Rocky Road Cheesecake Dessert Ball

I'm a little bit embarrassed by this 'low brow' dessert idea, but something about it appealed to me in it's simplicity and potential crowd pleasing components. 

Anyone who watches Food TV knows that Paula Deen can over do it with all that BUTTER emphasis, but dang it, that gal's got some good ideas! I have to thank her for her inspiration on this one, but I did change it up a bit.  Number one... no one needs that much butter and sugar. So I reduced the sugar in this quite substantially because if you are spreading it on cookies, and it contains chocolate and marshmallows... maybe, just maybe... you don't need so much sugar.  You know what I am saying?

This will be a great dessert for the holidays, or family parties where it will make kids and adults equally happy, but I also want to suggest that this would be a great office potluck item.  It's easy to transport to the office without making a big darn mess, it's different from all the usual fare and people will love it.

Make the recipe your own... you could use the basic ingredients (cream cheese, butter, sugar) and add ingredients that appeal to you.  Rum Raisin, Cherry Chocolate, Toffee Walnut, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut... frankly, I could go on and on, but you get the picture!  If you don't like nuts, then leave those out and cover the dessert ball in chopped chocolates or dried fruits.

If you were super creative, you could shape the dessert ball into a oval shape and add pecans to give the effect of 'pine cone' with over lapping nuts in a pattern. Now, wouldn't that be cute at Christmas?

Ingredients

1 (8-ounce) package light cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3-4 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mini marshmallows

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts or pecans

Serve with:
Cookies, Graham crackers, pretzels, nuts and fresh or dried fruit

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the cocoa, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat until well combined.

Add the marshmallows and chocolate morsels.

Stir to combine well.
The mixture is kind of sticky, so it's easiest to line a deep bowl with plastic wrap and put the mixture in to chill. Be careful to wrap the top part of the mixture too.

Cover and chill for 2 hours. You can roll the ball a bit to give it a shape you like, then roll it in the nuts.

Arrange the cheese ball on a serving platter and serve with graham crackers and fruit.
Stand back and watch the happy people stuff their faces...