Need ideas for ball shaped party foods!
December 13, 2013 2:59 PM Subscribe
My friend is having a Christmas party with a ball theme. Fancy clothes, sparkly decorations... and ball shaped foods. What should I make?
Assume no dietary restrictions, a budget of about $20 and basic cooking equipment. I'm open to making a large ball that people cut into, but smaller balls might be more party friendly.
Assume no dietary restrictions, a budget of about $20 and basic cooking equipment. I'm open to making a large ball that people cut into, but smaller balls might be more party friendly.
Response by poster: Damn, I swear I searched. Balls!
posted by youcancallmeal at 3:04 PM on December 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by youcancallmeal at 3:04 PM on December 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
Popcorn balls? I love this bacon bourbon caramel corn and it gets rave reviews, I wonder if one might be able to convince it to go spherical.
posted by Stacey at 3:13 PM on December 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Stacey at 3:13 PM on December 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
i don't know how easy this would be but gulab jamun.
OR æbleskiver with jam.
OR cherry tomatoes balled wrapped in basil leaves.
posted by mrmanvir at 3:37 PM on December 13, 2013
OR æbleskiver with jam.
OR cherry tomatoes balled wrapped in basil leaves.
posted by mrmanvir at 3:37 PM on December 13, 2013
Greg Nog's got it: Bourbon balls are pretty rad and easy to make .
posted by radioamy at 4:09 PM on December 13, 2013
posted by radioamy at 4:09 PM on December 13, 2013
Sauerkraut balls. They seem to be a regional thing, but they're bite-sized balls made (basically) of sauerkraut, cream cheese, and sausage (basically), rolled in bread crumbs and deep-fried. You do them ahead of time and reheat them in the oven before serving. They're amazing. Seriously, I've never fed them to anyone who's not super into them. If you're at all interested, memail me and I'll type out my family's recipe.
posted by MeghanC at 4:30 PM on December 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by MeghanC at 4:30 PM on December 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
MeghanC, as the erstwhile (and perhaps future?!) host of an annual Holiday Ball Swap, I think I speak for holiday ball enthusiasts internet-wide when I say GIVE US THE GOODS!
Also at this time of year, people lose their shit for Martha Stewart's holiday cheese balls. They're amazing.
posted by kickingthecrap at 5:48 PM on December 13, 2013
Also at this time of year, people lose their shit for Martha Stewart's holiday cheese balls. They're amazing.
posted by kickingthecrap at 5:48 PM on December 13, 2013
Once cooked, rice crispies treats are pretty easy to mold into a ball shape and super inexpensive. But I have an irrational love of rice crispies treats.
posted by Hopeful and Cynical at 6:00 PM on December 13, 2013
posted by Hopeful and Cynical at 6:00 PM on December 13, 2013
Scotch eggs.
posted by brujita at 6:01 PM on December 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by brujita at 6:01 PM on December 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
Peanut butter cheese ball. Oh yes, delicious flavor. Made one earlier for a party tomorrow night.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:11 PM on December 13, 2013
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:11 PM on December 13, 2013
Ball shaped food at Christmas? Mini Plum Puddings!
There are lots of different variations depending on how much effort you want to put in. At its simplest:
Buy fruit cake. Any kind of fruit cake, but darker will look better if you don't coat the whole thing in chocolate.
Crumble it up in bowl.
Add rum (or other alcohol of your choice. Or rum flavour. Or skip this step.)
Roll into balls balls balls.
Melt some milk chocolate (optional - it will look better, but IMO it ends up being too much chocolate for the amount of cake)
Dip balls into the melted chocolate, put on baking paper lined tray to cool.
Melt white chocolate.
Cut up some glace cherries, red and green. (Or other red/green lollies you can cut up to look like berries and leaves. I use red cherries and spearmint leaves. You can also buy edible and inedible holly decorations.)
Dip the top of the balls, in the white chocolate, decorate with the "holly" before the chocolate sets.
