Name: White Chocolate Cranberry Orange Cheese Ball
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 135 min
Ingredients: 16 ounces cream cheese (softened); 2 tablespoons orange zest (about 1 orange); 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; 1 tablespoon vanilla extract; 1 cup dried cranberries (divided); 1 cup white chocolate chips (or roughly chopped or shaved white chocolate)

Bring something fun to the table with this sweet cheese ball, featuring orange, cranberry, and white chocolate for a flavor combo everyone will love. Chef Cayt recently made this recipe on a local news channel, and everyone there loved it, so we have a feeling that you and your friends and family will too! Bring it to a potluck, serve it at a party, or treat yourself to something delicious. It can also make a great homemade gift that you can share with neighbors and friends for them to enjoy around the holidays.

For more cheesy appetizers, try our Homemade Party Cheese Ball or our Hot Honey Pistachio Baked Brie.

Why Our Recipe

This sweet variety of cheese ball is a fun and festive way to switch things up.
Classic flavor combination of cranberry and orange is perfect for fall and winter.
Serve with shortbread cookies, Nilla wafer cookies, or graham crackers.

A hand holding a cracker while spreading white chocolate cranberry orange cheese ball onto it with a knife.

We absolutely love getting to snack on cheese balls at parties or during the holidays with friends and family. There are so many flavor combinations, and there are so many things that you can eat them with too. We just know that you and your loved ones will love eating this sweet and flavorful cheese ball at your next get-together!

Ingredient Notes

An overhead view of the measured ingredients needed to make a white chocolate cranberry orange cheese ball.

Cream cheese: This is the main ingredient for the cheese ball. It will mix best if it’s softened.
Orange zest: You definitely do not want to skip the orange zest in this recipe! A little goes a long way, but it brings so much flavor that really makes this recipe what it is.
Dried cranberries: If you really like chunky cranberries, you can leave these whole, but we like to chop them up a little more to help them spread more evenly throughout the cheese ball.
White chocolate: You can use white chocolate chips or you can get a bar of white chocolate and chop or grate it, depending on your preference. You can make the white chocolate as finely chopped or as chunky as you want.

Dipper Ideas

There are so many different things that would go great with this cheese ball, so feel free to experiment! Some of our favorite options are shortbread cookies, Nilla wafer cookies, apple slices, madeleines, or croissants.

Shaping the Cheese Ball

Using plastic wrap to shape the cheese ball makes it a lot easier and a lot less messy, but you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. If you’d rather shape it into a log rather than a ball, that’s also a great option too. Just make sure that you refrigerate the cheese ball for at least 2 hours before serving it to make sure that it keeps its shape.

A graham cracker scooping out part of a white chocolate cranberry orange cheese ball.

Make Ahead Instructions

Cheese balls are a great appetizer to make ahead of time. You can mix everything together and shape it, then cover it in plastic wrap according to the recipe instructions. Prepare the cheese ball up to 2 days in advance and keep wrapped in plastic in the fridge until ready to serve.