The 4-Ingredient Retro Appetizer So Good It’s Always Gone in 5 Minutes

I love an easy back-pocket recipe for entertaining. So, when I came across a photo of an index card with a 4-ingredient cheese puff recipe while scouring one of my usual online haunts, Old_Recipes Reddit, I knew I had to give it a try. 

As soon as the first tray of these cheesy orbs came out of the oven, I was certain I had made a wise decision. The first dozen cheese puffs disappeared just as the second tray was going into the oven. Just call it quality control.

Why I Love These Retro Cheese Puffs

The retro cheese puffs were easy to make and even easier to devour while standing in the kitchen with no one watching. They instantly transported me to an earlier time, when I, as a kid at a cocktail party thrown by family friends, found a plate filled with these little treasures. I didn’t know what they were called back then. I just knew that I had eaten enough of them to make my stomach hurt.

Finally, I found them again, and this time, I won’t be letting the recipe go. I may also try to eat fewer of them in one sitting, though, no promises. 

My one quibble about cheese puffs is in the name. To me, a cheese puff is a gougère—a fluffier French pastry made from a dough that’s cooked on the stovetop, then piped and baked (and, ideally, filled with ham salad). These puffs are not those puffs. I would lobby for calling these something like “cheese meltaways” or the cuter “cheese buttons,” but a rose by any other name would taste just as good with a flute of champagne, so call them whatever you want, just remember to bake extra.

How To Make 4-Ingredient Cheese Puffs

To make cheese puffs, combine room-temperature butter and shredded cheese in a mixing bowl. Add flour, salt, and onion soup mix, then stir until the mixture resembles pie dough. Next, pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll them until they look a bit like a marble (a bigger one, like a shooter), and bake them on a parchment-lined sheet tray in a 350°F oven for about 12 minutes, until the cheese balls spread a bit and begin to get a tawny golden brown around the edges.

Cool for a few minutes, and serve. If you make the dough balls marble-sized, this recipe will yield about five dozen cheese puffs.

Tips For Making Cheese Puffs

• Shred your own cheese. Pre-shredded cheddar is coated with anti-caking agents that prohibit the cheese from coming together, so break out the box grater, and do this step by hand.
• Use the best cheddar you can find. This recipe is mostly cheese, so make it a good one, and you will notice the difference. I like Tillamook’s Extra Sharp White Cheddar for these.
• Aim for portions about the size of a marble, pre-baking. They’ll puff and spread slightly, giving you a slightly bigger bite once they’re baked.
• Switch up the seasonings. Onion soup mix has a lovely umami flavor and scores big nostalgia points, but you can skip it and add your own dried spices like paprika, garlic powder, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
• Wrap that dough around a pimento-stuffed olive. Deep in the comments of the original post, someone mentioned that they have had this appetizer with an olive hidden inside. I tried that too, and it’s excellent. The briny olive is an exciting surprise amidst all that nutty, buttery-rich cheese. It gives your palate somewhere to go and gives you a reason to eat an extra half dozen of these bad boys