Cheese-Wrapped Olives (Bollitas)

s'kat's Note:

These savory little appetizers are geared to please the olive-lover in the crowd. Can be frozen before baking. If doing so, place directly into oven from freezer and extend the baking time by just a few minutes. Recipe from a clipping, author unsourced.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 6

Yield: 24.0 bollitas

• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter , softened
• ¼ teaspoon paprika or ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ cup flour
• 24 garlic-jalapeno stuffed olives (or pimento-stuffed green olives)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In bowl of food processor, combine cheese, butter, paprika/cayenne, and flour.
3. Process until smooth.
4. Take about 1 Tablespoon of crumbly dough and place in the palm of your hand.
5. Place one of the olives in middle of dough.
6. Cup your hand to begin fixing dough around olive.
7. Roll between palms of hands until dough is smoothly wrapped around olive.
8. Sometimes the dough gets a little crumbly, rolling faster helps a bit, and you can stick dough onto any'naked' areas and roll until smooth.
9. Repeat until all olives have been wrapped.
10. Place onto oiled baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
11. Due to the amount of cheese in the batter, these will be rather greasy when they emerge from the oven.
12. Remove from baking sheet and place between paper towels to remove grease.
13. Serve with dipping sauce of choice (I used a mango salsa).
14. Note: Upon making these recently, I discovered that the preferred method should be to freeze these on a baking tray for about 3-4 hours before baking. This allows the texture of the 'dough' to remain firm around the balls when baking. Of course if you don't have the time, they are still just as tasty the first way... the balls just don't hold up quite as well in the oven.

Reviews

[P4]

These are really terrific! I made them exactly the way the recipe stated, froze them and everything, served with mango salsa - oh! Wonderful! Then I took the liberty of playing around with this and found some great modifications: sub feta for the cheddar and cream cheese for the butter and use pitted Kalamata olives; sub in parm for the cheddar and use large green olives; or sub in pepper-jack cheese for the cheddar. All pretty tasty! Thanks very much, S'kat! These are a great make-ahead appetizer. I have thoroughly enjoyed testing them!

[rosslare]

Tasty morsels! I added 1/4 teaspoon salt to dough and a pinch of chili flakes. I froze mine prior to baking and they turned out just like in the picture.

[Mistress of Tea]

These were a little fussy to make and mine looked nothing like the picture, but they sure tasted good and the fam loved them!! Thanks!!