Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Gluten Free Sausage & Cheese Balls

My most pinned pin on Pinterest is my recipe for Bisquick Sausage & Cheese Balls.  I first tried them about 25 years ago when I lived in Pittsburgh.  I was at a coworkers house with a bunch of people watching a Steelers game.  She served Bisquick Sausage & Cheese Balls and it was love at first bite for me.  I asked her for the recipe, and have been making them ever since.  


I was so excited when Betty Crocker started making Gluten Free Bisquick.  My first thought was that I could make sausage & cheese balls again.  Because the gluten free mix lacks the fat from oil that regular Bisquick contains, I've had to add milk to the recipe.  


Today, I remembered that I had half a package of Jimmy Dean Regular Premium Pork Sausage in my refrigerator that needed to be used, so it was the perfect time to make sausage & cheese balls.  I have been buying this sausage lately because it is labeled gluten free.  


The sausage & cheese balls on this plate are a half recipe.  When you make a full recipe, you will have about 40 sausage & cheese balls.  


Gluten Free Sausage & Cheese Balls

Ingredients

1 pound raw pork sausage (remove casings if necessary)
10 ounces sharp cheddar cheese -- grated
2 C Gluten Free Bisquick
Milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cover a large baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Combine your sausage, cheddar cheese, and Bisquick in a large bowl.  Knead well with your hands, adding 1 T of milk at a time, until the mixture just comes together.

Roll pieces of the sausage mixture into balls that are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and place them on your baking sheet about one inch apart.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until nicely browned and cooked through. 


Recipe Notes

Don't use store bought grated cheese in this recipe, because it's much drier, which makes it harder for the sausage mixture to come together.  I have used sharp and extra sharp cheddar successfully in this recipe. 


You can use sweet/mild or hot sausage.  Whole Foods makes a variety of homemade sausages that would be great in this recipe.  Check them out at the meat counter.  Just make sure to remove the casings.

My recipe is pretty simple,without any added seasoning.  I have added a little bit of garlic powder in the past, which I thought lent a cheddar bay biscuit taste to my sausage & cheese balls.  Depending on the type of sausage I use and how much seasoning it has in it, I sometimes salt my sausage & cheese balls when they come out of the oven, after a taste test, of course. 


You can check out Betty Crocker's recipe for Gluten Free Sausage Cheese Balls here.  Nicole Hunn also has an interesting looking Gluten Free Sausage Balls recipe on her Gluten Free on a Shoestring blog.  Just today, I saw a recipe for Sausage Balls on She Cooks He Cleans blog that uses almond flour and Cup4Cup.  You can view that recipe here.  This is a recipe that you can easily tailor to your tastes with your choice of sausage, cheese, flour, and seasonings.




6 comments:

  1. I love sausage balls! Thank you for sharing!

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  2. This is our Christmas breakfast so I have been trying to figure it out for my daughter who was diagnosed with Celiac's a year ago. Thank you so much - tell me about how much milk did you use?

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    1. I decent amount. It is all about feel. When everything comes together well, don't add anymore.

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  3. Great recipe! Do you ever freeze these for later use? It’s just me, so I can’t eat them fast enough. Great for a quick breakfast on the go!

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    1. Sorry, I just saw this comment. I have not tried freezing them yet. They do not last that long in out house. :-)

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