36 Must-Make Cheese Appetizers For People Who Love Party Food
When it’s party time, cheese appetizers are always the whey to go. They say, “Welcome to my home. I like you more than chips and salsa.” They say, “I like you so much, I turned on the stove for you.” Or maybe they just say, “This cheese dip is way too addictive to eat alone. Please come over.”
While historians debate the origin of the appetizer, we can safely say that cheese appetizers have been a part of the American party scene for well over 100 years.
The word appetizer first appeared in the United States and England in 1860. As drinks before dinner became the fashion, hosts began serving appetizers as well. And by 1918, the Fannie Farmer cookbook contained a section of party-appropriate finger foods, including Cheese Wafers.
Today, the notion of just what kind of dish constitutes an appetizer is as varied as the kinds of parties we serve them at. From the elegant canapés you’ll find at swanky tea parties and backyard croquet tournaments, to the heavy hors d’oeuvres your Uncle Ted can’t get enough of at afternoon weddings, to the cheese trays and appetizer extravaganzas served at nearly every American Super Bowl party—it doesn’t matter what you call it … just don’t call it late to the party.
Scroll down. Temptation awaits.
5 Cream Cheese Appetizers
Cream cheese is much more than a breakfast spread. So. Much. More. It’s the base, the foundation, the mother (if you will) to all manner of easy appetizer recipes and party dips. So, put down that bagel and unearth grandma’s vintage chip set.
There’s dipping to do.
1. SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE DIP
Perfectly designed for any well-intentioned adult who needs to disguise their vegetables to get them down. Give yourself credit for the antioxidant-rich spinach, then give yourself over to the sharp and creamy goodness that is Cooper® cheese.
2. HOT REUBEN DIP
Reintroducing the Reuben, deconstructed. This dip has all the goodness of its classic forebear, melted down into a bowl of snackable, dippable goodness. It’s salty, tangy, and just a little bit sweet—not unlike your party guests, perhaps.
3. SPICY MARYLAND CRAB DIP
East Coast meets FarEast in this updated version of the classic Maryland crab dip. We transform this Chesapeake Bay standard and give it an Asian-inspired profile with soy sauce and Sriracha. Add in some Cooper® Sharp, and we promise grandma Nettie will still approve.
4. CHEESE BLT LAYERED PARTY DIP
Mmm, the classic BLT: toasted white bread layered with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Delicious, but a messy, dribbly meal for even the neatest among us. Here we’ve refashioned this classic combo into a layered dip. It’s all the elements of a BLT, with none of the mess. Although, to be fair, we haven’t seen you eat cheese dip, so.…
5. BACON CREAM CHEESE SPREAD
Bacon in the morning, bacon in the evening, bacon at party time.
This pork-packed spread is equally happy alongside a cracker plate or atop your morning toast. Whip up a batch for your party and hope-against-hope there’s some left over for your morning snack, breakfast or elevensies. Talk about a double-duty bacon dip — that’s some pig.
4 More Cheese Dips
Cheese dip. It makes the world a better place to be. Sharp, white, mild, spicy, drunken-beery. Doesn’t matter. You make it, we’ll eat it. Because cheese dip is the reason chips were invented (probably).
6. SANTA FE CHILI DIP
In golf parlance, a chili dip is any missed shot in which the club strikes the ground behind the ball, resulting in little to no contact. Just how this phrase came to be part of the great golf lexicon, we cannot say. But here’s what we do know:
The only chili dip we enjoy is with a big bowl of tortilla chips, and it’s always a hit with Cooper® cheese.
7. SPICY WHITE QUESO
A maxed-out Tex-Mex-inspired cheese dip is the melt of choice at nearly any Southwest stadium, restaurant, or house party. Keep it warm in a slow cooker on the lowest setting, serve with tortilla chips, and then give your party guests room to gather round.
Permission to eat straight from the bowl? Granted.
8. MASON JAR CHEESE SAUCE
Consider it the mac daddy of all cheese sauces. Consider it liquid temptation in a Mason jar. Consider it the tastiest, cheesiest dip you’ve ever eaten all by yourself during a six-hour Hulu marathon.
Check out our recipe video here.
9. CHEESE ALE PRETZEL DIP
Here’s one recipe worth its pretzel salt. But don’t let that rave review fool you. This beer dip is simple to make. Just melt 2 cups Cooper® Sharp Yellow with 1/3 cup Pilsner beer. It’s really that easy. Finishing the bottle is “optional.”
