Peanut Butter Cheese Ball

Move over classic cheese ball and make room for peanut butter and chocolate chips! This fabulous party snack looks stunning, tastes divine, and is perfect as a seasonal holiday recipe.

Great to serve with pretzels, cookies, or even cut apple slices, this peanut butter cheese ball recipe is a potluck favorite.

Why you should make a Cheese Ball

A Fancy Dip – Cheeseballs are simply fancy looking dips. Unlike a simple peanut butter apple dip in a bowl or a chocolate chip dip that piles up high, peanut butter cheeseball dip has a gorgeous display and looks fancy.

Fun Variations – The peanut butter cream cheese base makes this recipe simple to turn into Reese’s Peanut Butter Ball. Use Reese’s special peanut butter and add crushed peanut butter cups over mini chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• Cream cheese – To work well with cream cheese, it should be softened before the recipe. Open up the box and foil and let it sit on the counter for 15-20 minutes before starting.
• Butter – Same as cream cheese, it needs to be softened (but not melted!!).
• Creamy peanut butter – We do not recommend crunchy peanut butter in a traditional classic cheeseball.
• Vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar
• Chocolate chips – See the list below for other suggestions, other than mini chocolate chips, to decorate the outer layer of a cheeseball.

How to make a Peanut Butter Cheese Ball

1. Add cream cheese, 1 cup peanut butter, butter, and vanilla to a mixing bowl and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. An electric mixture or stand mixer should work fine if the cream cheese and butter are softened. Use a spatula to remove the excess mix from beaters as needed.
2. Add powdered sugar and beat until combined. Fold in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.
3. Shape the peanut butter mixture into a ball and place it onto a piece of plastic wrap. Wrap into a ball and secure tightly. Refrigerate for four hours or overnight.
4. Place mini chocolate chips in a thick but single layer on a plate.

1. Remove the plastic wrap and press the cheeseball into the chips. Add more chocolate chips to the plate and flip the cheeseball over and press chocolate chips into all sides of the ball.
2. Place cheeseball on a serving plate.
3. Add two tablespoons of peanut butter to a resealable sandwich bag but do not seal—microwave at 50% power for 15 seconds.
4. Knead and, if necessary, return to the microwave for another heat cycle until peanut butter is soft and can be drizzled. Seal the bag, snip the tip, and drizzle peanut butter over the cheeseball.
5. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
6. Let any refrigerated cheeseball stand 15-20 minutes at room temperature to soften before serving.

Decorating Peanut Butter Cheeseball

Traditionally, as we did in the chocolate chip cheese ball recipe, we use mini chocolate chips and a drizzle of melted peanut butter. These chocolate chips are also used to decorate the plate in addition to the peanut butter ball.

You can also use other chips like peanut butter chips or white chocolate chips to vary color and flavor. Lastly, try honey peanuts, crushed cashews, or go with smashed peanut butter cups or graham cracker crumbs as the fancy outer layer. If you have extra ingredients, make sure to try buckeye balls too!

Serve Creamy Peanut Butter Ball With

• Pretzels
• Graham crackers
• Nilla wafers
• Celery
• Mini Carrots
• Apple Slices
• Teddy Grahams