Cherry Chocolate Chip Cheeseball makes a perfect Valentine’s Day dessert! This easy sweet cheese ball recipe is full of juicy maraschino cherries and covered with chocolate chips.
Served as dessert or a party snack, you can’t go wrong with sweet cheese ball dips! This Monster Cookie Cheeseball is a reader favorite. You’ll love this Toffee Chocolate Chip Cheeseball too.
Why this Recipe is Best
No one can resist chocolate and cherries. When you combine them with a rich cream cheese base, you get a luscious dip perfect for scooping with graham crackers.
- Cherry Cheese Ball is a quick and easy dessert or appetizer.
- It comes together in no time with just 6 ingredients!
- You can make this recipe as a cheese ball OR a dip.
- Maraschino cherries make it beautifully colorful!
Love maraschino cherries? Try our cherry chocolate chip shortbread cookies for a flavorful treat.
Ingredient Notes
You only need a handful of ingredients for this Cherry Chocolate Chip Cheeseball recipe.
- Cream cheese – Let it soften on the counter for a few minutes first.
- Butter – I prefer using unsalted butter in this cheese ball recipe. Use our tips and trick on how to soften butter quickly.
- Maraschino Cherries – You will need both the cherries themselves and some of the juice from the jar.
- Powdered sugar – For sweetness and a smooth texture.
- Chocolate chips – We used mini chocolate chips. The smaller size makes them easier to scoop up!
Tips and Tricks
How to make this cheese ball recipe as a dip:
- Beat together all of the ingredients as directed in the recipe card.
- Fold in the maraschino cherries and just half of the chocolate chips.
- Now you can transfer the dip to a serving bowl and enjoy right away. No extra steps required.
How to make cherry cheese ball:
- If you want to make this as a cheese ball as pictured, line a mixing bowl with plastic wrap. Transfer the cheese ball dip into the bowl.
- Wrap the plastic wrap around the dip to form a ball.
- Refrigerate the cheese ball over night. When you’re ready to serve the cherry chocolate chip cheese ball, unwrap it and invert it onto a serving platter.
- Cover the top of the cheese ball with the rest of the chocolate chips. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
This cheese ball tastes great with all kinds of dippers. Serve it with graham crackers, pretzels, animal crackers, or wafer cookies! Fruit slices are a tasty choice too.
Make sure you give the cheese ball enough time to chill. I recommend chilling for at least 8 hours. If it’s still too soft, don’t worry: you can serve it as a dip instead of a cheese ball! Still delicious.
I have not tasted this with fresh cherries but you could certainly try it! The flavor will be different as fresh cherries do not have added almond flavor and sweeteners. The color will not be as pink with out the added maraschino juice either.
Depending on how fresh your cream cheese is, this cherry chocolate chip cheeseball stays good in the fridge for 3 -4 days. Make sure to keep it chilled and tightly covered when you’re not eating it.
More Easy Dessert Recipes
- Lemon Tart
- Cherry Fudge with Dark Chocolate: this is a hit every time I make it!
- White Cupcakes
- Divinity Recipe
- Chocolate Covered Oreos
- Cherry Puppy Chow
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Cherry Chocolate Chip Cheeseball
Ingredients
- 8 ounce cream cheese softened
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- ¼ cup maraschino cherry juice
- 2 ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup chopped maraschino cherries
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until combined. Add cherry juice and powdered sugar until fully blended. Fold in chopped cherries and 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.
- At this point you can either serve immediately…or continue on to make as a cheeseball. For the cheeseball, line a rounded bowl with plastic wrap. Pour mixture into bowl, bringing up sides of plastic wrap to cover the top. Refrigerate overnight.
- When ready to serve, invert cheeseball onto serving plate and press remaining 1/2 cup mini chips into the cheeseball. Serve with graham crackers, animal cookies, apple slices, pretzels, etc!!
Notes
- Having made this several times, it occasionally comes out too soft to set up. I have yet to figure out the rhyme or reason why sometimes it’s soft, and sometimes it sets up fine. When it it too soft, rolling it in chocolate chips does help! Or putting it in a bowl and serving as a dip works too!
- Beat together all of the ingredients as directed in the recipe card.
- Fold in the maraschino cherries and just half of the chocolate chips.
