Pimento Cheese Bites

Pimento Cheese is a Southern thing.  Being that my Grandma was from Alabama – we enjoyed Pimento Cheese on many occasions.   My cousin Nona picked up the tradition of serving it when the family was together on the holidays.   I haven’t had it in many years.  So, this past Christmas I had a craving for it and decided to make it.  I found this cute idea on Pinterest to make it into individual bites with a Pretzel Stick in each.  I served them at a party and everyone loved them.  I’ve since made the recipe into other "forms" - one large cheese ball – and I’ve made it and just served in a dish without rolling it in the nuts, bacon and jalapeno.  Regardless of what “form” you decide to mold your Pimento Cheese into – I think you’ll enjoy it and be thrilled you tried it.  It’s Scrumptious!

Ingredients:

For the Pimento Cheese:

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated

1 (4-ounce) jar diced pimentos, drained

Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the Mini Cheese Ball Bites:

18 oz bacon, cooked until crisp and finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups diced)

1 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and finely chopped

1 to 2 jalapeños, minced (seeds & membranes removed)

Pretzel sticks

Directions

To make Pimento Cheese:

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, garlic salt, onion powder, and cayenne. Scrape bowl and mix in grated cheddar and diced pimentos until well combined. Season with salt and/or black pepper, to taste. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until firm.

To make Mini Cheese Ball Bites:

In a medium bowl, combine diced bacon, chopped pecans, and minced jalapeños. Using a spoon or a small cookie scoop, form heaping tablespoons of pimento cheese into balls. Roll each pimento cheese ball in the mixture of bacon, pecans, and jalapeños, pressing coating into cheese so that it adheres.

Refrigerate cheese balls until firm, and keep them chilled until ready to serve. Just before serving, skewer each cheese ball with a pretzel stick.

Notes

To toast pecans, spread out on a sheet pan and baked in a preheated 350°F oven until lightly toasted and fragrant, 7 to 10 minutes. Allow pecans to cool before finely chopping them.

As long as you remove the seeds and membranes from the jalapeños and very finely dice them, they shouldn't be too spicy. Use as much jalapeño as you wish, however, based on your personal preference.

If you'd like to use the Pimento Cheese recipe for purposes other than mini cheese balls, increase the mayonnaise to 1/2 cup. The reason the amount of mayo is slightly reduced for these cheese balls is to make sure the mixture isn't too soft to roll into balls.

You can make the cheese balls ahead of time, but don't insert the pretzels until just before serving or they will become soggy.

Click here for printable recipe.