Chocolate chip cheese ball! Chocolate chip cheese ball!

Contrary to this blog's title, I do not normally feel the need to shout recipes at people. But sometimes, a recipe shouts at you first.

That is, like, so deep, man.

One of my friends always brought this chocolate chip cheese ball to my group of friends' wine and cheese parties in college. Though I had never seen it before she introduced it to us, I became so accustomed to it during my college years that I thought everyone else already knew about it.

... Until my husband and I hosted an engagement party in January, and man, did people go for this chocolate chip cheese ball. Not only did they rave about it, they congregated around it. "What's in this, crack?" they asked, while shoveling fistfuls of cookie and cream cheese into their mouths. (Well... yes. You got me. It is crack.) I can't tell you how many times I emailed the recipe to party attendees after the party. As people wrote on my Facebook page for the recipe, others would read their posts and also ask about it, intrigued.

Contrary to what I wrote in the paragraph above, the secret to this not-so-fancy dessert is not crack. (And to one of my other friends: It's not a cheddar cheese ball with chocolate chips stuck to it, either. Ha!) It's the combination of everything fattening and good that makes it so wonderful: butter, cream cheese, sugar, more sugar, vanilla, chocolate chips, and possibly pecans. My friend from college always served it solely with graham crackers, but I find the addition of vanilla wafers and chocolate wafer cookies adds a textural vehicle to the recipe.

Consider yourself warned: This stuff is addictive. (Hmm, maybe there is crack in it after all...)

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

Ingredients:
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 12 oz. package miniature semisweet chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
- Graham crackers, vanilla wafers, chocolate wafer cookies

Directions:

In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in confectioners' sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips, reserving a handful for garnish. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours. I've found chilling it overnight works best.

Shape chilled cream cheese mixture into a ball. Wrap with plastic, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Sprinkle the outside with chocolate chips and pecans (if using) before serving. Arrange in the center of a platter with rows of graham crackers (broken into eighths), vanilla wafers and chocolate wafer cookies around.