Bavarian Cheese Dip

Ingredients:

8 ounces Soft CheeseYou will need a round of camembert or brie or you can also use cream cheese.

8 ounces different cheeses.
I used swiss (Ementhaller) Gouda, parmesan,
goat cheese, any cheese here will work. it is nice to
have some stronger flavored cheeses to give a nice flavor contrast to the soft cheese.

1 cup finely chopped green onions or chives.
2-3 cloves of garlic
paprika
1 / 2 cup chopped dill pickles
1 teaspoon horseradish
a few drops pepper sauce like Tabasco
1 / 2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 / 2 teaspoon pepper
Caraway seed
2-3 tablespoons of German beer

For display
1 / 2 cup chopped almonds
1 /4 cup chopped parsley
4 radishes
small pretzels

I started out with some leftover cheeses that were sitting waiting in the icebox but didn't look all that appetizing.

To the mix you always use a soft cheese. I used camembert here but you can use brie, or even cream cheese. You can even use softened butter if you like.

The Swiss used hard cheese scraps to make a Fondue.

You can mash them in a bowl or put them in an electric mixer.
I assemble the ingredients here.

I like to pan roast the caraway a little first. It brings out the flavor.
Careful, and do it on medium heat.

Then I mix the paprika, salt and pepper and caraway. You can of course omit the salt if you want.

Chop the chives and garlic.

Here I whipped all ingredients in an electric mixer. You can do it by hand with a fork as well.

I put it in a glass dish to chil and get firm.
If using whole almonds chop them coarsely.

Toast them lightly in a skillet. Be careful and use medium heat. I like to heat the pan, add the almonds then turn the pan off. The heated pan is enough usually to toast them slightly.

Chop the parsley.

Here I have the chilled cheese, almonds, sliced radish and parsley.

First roll the cheese ball in the almonds

Next roll the cheese ball in the parsley.

Place the cheese ball on your serving platter and surround with the radish slices.
Crown the cheese ball with a pretzel. This is one idea you can build on the pretzel theme
as it is a good luck symbol in German.