Low carb sausage & cheese balls - version 2.0 (A WINNER!!!!)

[DWard51]

Ok, I'm taking another stab at the low carb version of sausage & cheese balls.  You know, that old southern favorite normally made with Bisquik, sausage, and cheese.    The other version was pretty decent, but I've never tried the "on the box" version from the CarbQuik people, so I though I would give it a look.  The dough from my first version was a little sticky and I thought it needed more "dough" to soak up the moisture from the sausage and any of the cheddar cheese "oil" that came out during cooking.  The "on the box" version had more base "flour" to the same amount of sausage so I figured I'd give it a shot, although I did deviate a little from the original recipe on the box.

Here is what I used:

• 1 pound of bulk sausage (I used some I mixed with AC Legg #10 spice mix last week)
• 3 cups of Carbquik
• 2 cups (8oz) of medium cheddar block cheese - grated
• 2 cups (8oz) of pepper jack block cheese - grated
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup half/half
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp itallian seasoning
• 1 tsp baking powder

Oven pre-heated to 350* and I lined a 1/2 sheet pan with parchment paper for easy cleanup.

Basically I combined the dry ingredients and stirred to mix, added the cheese, then added the half & half and lemon juice.  Then mixed with a large serving fork until it was a crumbly dough and cheese mixture.  Then added the bulk sausage and mixed by hand.  The dough will seem dry as hell at first and you will think there is way to much "flour", but it will eventually moisten and even out into a good stiff sausage ball dough.  It will take a while for the hand mixing to get to that stage though, just don't give up on it.

I then used a cookie scoop to make 1 1/2" sausage balls.   To get double duty out of this experiment, I sprinkled some of my goto pork butt rub on top of some of the balls before putting into the oven to bake.

Bake for 25 minutes or until done.

The original recipe said it made 30 balls per batch, I doubled the original recipe and got 54 balls out of mine. Original recipe said 1g net carbs per ball which should be close to what mine comes out to as I did not change the recipe that radically in carbohydrate carrying ingredients. I had intended to put in some finely chopped onion left over from the 1st batch I made the other day, but totally forgot.  They would have added some carbs so probably just as well I forgot to add it.

The four rows on the right are the ones topped with rub.



After 25 minutes they looked done, but I thought they needed to brown a bit more.  One of the things the CarbQuik site talked was it bakes best at the 350-375* range and if you cook it higher the center may not fully set.  So I stuck with the 350* cooking temp for even cooking.  So after 25 minutes I kissed them with the broiler on for a few minutes to finish for appearance.  Did get some fat out and I'm not sure if it was from cheese or sausage, but as the balls sat to cool some of it was reabsorbed.

I did not add any salt, black pepper or cayenne/jalapeno pepper to the dough as the AC Legg #10 Southern Style Breakfast Sausage I used as my meat is already salted and peppery (the first batch I did called for both salt & pepper but I used a mild store bought sausage I had on hand). Plus I used pepper jack so I figured between the two, it would probably have enough kick.  Of course, tastes in flavor profiles vary, so feel free to adjust as needed for yours.

Final product.....  (ones with rub are again on the right)





Verdict------------  This is a keeper recipe!!!!!

The recipe as posted above is spot on.  Seems to have the right dough to sausage ratio and excellent flavor.  Just a slight touch of heat/spice flavor from the Legg #10 sausage and the pepper jack cheese, but no overly spicy (I don't think anyone would complain these are too spicy). All flavor.  As to the rub kissed ones, they were excellent also.  I can taste the rub, but it adds extra salt and other flavors which are probably not necessary.  When I make these again, and I surely will, I will just make the recipe and forgo the rub.

This is an easy and very tasty low carb snack.  It tastes just like "regular" sausage balls IMO, so give this version a try.

[GusRobin]

Looks great.  Have one question-- you said their recipe makes 30, you doubled it to make 54. Does the quantities in your posted recipe make the 30 or the 54?

[DWard51]

The original recipe used 1/2 of the amounts I used and it said it made 30 balls with 1/2 pound of sausage.  I doubled it as I had a pound of meat, and instead of 60 balls, I got 54 sausage balls.  The recipe I posted at the start of this thread is what I actually used and it made the 54 sausage balls in the photos. It just seemed logical to keep the recipe to a 1 pound of sausage base as I tend to make stuff in 1 pound increments. When I made the AC Legg #10 Southern Style Breakfast Sausage the other day, I stored some of it in 1 pound bulk increments, and preformed the rest into good size patties with 7 patties per bag (1 patty per day with breakfast).  The patties are about 1/6th pound pre-cooking, and I usually eat 1 pattie and 2 to 3 scrambled eggs with cheese.  All were vacuum packed and frozen.  AC Legg #10 is some excellent breakfast sausage if you have not tried it.

Here is the original recipe on the CarbQuik website (1/2 pound of sausage and their version makes 30 sausage balls):

http://www.tovaindustries.com/carbalose/recipe2.php?c=70

I just checked and the measure scoop (actually called a "disher") is a #100 0.375 ounce, which has a 1 1/4" diameter bowl. I used rounded scoops that I rolled to even out into balls. Trivia alert - Disher's are sized by the number of scoops per quart of food (ie, #100 is 100 scoops to make up a quart). Looks like this:

[sparky]

Now we need some gravy to dip those in.   

[TMB]

Those really look good!  Now just waiting on my next box from Amazone to come in so I can try them

[TentHunteR]

I love sausage balls and we've made them a few times over the past couple years using the carb-quick mix and they were pretty good.  I'll definitely be giving your recipe a try!

[Roget]

Those do look good.
I made some a while back that were not that great, but would like to try your recipe.