- Now you can transfer the dip to a serving bowl and enjoy right away. No extra steps required.
Nutrition
Cherry Chocolate Chip Cheeseball colorful, sweet and easy-to-make treat for Valentine’s Day or any occasion!
I just made this. Needless to say very disappointed. I followed this to a T, added my juice as directed came out extremely liquidy. If I make it again I will not put the juice in.
Sorry to hear that. Did you allow it time in fridge to set up? Hopefully you were still able to enjoy as a dip instead of a cheeseball then?
I LOVED the taste of this but there was no amount of fridge time that made mine set up like yours. Then I looked over the ingredients and realized this is basically my recipe for cream cheese frosting and all made sense. In all sincerity, how on earth did yours set up all pretty. Regardless, eating it out of a bowl was not a sad situation. YUMMY is an understatement!!!
I was just coming on to see what I might have done wrong as mine is still very soft and has been in the fridge for a day. I’m afraid I’m going to put it on a plate to serve it and it’s just going to flop. Very yummy though!
I have made these several times now, and for whatever reason 2 of the 5 times it came out soft, like you have said. I can’t figure out what was different (maybe beating it too long? maybe extra juicy cherries???). The first time, I filled a bowl with the chocolate chips, dropped the dip into the bowl and covered it with more chips. Using my hands I patted it into a ball and it worked. The second time it was too soft and I served it in a bowl. Delicious, but way soft!! Sorry.
Does this have to be refrigerated ?
Oh goodness, I’m drooling here! Cherry/chocolate heaven 🙂
Thanks Lyuba!!
Ah-mazing! And perfect for Valentine’s Day!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this cheese ball! Maraschino cherries are my favorite EVER…sometimes I order a shirley temple just to eat the cherries! LOL This would make a very cute appetizer for a V-Day party. Pinned!
This is so pretty and so tempting! I love it!
This could very well be the prettiest cheeseball I’ve ever seen! 😀 Love the colors and flavors, Aimee! So perfect for V-day coming up.
I’m sure I couldn’t keep my hands off this. It looks gorgeous!
It was very hard to have self control around this cheeseball 🙂
How freakin cute and adorable is this cheeseball? I love the cute pink color!!
Thank you Jocelyn!! Love pink treats 🙂
I’m pretty much obsessed with peanut butter but I am also a huge fan of the maraschino cherries! I eat them right out of the jar and could eat the whole jar if I didn’t control myself! Great recipe, Aimee! Pinned and sharing on social media. 🙂
Yeah, guilty of eating an entire jar 🙂 Thanks for sharing Julie!!
Cherries!! I LOVE them!! I think I need to try every single recipe you have here. The shortbread cookies looks fabulous…. and the fudge. Oh that fudge… superb. Wonderful post! 🙂
Thanks Prudy!! That fudge is one of our favorites (as is this cheeseball)!
I saw this “Trackback” on Jocelyn’s site and had to come see your version! Both versions are SO pretty, and unique!! I love all this red, pink and white for V-Day. Oh, and those cherry shortbread bars you have pictured up above look AMAZING!! Going to check those out right now!!
I forgot how much I love those cherry shortbread bars!! So glad you stopped over Renee!!
Looks SO good! I could totally eat that for breakfast. It has fruit in it, so it would be OK – right?
I love the way you think!!!
So cute that you and Jocelyn did similar things! They both look equally delicious and I need to make ’em both!
I have actually never made a cheeseball, but there is a first time for everything! Especially when that first times includes chocolate and cherries!
Jocelyn is adorable, and so is her food and photos!!! I think you totally need to give this dip/cheeseball a try.
This is another great sweet cheese ball! Looks delicious and I bet taste even better!!
Thanks Nancy 🙂
I guess the hard part would actually be trying to decide what to eat with this dip! Maybe just a spoon? haha.
A spoon totally works Julianne. Or a graham cracker shovel 🙂
Love cherries and chocolate…Yum!
it’s a great combo 🙂
I love maraschino cherries! I bet with the tangy cream cheese this is perfect! pinned
Thanks for pinning Averie!!
I love that our brain thinks the same on desserts! Your cheese ball is amazing looking! I love all the extra chocolate chips on the outside!!!
I love the pecans in your recipe 🙂