Cookie Dough Cheese Ball

We're going to start here with a visualization exercise.   Ready?  Let's go.  Picture a cheese ball.  You know the kind rolled in chopped pecans?  Full of yummy cheddar cheese or some other kind of cheese.  Surrounded on the plate by crackers.  Now, let's twist this a bit.  Picture the crackers morphing into animal crackers.  You cut into the cheese ball and there are little brown specks.  The cheese itself is kind of brown.  Hmmm, you say.  This doesn't look like any cheese ball I've ever seen.  Well, my friend, it isn't.  And, had I not been trying to get this yummy concoction out on the table at our friends party, I'd have realized I needed a photo.  But, no, I was gabbing away to Chris and fixing myself a nice glass of scotch and testing a deviled egg and NOT thinking about blogging.  So, I was a very bad blogger.  But, this is just too good not to share.  Now, here's what I wrote before heading to Columbus:

In our never-ending quest to have some new and different dishes at our holiday party, we try a lot of new dishes out.  Since we're not much for desserts, I was thrilled to find this right before Chris and Mark's party.  This is the second year we've attended their party and the 38th year of the party.  Can you imagine?  Keeping that kind of tradition going for 38 years?  Awesome.


Brandy's tried several recipes from Gooseberry Patch recently so when I saw their Quick and Easy Family Favorites cookbook on sale, I snagged it.  There are a bunch of recipes I'd like to try but this one is the one that really caught my eye.  It's so different.


What did we think?  Major YUM here.  I let a couple of the gals at Girls Night Out taste it last night.  Both of them licked every molecule off their spoons.  I think it's going to be a huge hit at the party tonight!


Cookie Dough Cheese Ball


Ingredients:
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1/4 c butter, softened
3 T dark brown sugar
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c mini chocolate morsels
1/2 c finely chopped pecans
animal crackers

Directions:

Whip the cream cheese and butter.  Whip in the brown sugar and powdered sugar.  Stir in the chocolate morsels.  Chill for several hours.  I did mine overnight.  Then, mold into a ball and roll in the finely chopped pecans.  Serve with animal crackers.