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You are here: Home / COOK / Appetizers / Four Five-Minute Appetizers

October 10, 2022 By Cyn Gagen 5 Comments

Four Five-Minute Appetizers

Filed Under: Appetizers, CELEBRATE, Christmas, COOK Tagged With: almonds, caramel, cranberries, cream cheese, honey, maple syrup, walnuts

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I try my best when I have a get-together, to make sure that I make as much as I can ahead of time. Or, I rely on recipes like these four five-minute holiday appetizers. I can easily whip these up as my guests arrive and be out there to enjoy the conversation in no time. 

I love to cook. I really really love to cook. What I don’t love is the cleanup after cooking. And I don’t love being stuck in the kitchen the whole time while I’m supposedly entertaining people in my home. These are the perfect solution for that!

UPDATED FOR 2022!



Four Easy Five-Minute Appetizers

I first made this appetizer (option 1) for Thanksgiving. It was a huge hit with my guests and an even bigger one with my daughter. In fact, she’s been begging me to make it again ever since. Funny thing is that she’s not a big fan of cream cheese. Or caramel sauce. Or walnuts. And yet she loved this and keeps asking for it again.

It’s not an overwhelming request. These take 5 minutes to put together and are incredibly delicious. For each one of the options, you need a brick of plain cream cheese. In this case, I cut the bricks in half to make smaller batches of more varieties. 

How to Make Easy Five-Minute Holiday Appetizers with Four Options:

Option 1:

Brick of cream cheese, about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of caramel sauce, about 1/3 cup of walnuts (pecans are also good here)

Option 2:

Brick of cream cheese, about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of maple syrup, about 1/3 cup of walnuts or pecans

Option 3:

Brick of cream cheese, about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of honey (I used a savory buckwheat honey), about 1/3 cup of sliced almonds

Option 4:

Brick of cream cheese, about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of whole berry cranberry sauce (heat it up slightly to make it a little bit runnier), about 1/3 cup of sliced almonds

Dipping options:

Thinly sliced pears or apples, crackers, and pretzels are our favorites

See? Easy peasy! 

cream cheese board with apples, pears, caramel sauce, honey, maply syrup, cranberry sauce, almonds, pecans, and walnuts

2022 Update – Our Cream Cheese Board:

This year, we decided to do this “butter board” style for our Thanksgiving celebration. It’s just as easy to do as using the separate bricks of cream cheese. We purchased the soft cream cheese but you could easily buy a brick or two and let them warm up a bit to make them more spreadable.

We spread a layer of cream cheese over the center section of the board, leaving space around the edges for the dippers. (Note: we had a separate container of pretzels. We would have needed a bigger board to include them right with the cream cheese).

Then, mentally dividing the cream cheese into a few sections, we topped each one with different combinations of sauces, nuts, and dried fruits as suggested above. It was delicious and definitely one of the showstoppers of our celebration.

butter bread with figs and fig jam

The other showstopper was our butter board that we served with a baguette and some sourdough bread. We didn’t make this ourselves (although it would be easy enough to do). We ordered ours from the Posh Cheeseboard Company here in London Ontario. In addition to the butter board, we ordered a fall-themed dessert tray from them. Both were scrumptious and we can highly recommend them (not sponsored, just huge fans!).


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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Christine says

    December 4, 2017 at 10:08 am

    Those look and sound delicious!

    Reply
  2. Kelly says

    December 12, 2017 at 8:21 am

    All lthree sound delicious, but I think I am partial to the cranberry sauce option 🙂 And such an easy appetizer to make, too!
    Best,
    Kelly

    Reply
    • Kelly says

      December 12, 2017 at 8:22 am

      Four** Whoops 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. My Thanksgiving Menu: Thanksgiving Dinner Recipes We Love - Gagen girls says:
    September 13, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    […] year when we were hosting my in-laws, Mom created four cream cheese appetizers. She took toppings – ones I’m not normally a fan of, even – and created these […]

    Reply
  2. Festive Mini Cheese Ball Appetizers for the Holidays - Gagen girls says:
    November 18, 2020 at 1:15 pm

    […] as big a hit as her cream cheese appetizers, which I could practically live off […]

    Reply

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