It’s hard to beat bacon on a stick, especially when goat cheese is involved and the stick is a pretzel. These easy bacon goat cheese pretzel pops are great for parties.
There are several recipes that I discovered in my early years of cooking on my own in college and a little later when I finally started my own blog that have stuck around, that’s how you know they are good ones. Unfortunately, back in the day Pinterest and hashtags did not exist so recipes I wanted to hold on to were either printed and filed away who knows where or saved as PDFs (a great idea until I got tired of sorting them all into folders). This recipe is one that I have had to scour the internet for more than once over the years, proving that my google skills are strong given that I only knew they were min cheese balls covered in bacon and mistakenly thought they were made with blue cheese instead of goat cheese.
Fun fact, I first tried this recipe from The Kitchn 8 years ago while making dinner with friends on NYE, just over 1 year after I started this blog of mine. Fast forward to the present and now I am in a cookbook club of which the Editor-in-Chief of The Kitchn is a member. A fact I was clueless about when I first met her (not that I could have known). I tried not to fall out of my chair one night when others were casually inquiring about recent articles on her “website” and I asked “which website?” to which she responded matter-of-factly “The Kitchn”. She even shared an article about one of our most recent cookbook club nights and invited everyone to join The Kitchn’s virtual cookbook club!
Three years ago: Weekly Meal Plan #29
Five years ago: Healthy Vegetarian Taco Salad
Six years ago: Mixed Berry Slab Pie
Seven years ago: Roasted Cherry Brownie Cheesecake
BACON GOAT CHEESE PRETZEL POPS
Makes 2 dozen
Ingredients:
4 oz. goat cheese, room temperature
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil, divided
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
6 slices of bacon, cooked crispy and finely chopped
24 small pretzel sticks
Green apple slices, for serving
Directions:
- In a medium bowl, beat together the goat cheese and cream cheese until smooth. Add 1 tablespoon of basil and black pepper, mixing until well distributed.
- With wet hands, form 1-inch balls and place on a parchment lined plate/baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, mix together the pecans, bacon, and remaining basil. Roll cheese balls in the bacon mixture, pressing with your fingers to help it stick. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- When ready, insert pretzel sticks* and serve on a platter along with some green apple slices.
* If the pretzels are added too soon they will become soggy.
Source: Adapted slightly from The Kitchn.