Limoncello Cream Cheese Balls
It’s almost Christmas and most of my baking is in good homes now. I always love to spread sweet joy around. There is some left for us to enjoy. Growing up in an Italian home, dessert was not a part of meals. We normally enjoyed some fruit at the end of the meal and a slice of cake or cookies later on with our evening coffee. I like fruit after a meal to cleanse the palate and what is better than lemons. Limoncello Cream cheese Balls make it easy for me not to feel guilty eating sweets.
These little balls have the crunch from the almonds and the smoothness from the cream cheese. They are almost like truffles. The texture from the ground cookies gives them that extra level of flavour. These disappear quickly and will refresh your palate after all that food.
For us Christmas Eve involves many dishes made from fish. This year we are alone and it will be different. I am making calamari, breaded tilapia, garlic shrimp and lobster tails. For greens I am serving fried rapini and my multi layer salad ( that’s another blog) and stuffed zucchini. The star of the evening is our slow braised cabbage which is a Calabrese tradition and places my nonno Salvatore and nonna Emilia at my table. These little lemon bites bring nonno Ciccio and nonna Marietta, my Sicilian grandparents to the table with us too.
From our house to yours, may your table be full of your best Christmas memories as we move forward in health, peace, and happiness.
Another great and easy lemon recipe to end your meal https://recipesatmytable.com/mini-lemon-curd-tarts/
A great article on what foods cleanse the palate https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/foods-cleanse-palate-2261.html
Ingredients
- 8 oz block of cream cheese
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- Juice of half a lemon and its zest
- 3/4 cup ground almonds
- 3/4 cup ground cookies, I used a lemon one, but arrowroot or a plain cookie would suffice
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp limoncello (optional)
- pinch salt
- 1/2 cup flaked sweetened coconut.
Process
Put the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, limoncello liqueur, juice and zest of half a lemon into a bowl and beat until smooth.
Now add in the cookies and almonds and stir together.
Place the dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
Put the shredded coconut onto a plate.
Make small balls (use about 1 tsp) and roll into the coconut. Place on a baking tray and back into the freezer. This recipe made 50 balls.
Remove as needed, but they will disappear.
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