Holiday Cheeseball

This is my favorite cheeseball to have around the holidays.  It's made with white cheddar, studded with dried cranberries and scallions, and rolled in toasted pecans.  The recipe below is for a crowd and makes up to 3 large or 60 small cheeseballs - it can easily be scaled to a smaller size though.  Pictured with Mushroom Tartlets and Honey Sriracha Meatballs.

Holiday Cheeseball

Ingredients

• 24 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 24 oz. white cheddar, shredded
• 3 cups dried cranberries
• 1 1/2 cups scallions, chopped
• 3/4 cup parsley, chopped
• 3 cups toasted pecans, chopped
• 60 pretzel sticks or lollipop sticks, optional

Makes approx. 60 mini cheeseballs or 3 regular cheeseballs

Beat  1/3 cream cheese with a paddle attachment until smooth; gradually add in 1/3 of each: cheddar, cranberries, scallions, and parsley scraping the sides of the bowl often.  Repeat process 1/3 at at time with remaining ingredients.
Shape cheese mixture into at least 60 balls, rolling in your palms.  Roll each cheeseball in toasted pecans and refrigerate for a several hours to harden up.  Using either a pretzel stick or lollipop stock, skewer each cheeseball so they resemble lollipops in shape, if not appearance.