Enjoy!
posted by pianissimo at 8:14 PM on December 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
There are lots of different variations depending on how much effort you want to put in. At its simplest:
Buy fruit cake. Any kind of fruit cake, but darker will look better if you don't coat the whole thing in chocolate.
Crumble it up in bowl.
Add rum (or other alcohol of your choice. Or rum flavour. Or skip this step.)
Roll into balls balls balls.
Melt some milk chocolate (optional - it will look better, but IMO it ends up being too much chocolate for the amount of cake)
Dip balls into the melted chocolate, put on baking paper lined tray to cool.
Melt white chocolate.
Cut up some glace cherries, red and green. (Or other red/green lollies you can cut up to look like berries and leaves. I use red cherries and spearmint leaves. You can also buy edible and inedible holly decorations.)
Dip the top of the balls, in the white chocolate, decorate with the "holly" before the chocolate sets.
Enjoy!
posted by pianissimo at 8:14 PM on December 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
It is more of a Summer thing, but this mozzarella and cherry tomato appetizer fit the ball-shaped criteria:
posted by ainsley at 9:04 PM on December 13, 2013
posted by ainsley at 9:04 PM on December 13, 2013
YAY PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN SAUERKRAUT BALLS.
Seriously, these are the best things. That said, they're sort of a pain in the ass to do, because rolling out a hundred balls and then breading and frying them is a pain. Totally worth it, though. I recommend enlisting a friend and then drinking and singing drunkenly to things whilst rolling balls. Ballsing.
32 oz sauerkraut (buy a jar or bag, not the tinned kind. the tinned kind is an abomination)
1 lb bulk sausage (I like Bob Evans sage, my mother has recently moved to using sweet Italian. Both are good. I don't know that hot Italian would be great, but I'm sure someone swears by it.)
1/2 c minced onion
1/4 c bread crumbs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 c dried parsley, which sounds like it should be optional but I think is necessary to absorb some of the delicious sausage fat
2 t mustard
some garlic (like half a teaspoon of garlic powder? or two cloves of minced garlic, I guess? I just sprinkle it in.)
Pepper
Flour
Egg, beaten
Bread crumbs
More of those last three than you'd expect. Don't start this in the middle of a blizzard when you've only got two eggs in the house.
Brown sausage and add onions. Cook until the onions are soft and the sausage is all the way cooked. If you have a lot of grease, pour most of it off. Rinse the sauerkraut, then toss it into a colander to drain. While it's in the colander, take scissors and point them down into the sauerkraut, and then snip snip snip. You can also do this with a knife, if you want, but it's weirdly enjoyable to snip it up, and it's a task that you can assign to that one person who always wants to help but is a walking disaster. In a big bowl, combine all the ingredients save for the last three. Mix them really well--if you have a stand mixer, you can toss it all in there, and, as a bonus, the mixer will break up any big sausage chunks you have left.
Here, if you're an organised person, you'll take a break and leave the cream cheese goop rest for at least an hour. If you're me, you'll throw it into the freezer for fifteen minutes and figure that it's good enough, which is also fine. Form the mixture into small balls, maybe a teaspoon each. Drop them into the flour, then beaten egg, then bread crumbs.
If they're really soft--if you live in Australia and it's really hot, or you're visiting elderly people who keep the house at 84--let the balls firm up before you fry them. If you refrigerated the filling before making balls, you're probably fine. Heat fryer (or pot of oil on the stove, because I'm not fancy and don't have a damn deep fryer) to 350, or hot enough that things start putting off bubbles as soon as you put them into the oil. Fry the balls until they're golden brown. Drain on paper towelling.
Eat immediately, or freeze them in a single layer and dump them into a ziplock when they're frozen. To reheat, just put them on a cookie tray and pop them into the oven at 350 for maybe 20 minutes. If you're the sort of person who likes dipping things, they're good with a creamy horseradish dip or ranch.
