Mini Cheese Balls | My Baking Addiction

Mini cheese balls made with ranch seasoning, sharp cheddar cheese, green onions and bacon. These adorable little bites are perfect for entertaining or snacking! 

Any long-time MBA readers will know that I love anything mini.

Mini pumpkin pies? Mini cheesecakes? Mini fruit tarts? I want them all.

And I love a good cheese ball recipe. So you can probably guess that combining these two loves into mini cheese balls? Yeah, they’re one of my favorite things.

The first time I made mini cheese balls was after visiting my friend Emily and spying some she had made. They were so cute that I had to come right home and whip up my own version.

These little cuties are perfect for everything from a fancy dinner party to a game-day spread to a New Year’s Eve gathering to a movie night in with your family or friends. I mean, there’s cheese, so can you really go wrong?

How to make these mini cheese balls

This mini cheese ball recipe features sharp cheddar cheese, ranch mix, bacon, and green onions for tons of flavor. After all, it’s hard to beat that bacon-ranch combo, whether it’s in a cheese ball or bacon ranch pasta salad.

Not a fan of bacon and ranch? Head down to “recipe variations” for some more flavor ideas for these mini cheese balls!

Ingredients you’ll need

To make these mini cheese balls, you will need:

• 2 (8-ounce) packages softened cream cheese
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (1-ounce) packet dry ranch seasoning mix OR 2 tablespoons homemade ranch seasoning mix
• 2 cups finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 3 thinly sliced green onions
• ½ cup cooked and crumbled bacon (about 8 slices)
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans

You definitely want the cream cheese to be softened to room temperature before you attempt to mix the ingredients. If you forget to set it out ahead of time, check out my post on how to soften cream cheese quickly.

I almost always have a jar of homemade ranch seasoning, but you can absolutely use a packet of store-bought ranch mix instead. 

Can I tell you a secret? I usually buy crumbled bacon bits when I’m making these cheese balls instead of cooking up slices of bacon and crumbling it myself. If you’re going to cook it yourself, you’ll need around 8 slices.

Making these cheese balls

To make the cheese ball mixture, toss everything except for the pecans in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix until the ingredients are well combined.

Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour. This will make it easier to scoop the mini cheese balls.

Use a small (1 tablespoon) cookie scoop to portion out the cheese balls. Roll each portion into a ball and roll them in the chopped pecans to evenly coat them.

From here, you can serve the cheese balls right away. But I think they taste better when they’ve had some time to let the flavors meld a bit more, so I like to cover and refrigerate them for another few hours before enjoying.

Serve these little beauties with your favorite store-bought or homemade crackers as part of an appetizer spread at your next party and watch them disappear in no time! 

Cheese ball storage

Store the mini cheese balls in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

I do not recommend freezing these cheese balls. Cream cheese has a tendency to split or get grainy after thawing, and no one wants weird textures in their cheese balls!

Recipe variations

We love this recipe as written, but there are tons of ways you can change things up:

• Swap the cheddar cheese for another type of shredded cheese, such as gouda, monterey jack, or even pepper jack.
• Instead of using classic ranch seasoning, try using a spicy ranch mix and add in a few dashes of hot sauce for a bit of a kick.
• Not a fan of pecans or allergic to nuts? Try rolling the cheese balls in crushed pretzels instead!

And if you’re not a fan of the bacon-ranch combination, use the base of my classic cheese ball or cranberry pecan goat cheese ball instead. Make the cheese ball bases as written, chill for an hour, and then portion into mini balls as described in this recipe.