The charming French chef had placed the lollipops in a clear drinking glass, cheese side up, but I served them on some pretty paper at a recent dinner where I recreated the meal we made at the cooking class for A.J.’s birthday. It was roasted duck, potatoes au gratin and salad; she loved it. I used a small cookie scoop to shape the balls.
The toppings I used were: poppy seed, crushed almonds, chives and thyme, but the options are only limited by your imagination and what flavors you like. It looks prettier if you vary the colors of the toppings- crushed pistachios and finely chopped Craisins would look great for Christmas, and err on the side of smaller balls. You don’t want your balls too big! And don’t drop the ball! Enough of the corny puns and on with the recipe.
Make sure your goat cheese (Trader Joe’s has good goat cheese at reasonable prices) has just come out of the fridge, otherwise the cheese will be too soft to handle. You don’t want soft balls! And you definitely don’t want Schwety balls! Someone stop me.
Goat Cheese Lollipops
- 1 log of goat cheese
- Toppings (chopped nuts, dried fruit, chopped herbs or spices), set in a little bowl
- Lollipop sticks
Scoop a small ball of goat cheese with a spoon or cookie scoop. Form quickly into a ball. Roll into selected toppings and insert lollipop stick. Serve room temperature. Can be made ahead.
As Ina would say “How easy is that?”
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]]>This recipe actually calls for a little preparation (1 hour) and a cedar plank; it works great if you’re already planning on grilling something for dinner. Since I didn’t plan ahead and hadn’t soaked the said plank, I just served the log of goat cheese with the honey and pepper (make sure you use lots, otherwise it just looks like a sad log of goat cheese). I cracked my black peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have one, put them in a plastic bag and whack them with a kitchen mallet or rolling pin to crush.
Other alternatives to the honey and pepper goat cheese (and taking a page from Trader Joe’s) is to spread the goat cheese log with leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving, or a heated jelly (such as fig), or to cover it in ground spices (like thyme, rosemary, sage) of your liking. Any way you dress it up, adding a little festivity to your goat cheese doesn’t take much time and adds a lot to the presentation.
Honey-Pepper Grilled Goat Cheese
Prep: 1 hour Grill: 5 minutes
- 1 large cedar plank
- 1 (11 ounce) goat cheese log
- 2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
- 2 tablespoons honey
- Flatbread crackers, or water crackers or grilled French bread.
- Soak plank in water at least 1 hour. Roll goat cheese in pepper.
- Preheat grill to medium-high heat (350 to 400). Grill wood plank on one side, 4 to 5 minutes or until well marked. Turn plank over and top with goat cheese.
- Grill cheese, covered with grill lid, 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is hot and edges are slightly melted. Remove from grill and drizzle with honey. Serve immediately with crackers.
Serves 10.
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