My Grandmother's Retro 3-Ingredient Appetizer Is a Family Favorite

My family has plenty of holiday food traditions, and this 3-ingredient hot appetizer is a must. We serve it with brunch, as a snack, and as part of a spread.

Sausage balls in a bowl at a table with glasses of wine and some table napkins — Simply Recipes / Laurel Randolph

There’s a short list of foods that my family makes every year for the holidays that just scream “Christmas!” to me. A lot of them are sweets—the coconut cake my grandfather loved and we now eat in his memory, homemade boiled custard topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream—but not all. One exception is sausage balls, also called sausage puffs.

The three-ingredient appetizer is easy to make, packed with flavor, and everyone loves them. While sausage balls are perfect for all sorts of occasions like game day and casual parties, they taste like Christmas to me, and we often had them as part of our Christmas brunch spread.

When this recipe came up in a recent conversation with some of the other editors on Simply Recipes, it was met with excited recognition. It turns out I wasn’t the only one who grew up eating sausage balls. Brooke Schuldt, Simply Recipe’s associate social director, has a deep, family-bred love of what she calls sausage cheese puffs. (Note: it’s much more pleasant to call them puffs than balls, so if you choose to do so, I won’t mind.)

"My family has many cherished recipes, but the sausage cheese puff is one of the most cherished. Every holiday featured a plate of tiny cheesy biscuits, made with love by my grandmother that very morning. I have been known to ask for them for birthday or Christmas gifts from time to time, that is how much I personally love them. They are nostalgic and remind me of happy memories with my favorite people, laughing loudly in my grandma's living room,” explains Brooke.

Her whole family chimed in, sharing their treasured memories of the family recipe. If that doesn’t sell you on sausage puffs/balls, I don’t know what will.

Hand holding up a sausage ball, and in the background, a bowl with the rest of sausage balls, glasses of wine, and a few table napkins — Simply Recipes / Laurel Randolph

How To Make Sausage Balls

To make about 35 sausage balls, you’ll need:

1 pound bulk pork sausage, room temperature
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1 pound shredded cheddar cheese, cold

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Add the room-temperature sausage and Bisquick to a large bowl. Use your hands to mix until mostly combined. Add half the cheese and knead it in, followed by the rest of the cheese, until a cohesive mixture forms.

Form the mixture into walnut-sized balls, placing them about an inch apart on the sheet. Bake until browned on the bottom and cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes.

Tips for Making Sausage Balls

These three-ingredient gems are incredibly easy to make, but I will note one big tip: temperature is key. Your sausage has to be room temperature and your cheese has to be cold. Otherwise, it’s too hard to mix and all of the cheese will melt out as soon as it hits the oven. For extra tidy balls, stick them in the fridge for 30 minutes after forming them and before baking.

A quick note about cheese: this is the one time I’d recommend using store-bought shredded cheese. The anti-caking agents coating it help keep all of the cheese from immediately melting out of the sausage balls. Plus, it’s a real time saver.

I like to make sausage balls using spicy sausage for a kick of extra flavor. You can also swap out the cheese—use sharp cheddar for more punch, or even pepper Jack. Just make sure the cheese is a melty variety.