Quick, easy, and totally delicious, these Mini Candied Pecan Cranberry Goat Cheese Balls make a tasty party appetizer for fancy yet fuss-free entertaining! Ready in 15 minutes.
My arsenal of goat cheese recipes is basically never-ending.
It started with a super simple Cranberry Goat Cheese Log (one of my *favorite* uses for craisins and leftover cranberry sauce) and quickly progressed into me stuffing goat cheese into #alltheveggies
I make use of greenhouse grown Campari tomatoes to make goat cheese stuffed tomatoes so I can enjoy them year round and love serving up balsamic drizzled goat cheese stuffed mushrooms as a fun holiday appetizer.
I whipped up these little goat cheese balls for a party and they vanished SO super fast. They look fancy and festive but are incredibly easy to make!
grab some goat cheese!
These mini goat cheese balls are so totally versatile (and oh so tasty!) that you can make them a million different ways.
I rolled mine in quick-candied pecans, parsley, and cranberries but you could also make these with any nuts you have on hand. Plain pecans work great too if you’re in a time crunch and don’t want to make/use candied pecans.
Rave reviews
★★★★★ “Absolutely delicious! I adore goats cheese and this was a total treat. I’ll be impressing friends and family with this new addition to our Christmas grazing board!” – Louise
★★★★★ “A festive hit!!! Great flavours and colors for Christmas. These came together sooo easily but they look fancy. Fantastic crowd pleaser!” – Marlene
play around with toppings!
Walnuts, pistachios, almonds, and macadamia nuts would be equally awesome options to try.
Cranberries could be swapped for apricots (a la this awesome recipe) or dried cherries, and you can even use one of the many flavored goat cheeses out there to amp things up even further.
I’m super partial to using honey goat cheese for my recipes and most grocery stores even have fig, balsamic, and, herbed goat cheese varieties. I’m a sucker for trying new things, especially when goat cheese is involved.
Mini Candied Pecan Cranberry Goat Cheese Balls
These are fantastic on crackers and crostini and such an easy appetizer. They’re also a fantastic addition to a cheese board or charcuterie board!
I typically make each 8 ounce log of goat cheese into 8 (1 oz) servings but you can make them even smaller and you’ll end up with 16 mini goat cheese balls. Simply chop up some extra toppings to roll them in as you’ll need a little bit more to cover the extra balls.
As always, this rockin’ recipe is easily doubled or tripled to serve a crowd too. I can’t wait for you to try them!
Ready to make these festive cranberry pecan goat cheese balls?! Here’s the recipe:
Mini Candied Pecan Cranberry Goat Cheese Balls
Ingredients
- 8 oz honey goat cheese (regular works too; honeyed is my fav!)
- ½ cup pecans
- ½ TBSP unsalted butter
- 2 TBSP brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/4-1/2 cup dried cranberries
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1 TBSP fresh chopped parsley
Instructions
- Remove goat cheese from wrapper and cut into 8-10 discs. Set aside.
- Heat a small pan to medium heat and melt your butter.
- Once butter starts to bubble, add your pecans, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. Using salted butter? Skip the salt or season to taste.
- Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent sugar from burning, and pour over a large sheet of parchment paper in a thin layer. Allow to cool for several minutes until the candy coating hardens.
- Fold the parchment paper in half, trapping the cooled pecans, and crush with hard object of choice (anything from a kitchen mallet to a wine bottle works!) and then roughly chop with a knife until minced.
- Finely chop cranberries and add to the pecans.
- Combine pecans, cranberries, and parsley on a plate or cutting board. Mix well.
- Take a goat cheese disc and press into the pecan coating on each side, then roll into a ball. Coat again as needed by rolling the completed ball in the mixture once more and transferring to a cheese board or appetizer plate. Repeat for each disc until you have a party-perfect plate of goat cheese balls. Dive in with your choice of crackers/fruit/veggies.
Notes
Nutrition
They’re also *amazing* with a little drizzle of honey on top.
hAVE A LITTLE LEFT OVER?
These mini cranberry goat cheese balls make an excellent spread (even more awesome if you mix it with some leftover cranberry sauce) and is great on breakfast favorites like bagels and toast.
It’s also fantastic as a sandwich spread for the most epic leftover turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving.
I love it spread on a buttery croissant piled high with cucumber, sprouts, and romaine. DELICIOUS!
If you get a chance to try these sweet and savory Mini Candied Pecan Cranberry Goat Cheese Balls at your next party, let me know!
You can leave me a comment here (LOVE checking those daily!) or tag @PEASandCRAYONS on Instagram so I can happy dance over your goat cheese ball creations. I can’t wait to see what you whip up!
Questions & Reviews
A festive hit!!! Great flavours and colors for Christmas. These came together sooo easily but they look fancy. Fantastic crowd pleaser! Perfect for entertaining. Made ahead and they kept perfectly, too.
Yay! So so happy to hear it, Marlene! I just made them again last week and love them so!