HAPPY BALLSING.
posted by MeghanC at 10:23 PM on December 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
Seriously, these are the best things. That said, they're sort of a pain in the ass to do, because rolling out a hundred balls and then breading and frying them is a pain. Totally worth it, though. I recommend enlisting a friend and then drinking and singing drunkenly to things whilst rolling balls. Ballsing.
32 oz sauerkraut (buy a jar or bag, not the tinned kind. the tinned kind is an abomination)
1 lb bulk sausage (I like Bob Evans sage, my mother has recently moved to using sweet Italian. Both are good. I don't know that hot Italian would be great, but I'm sure someone swears by it.)
1/2 c minced onion
1/4 c bread crumbs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 c dried parsley, which sounds like it should be optional but I think is necessary to absorb some of the delicious sausage fat
2 t mustard
some garlic (like half a teaspoon of garlic powder? or two cloves of minced garlic, I guess? I just sprinkle it in.)
Pepper
Flour
Egg, beaten
Bread crumbs
More of those last three than you'd expect. Don't start this in the middle of a blizzard when you've only got two eggs in the house.
Brown sausage and add onions. Cook until the onions are soft and the sausage is all the way cooked. If you have a lot of grease, pour most of it off. Rinse the sauerkraut, then toss it into a colander to drain. While it's in the colander, take scissors and point them down into the sauerkraut, and then snip snip snip. You can also do this with a knife, if you want, but it's weirdly enjoyable to snip it up, and it's a task that you can assign to that one person who always wants to help but is a walking disaster. In a big bowl, combine all the ingredients save for the last three. Mix them really well--if you have a stand mixer, you can toss it all in there, and, as a bonus, the mixer will break up any big sausage chunks you have left.
Here, if you're an organised person, you'll take a break and leave the cream cheese goop rest for at least an hour. If you're me, you'll throw it into the freezer for fifteen minutes and figure that it's good enough, which is also fine. Form the mixture into small balls, maybe a teaspoon each. Drop them into the flour, then beaten egg, then bread crumbs.
If they're really soft--if you live in Australia and it's really hot, or you're visiting elderly people who keep the house at 84--let the balls firm up before you fry them. If you refrigerated the filling before making balls, you're probably fine. Heat fryer (or pot of oil on the stove, because I'm not fancy and don't have a damn deep fryer) to 350, or hot enough that things start putting off bubbles as soon as you put them into the oil. Fry the balls until they're golden brown. Drain on paper towelling.
Eat immediately, or freeze them in a single layer and dump them into a ziplock when they're frozen. To reheat, just put them on a cookie tray and pop them into the oven at 350 for maybe 20 minutes. If you're the sort of person who likes dipping things, they're good with a creamy horseradish dip or ranch.
HAPPY BALLSING.
posted by MeghanC at 10:23 PM on December 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
Sushi balls! It's sushi but easier to make, and looks and tastes delicious.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:22 AM on December 14, 2013
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:22 AM on December 14, 2013
Sausage cheese balls! The classic recipe is delicious as-is, but upping your game with different sausages and cheeses also makes for something wonderful.
posted by rhiannonstone at 2:21 PM on December 14, 2013
posted by rhiannonstone at 2:21 PM on December 14, 2013
Can't believe no one has suggested Rocky Mtn Oysters, Prairie Oysters, or Montana Tendergroins.
Another great dessert idea
posted by JABof72 at 12:05 PM on December 16, 2013
Another great dessert idea
posted by JABof72 at 12:05 PM on December 16, 2013
Forgot; these not only look cool, they're easy, and inexpensive.
Even cooler with quail eggs (found in any decent-sized Asian market)
posted by JABof72 at 12:16 PM on December 16, 2013
Even cooler with quail eggs (found in any decent-sized Asian market)
posted by JABof72 at 12:16 PM on December 16, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:03 PM on December 13, 2013