Italian Sausage Crescent Cheese Balls

Italian Sausage Crescent Cheese Balls are a twist on everyone's favorite holiday appetizer!  They come together easily and have just three simple ingredients, making them perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas!

This post is sponsored by Pillsbury.

I am so excited because fall is finally here!  It is my favorite time of year for so many reasons, one of them being the holidays!  I love to pull out my Apple Crisp Macchiato Copycat Recipe, light an apple cinnamon candle, and get in the kitchen with some of my favorite recipes to cook up all kinds of yummy goodies to share with my family.

I genuinely look forward to the whole process of planning a holiday menu!  I love making my list, clipping my coupons, and then heading to the store to shop.  I'm one of those crazies who can spend three hours at the grocery store and love every minute of it.  What can I say?  I love food!

Sausage balls are a classic appetizer perfect for family gatherings like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This recipe makes a bunch of delicious bite-sized balls of cheesy sausage goodness, but his particular recipe has a surprise ingredient.  Most sausage balls I've seen use baking mix, but not this one!  This one uses Pillsbury crescent dinner rolls!

That's right, just sausage, cheese, and crescent rolls.  Easy Peasy and oh so yummy!

The original Pillsbury recipe for these sausage balls uses hot pork sausage, but I've been on an Italian kick lately, so I went with hot Italian sausage...turkey sausage, to be exact because it's my fave!  Going along with the Italian theme, I used mozzarella instead of cheddar.  Everything gets mushed up together, rolled into balls, and then baked to golden perfection.  YUM!

I like to serve these with some marinara sauce and a Parmesan Herb Greek Yogurt Dip (recipe in Notes).  You don't have to dip them at all, they're delish on their own, but I'm a dip girl, so I make two dips so there's plenty of variety.

I would actually make a double batch of these if I were you.  They are that good if you ask me!

If you want to make these for your family and friends, you can get a jump start on your Holiday season shopping with great products and savings from Pillsbury! 

These sausage balls seriously couldn't have been any easier to make.  That's what I love about Pillsbury.  They create easy, quick-to-fix recipes designed to give you more time with family instead of fussing around in the kitchen.  

Italian Sausage Crescent Cheese Balls

   

Ingredients

• 1 lb bulk spicy turkey Italian sausage
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz)
• 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury™ refrigerated crescent dinner rolls 
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Line 15x10x1-inch pan with foil; spray with cooking spray.
2. In large bowl, mix sausage and cheese; mix well using hands or spoon.
3. Unroll crescent dough on work surface; coat each side of dough with 1 tablespoon flour. Using pizza cutter or knife, cut dough into about 1/4-inch pieces. Mix crescent dough pieces into bowl of sausage mixture in small amounts until well blended.
4. Shape mixture into 42 (1 1/4-inch) balls. Place in pan. Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until golden brown.
   

Notes

• I wanted to use turkey sausage instead of pork sausage, but I couldn't find it in the bulk form so I just bought links.  Just remove the casings and you have bulk sausage!
• The original recipe yields 42 balls, but I made mine just a little bigger and made 30.
• Be sure to grease your foil or use non-stick foil.  These will stick without it!
• Parmesan Herb Greek Yogurt Dip recipe: 1 cup plain greek yogurt, 2 Tbsps milk, 2 Tbsps grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 Tbsp each chopped fresh basil and parsley, 1 clove minced garlic, salt, and pepper to taste; combine all ingredients until well mixed.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• Join the conversation on social media by using hashtag #FallFamilyMeals