Turkey Cheese Ball
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble! This adorable turkey cheese ball will be the star of the pre-game table on Thanksgiving Day not only because he’s so cute but nom, nom he’s yummy too! Give him a try and have fun making Mr. Turkey.
You can make the cheese ball a couple of days ahead of time, allowing all those flavors to have a good chance to mix and mingle. You can even make his head ahead as well…we actually encourage you to do this ahead of time…it’s the most challenging part to bringing this gobbler to life.
Make ahead dishes are always a bonus when it comes to keeping your guests happy and the celebration moving. You’ll be happy you planned ahead and got this appetizer done early.
Ingredients
- 1 8oz package cream cheese, soften
- 1 8oz package cream cheese, soften
- 1 large can crushed pineapple
- 1/2 tsp. onion powder
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tbls finely chopped green pepper
- 3/4 Chopped pecans
Directions for Cheese Ball
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. You may want to use a mixer instead of doing it by hand. Form the cheese mixture into a ball and roll in pecans to coat the outsides. Wrap the cheese ball in plastic wrap and put in fridge to firm up at least 6 hours. It’s best to do this the day before you want t
To Make Mr. Turkey you will need
- 1 Peperoni stick for his neck
- 1 Package of Whoopers for his head
- Candy eyes – look in the cake decorating aisle at craft stores
- 1 Candy corn for his beak
- 1 Package of red fruit roll ups for his gobbler or wattle for you turkey experts
- Small amount of chocolate & white frosting for assembly
- Pretzel sticks for his feathers
Assembly of Turkey
- Put your frosting in the fridge to make it stiffen up a bit. This will help when it comes to getting the malted milk ball, eyes and gobbler to stick to your peperoni stick.
- Take your peperoni stick and cut it to the desired length you would like his neck to be. We made ours 5″ tall.
- Put a blob of frosting on one end of the peperoni stick. Put the Whooper on top of the frosting. Put this in the fridge to “set up” and harden.
- Put frosting on the back of the eyes and carefully stick them on the Whooper. You may have to add additional frosting with a tooth pick to get your eyes and candy corn to stick.
- Put frosting on one side of the candy corn and place the candy corn with the straight end up underneath the eyes. Again give this time to “set up.”
- Cut a small strip off the red fruit roll up and drape over the candy corn to create his gobbler.
- Once the cheese ball is firm, remove it from the fridge and add the assembled turkey head and pretzel sticks to create the tail feathers.
Life is Delicious