Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball with M&M’s: The inside of this easy, no bake dessert cheese ball tastes like peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough and the outside is covered in colorful M&M’s!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Oh my word! This no bake chocolate chip cream cheese dessert is pretty much a mash-up of some of my favorite things: cheesecake, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and M&Ms!
This may be shaped like a ball, but it has the same wonderful dippability as those sweet dessert dips (such as this fruit dip with marshmallow fluff) that everyone loves! So if you love chocolate chip dip or cheesecake dip, then this dessert is going to be your favorite sweet treat!
This sweet dessert cheese ball can be prepped the day before your event. So, this is a time-saving, no fail recipe for those special occasions like a birthday party, baby shower or holiday party.
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Ingredients
With simple ingredients that can be found at your local grocery store (and most likely, your pantry!) this chocolate chip cheeseball recipe is a must make!
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened at room temperature
- 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup M&M’s for coating
See the printable recipe card below for ingredients, instructions, nutrition information and detailed recipe notes.
Instructions
If you’ve made a savory cheese ball, then you’ll be right at home making a sweet dessert version. If you’ve never made a cheese ball before, the step-by-step instructions with pictures below will make you a pro in no time.
- First, in a large mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese and powdered sugar with a hand mixer until they are well combined.
- Add butter, vanilla, and brown sugar and mix again.
- Then, add peanut butter and chocolate chips to the cream cheese mixture and mix until well combined.
- Now, lay a large piece of plastic wrap or wax paper on your counter or a flat work surface. Using a rubber spatula, gather the cream cheese mixture from the bowl and form it into a ball using your hands. (This may get messy but continue to work it until it makes a solid shape.)
- Next, wash your hands and wrap the dessert cheese ball tightly in plastic wrap.
- Chill the wrapped ball for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Just before serving, spread the M&M’s on a plate or in a shallow dish. Unwrap the dessert cheese ball and roll it in the M&M’s to cover the surface. You can manually press M&M’s into any spots that still need to be covered.
- Finally, place the dessert cheese ball in the center of a serving tray and add your favorite cookies, crackers, pretzels or fruit for dipping.
Substitutions & Variations
This is such an easy dessert cheeseball recipe that you’ll make it again and again. Here are a few ways to adjust the recipe for your preferences and get creative!
- We used full-fat cream cheese, but you can use lower fat cream cheese to save a few calories.
- You can use crunchy peanut butter instead of the creamy peanut butter we used for this sweet cheese ball.
- Switch up the chips! Instead of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips, you can add the same amount of mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or butterscotch chips.
- For additional texture and flavor, add ⅓ cup-½ cup of chopped pecans, chopped honey roasted peanuts, graham cracker crumbs (trust me!) or toffee bits to the cream cheese mixture.
- We served this easy dessert with pretzels and sugar wafer cookies. Try serving it with different dippers like vanilla wafers, graham crackers, chocolate graham crackers, chocolate chip cookies, Ritz crackers, Teddy grahams, apple slices or strawberry halves.
- To make this a no bake Christmas dessert, use seasonal red and green colored M&M’s! For Halloween, look for spooky orange and black M&M’s. Pastel Easter or Spring M&M’s are perfect for springtime sweet cheese balls. You can even order special colors of M&M’s online to match the colors or theme of any event you are hosting.
- Try rolling this dessert cheese ball in mini M&M’s, dark chocolate M&Ms, the caramel flavored M&M’s or even peanut butter M&M’s.
- Finally, you can roll the cream cheese mixture into mini sweet cheese balls for a bite-sized version of this sweet treat. If you are making mini dessert cheese balls, then we would recommend using miniature chocolate chips in the filling and mini M&M’s for the coating.
What to Serve with this Dessert Ball
So many things can go great with a dessert cheeseball like this. Here are our favorites:
- graham crackers
- Teddy Graham’s (especially these Chocolate covered Teddy Grahams)
- cookies
- apples
- vanilla wafers
- Biscoff cookies (and then use the rest to make these delicious Biscoff truffles.)
Storage
Wrap any leftover chocolate chip dessert cheese ball in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and refrigerate for up to 1 week. The colors from the M&M’s may run a bit from the condensation, but it will still taste delicious.
If you want to freeze this M&M cheese ball, I recommend wrapping the uncoated dessert ball in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil, and popping it in the freezer for up to 4 weeks. To serve, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then roll it in the M&M’s.
Related Recipes
Chocolate chip lovers, this no bake dessert dip called Booty Dip will definitely satisfy that sweet tooth! And for my cheesecake fans, our Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries are the no bake treats for you! Don’t worry peanut butter people, this no bake Peanut Butter Pie will knock your peanut butter loving socks off!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
Recipe
Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball with M&M’s
Video
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened at room temperture
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter softened at room temperture
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup M&Ms for coating
Instructions
- First, in a large bowl using a hand mixer, combine cream cheese and powdered sugar. Mix until well combined.
- Add butter, vanilla and brown sugar and mix again.
- Then, add the peanut butter and chocolate chips to the cream mixture and mix until well combined.
- Now, lay a length of plastic wrap on your counter or a flat work surface. Using a rubber spatula, gather the cream cheese mixture from the bowl and form it into a ball using your hands. (This may get messy but continue to work it until it makes a solid shape.)
- Next, wash your hands and wrap the dessert cheese ball tightly in plastic wrap.
- Chill the wrapped ball for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Just before serving, spread the M&M's on a plate or in a shallow dish. Unwrap the dessert cheese ball and roll it through the M&M's to cover the surface. You can manually press M&M's into any spots that still need covered.
- Finally, place the dessert cheese ball in the center of a serving tray and add your favorite cookies, crackers, pretzels or fruit for dipping.
Notes
- You can make this ahead of time and chill this treat overnight. Before rolling it in the M&M’s, let the cheese ball sit for about 10 minutes before unwrapping it.
- To store any leftovers, wrap the cheesecake ball in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. Store it in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- If you want to freeze this M&M cheese ball, I recommend wrapping the uncoated dessert ball in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil and popping it in the freezer for up to 4 weeks. To serve, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then roll it in the M&M’s.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Erin says
We make a cheeseball every year for the holidays but I know my kids would go crazy for this sweet version! Adding it to our Thanksgiving meal plan!
Kristyn says
You can’t go wrong with this recipe! Any time we entertain, this is always on the menu!! Everyone loves it!
Andie says
I was looking for something different to bring to a Halloween party this past weekend, and this dessert cheese ball was perfect! I just used Halloween M&Ms, and it was a huge hit!