Cheese Puffs (aka Goblin Eyeballs!)

Cheese puffs are great for appetizers, game day or after school snacks

It’s the second-most wonderful time of the year! Any other Halloween lovers out there? I have always loved Halloween. I remember being a kid and the excitement over the costume parades at school, watching The Great Pumpkin (back in the day when you had to wait for a commercial to go to the bathroom!), and trick-or-treating in the freezing cold. (I lived in Nebraska as a kid…once we already had snow on the ground.) One year, my mom actually took us to the drug store and let us pick out costumes. This was well before Spirit Halloween was a thing. Most of our costumes came from whatever was laying around the house. It was a big deal to actually pick out a costume at the store. Mine looked something like this:

Yeah, they were cheap, they were made out of flimsy plastic, the masks were really hot and uncomfortable and the string always broke because you spent half the night pushing the mask on top of your head, but it was a big deal when your mom bought one for you. Hey, it was the 70’s.

Halloween has since become big business. My neighborhood has a huge haunted trail we walk through every year. This year, my whole family is coming over, and I’m laying out a whole Halloween-themed spread.

One of things I’m serving is these cheese puffs (aka, goblin eyeballs!). I love them because they’re easy to make ahead of time (they’ll keep frozen either baked or unbaked) and anything with cheese in it is a winner in my book!

Cheese Puffs

5 from 5 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Servings 24

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• ½ cup unsalted butter softened
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons milk
• pimento-stuffed olives, halved (optional)

Instructions

 

• In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together the cheese and the butter. Add in the flour, garlic, onion powder, paprika, salt and baking powder and pulse until the mixture looks like wet sand. Drizzle the milk over the top and pulse until a rough dough is formed, about five or six pulses. (Alternatively, work the mixture together in a large bowl until it comes together and feels similar to a pie crust.)
• Form mixture into one-inch balls. (If using, place half a stuffed olive into the center of each ball). Place balls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment. Refrigerate for one hour.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake puffs for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

** To make ahead, place unbaked puffs onto cookie sheet and freeze until firm. Store in freezer bags. To bake, defrost on counter for about 10 minutes and bake as directed.