Cream Cheese-and-Pecan Rolled Grapes

I wish that I could put into words just how good these are. An excellent combination of sweet and savory, pungent and fruity, juicy and crunchy, these cream cheese covered grapes have it all! This simple recipe from the recently released Southern Living Party Cookbook, A Modern Guide to Gathering by Elizabeth Heiskell (That I reviewed here.), is one that you are going to want to add to your repertoire of tasty starters/snacks/finger foods.

Now, I’m not gonna lie, they can be a bit messy to coat in the cheesy mixture, but once you get the hang of it, the process goes smoothly. I used a pair of kitchen gloves to keep my hands from warming up the cream cheese mixture and getting too gooey.  As each grape was coated, I dropped it into a shallow bowl with pecan mixture and they were super simple to coat and then roll into perfect little spheres. And because, once coated, they need chilling, you can make these as much as a day ahead. Perfect!

Cream Cheese-and-Pecan Rolled Grapes
From The Southern Living Party Cookbook

1/2 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
2 oz. blue cheese, crumbled (about 1/2 cup)
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 cups finely chopped toasted pecans
3 bacon slices, cooked and finely chopped
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 pound large seedless red grapes (I recommend Melissa’s Muscato  Grapes)

Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper. Beat the cream cheese, blue cheese, and 2 tablespoons of the heavy cream in a medium bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about one minute, adding the remaining 1 tablespoon heavy cream, 1 teaspoon at a time, if needed, to reach a creamy consistency.

Combine the pecans, bacon, and parsley in a shallow dish. Evenly coat the grapes with the cream cheese mixture, and roll in the pecan mixture. Place on the prepared baking sheet, and chill one hour.

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Another use for these delicious grapes is Muscato Red Grape Salad.

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