This looks perfect. I appreciate the swap out. Since goat cheese may be a bit speedy for a large party. Can I do a cream cheese and goat cheese mix?
Oops. Meant spendy. Sorry 🥹
You can absolutely do a combination of the two! I’ve done this before as well. I stick with full-fat cream cheese because the low-fat and fat free kind can be quite runny.
Wo Derek g what I should serve with the goat cheese balls
I like to serve them with an assortment of crackers and crostini and usually have them as part of a yummy cheese board and/or veggie tray. Last time we served them alongside a small veggie board and with some French bread slices and baked brie. They’re a fun appetizer for sure!
Jenn, these sound really good. For myself I’d make them exactly as written. I have a relative that does not like goat cheese & detects it even when not told it’s being used. Is there any other cheese that would also work for this recipe?
Hi Carolyn! You 100% can make little cream cheese based cheeseballs for the relative who does not like goat cheese and make the goat cheese balls for everyone else – it’s so easy to make some of each!
Jenn, thanks for your great reply suggesting to make it both ways. For the cream cheese balls, would you add honey? If so, can you suggest how much?
For the honey I think it would depend on how many of the cream cheese balls you’d like to make. I would start with 1/4 tsp per ball and you can always allow guests the option to drizzle honey over them to taste. Another way to jazz up the plain cream cheese would be to make a little extra of the topping that you roll the balls in and actually fold some into the cream cheese before rolling into balls.
Jenn, Thank You for all your suggestions. You are always so helpful!
Absolutely outstanding dish!! A must for a charcuterie board that will enhance the flavors a thousand fold!!
So stoked you enjoyed them!
Absolutely delicious! I adore goats cheese and this was a total treat. I’ll be impressing friends and family with this new addition to our Christmas grazing board!
Wow! So yummy. And I love the idea of personal sized cheese balls instead of everyone digging into the same large cheeseball served with appetizers. Perfect flavor, Great for Thanksgiving OR Christmas.
Can I make these with out the pecans? Any subs for the recipe. I have a guest that’s allergic to nuts.
Absolutely, Farid! They’ll lose their texture and some of the flavor but that can be amped up in other ways. If you’re making these for a party I suggest a trial run with a few different swaps/changes to see what you like best. Try swirling some cranberry sauce and spices into the goat cheese before rolling it up for a fantastic flavor boost! You could also try some with crushed pretzel for texture maybe? Just test if beforehand so you know you for sure love it.
Absolutely delicious! I couldn’t find the recipe after buying the ingredients so I made it from memory. In doing so, I forgot to candy the pecans but it was still wonderful. I’m sure it’s even better with the sweetness of the candied pecans. I can’t wait to see what the addition does for the recipe.
Hello, I’ve been eyeballing and drooling over these beauties for too long now. I’m going to be making these for a baby shower next weekend. Wondering if i could do half cream cheese and half goat cheese for the mixture since I’ll need to make at least 35 of these. Thanks!
Hi Mila! Half cream cheese and half goat cheese should work marvelous!
The flavors in the recipe are exploding! Love it, perfect for a app!
I’m gonna make this for the holiday. My son loves pecans – tysm
Absolutely love all these flavors! Plus mini cheese balls are my favorite!
The best! Thanks Taylor!
Oh my goodness! Yum! I can’t wait to take these to all of my holiday parties! They are delicious and will be the hit of the parties!
So glad you’re loving the recipe Kalee – thanks!
Can’t do goat cheese and was wondering if anyone has subbed blue cheese or another cheese and how it was. Thanks
Hey CR! Cream cheese makes a fantastic swap here! The other cheeses won’t hold up in ball form and blue cheese will be crazy strong and kind of a punch to the tastebuds, lol. I’d use cream cheese and, if you’d like a second cheese here, some grated white cheddar mixed into it with a hand blender. I’ve also done it with cranberry sauce mixed in for my Holiday Cranberry Walnut Cheeseball and loved the results. Hope this helps! xo
looks yummy! how far in advance can you make these? Can you freeze> >??
Hi KJ! These won’t freeze and thaw very well because of the ingredients but you can make them the balls a day or two before and simply leave the nuts and cranberry chopped up in baggies so before you need them you can just roll and go! This way the texture of the nuts is still perfecto paired with the creamy goat cheese and cranberries.
Anything with goat cheese is my favorite so I had to try this recipe right away! I made them into celery boats but followed the recipe exactly for the mix, SO GOOD!!
The celery boats are brilliant! Thanks Dana!
I’ve got to get my hands on honeyed goat cheese for the next time I make cheese balls…sounds like it would take these crowd-favorites over the top!
Oh for sure! Hope you get a chance to try it soon Alyssa – thanks!
Jenn, can I freeze the cranberry pecan balls or will the goat cheese get funny
Hey Colleen! I think the goat cheese will get wonky but they’ll keep in the fridge for up to four days!
Oh boy ! Pinning for holidays. Thank you for sharing this !
I just started trying out goat cheese since I’m having trouble with regular dairy. These sound amazing!!