insert a rosemary sprig into each ball.  Chill in the fridge before serving.