Baking with Katie: Copper Beech Balls

Katie? Who is Katie?  Katie is my rocking sister with some extreme kitchen creativity.  Since I am on mental brain fart for writing this week I asked her to share her secret, and wildly popular recipe for Copper Beech Balls.  Happy reading.  And even happier eating. 

Quite a few years ago, on a random afternoon, 3 college kids were hungry and bored. “What to do what to do…” “Let’s try some amazing concoction of food and see what we come up with!” So, this is the prodigal child of that afternoon with a few variations that later followed:

COPPER BEECH BALLS

(background: we lived in Copper Beech apartment complex so hence the most creative name)

Variation #1

1 tube jimmy dean maple sausage

1 box cream cheese

1 tube Pillsbury crescent rolls

Directions:

In a skillet, brown the sausage and drain.  Using a fork while the sausage is still warm, mix the cream cheese thoroughly.  Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and cover with the Pillsbury .  Place the balls onto a cookie sheet 1 inch apart and bake according to the crescent roll directions.

Makes somewhere between 12 and 36 balls depending on how big you make them and how many you eat before getting them to the serving platter.

Variation #2 (way less time consuming and personally I think it’s the most tasty)

Same ingredients as above plus 1 box of original Wheat Thins

Directions:

In a skillet, brown the sausage and drain.  Using a fork while the sausage is still warm, mix the cream cheese thoroughly.  Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray and place half of the crescent dough on it flattened out.  Mound the cream cheese and sausage mixture on top of the crescent dough and smooth over with a spatula.  Cover the mound with the second half of the dough and cut 2 slits in the top of the dough for ventilation.  Bake according to the crescent directions or until golden brown. 

Serve this as a “dip”.  Using a knife or a spreader, you can scoop and good chunk onto an original flavor wheat thin cracker. Delish!

Variation #3 (The healthier version of variation #2)

1 tube turkey maple sausage

1 tube low fat / non fat cream cheese

1 tube low fat / non fat crescent rolls

1 box low fat / non fat Triscuit crackers or original flavor Wheat Thins

Directions:

Follow the same directions as above

Can I get a YUM-YEA!?!