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Home » Dessert » Dream Balls: Connecting with Family through Food
This post may contain affiliate links. See my Full Disclosure for further details.

Dream Balls: Connecting with Family through Food

By Rachael | Updated on August 30, 2019

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Today I am sharing a special recipe with you that simply takes me home, and makes me think of family, and holidays, and time spent together.

dreamballs a family favorite treat

These little treats have a magic power. They have the power to flood me with holiday memories with just one bite. Do you have any foods that do that?

This year for Christmas was different then any other we have had, and it really got me thinking about family, and food, and how we use food as a  as a way to connect with family and friends, and often as a part of our cultural identity. Food and family just seem to go hand in hand. I know most of my holiday memories are tied to food.

We have an intern living with us, and her family is thousands of miles away in Europe. I was cooking the ham for our Christmas party and our intern walked in and said, “It smells like Christmas” it made her think of and miss her family.

My brother just recently got married, and his wife’s family is in a different country. We were asking her about her traditions and she talked about a special drink they always share on Christmas.

I don’t think it matters where you are from, you likely have foods tied to your traditions and family memories. In the video Western Union showed how much food connects us to our families and culture by interviewing 24 of their customers, and surprising 3 of them with a pop up surprise meal from their family. I loved seeing the emotion on their faces when they talked about the foods that make them think of family, and how happy they were to eat something from home.  I could tell how much Western Union means it when they say their aim  is to connect people globally.

It can be hard to find ways to connect when you are far apart, and food can be really useful for this. My sister just had a baby, and she lives in a different state, so in order to keep some of our traditions alive, despite the distance I hosted a virtual cookie exchange. A cookie exchange is a big part of the holiday traditions for me. I look forward to it every year, and really think a lot about what treat or cookie I am going to bring to it.

Due to distance and a new baby, we couldn’t get together this year to have one. I was not about to have that, so I set up a virtual exchange, where we could share our cookie recipes, rather than the cookies themselves, and enjoy time together with text, video, chat, and more.

cool whip and symphony dream balls

Because food is such a huge part of my family tradition and memories, that video really resonated with me. From my mom’s apple sheet pie, to my Great Grandma’s toffee. Some things just define the holidays and family. And not just specific recipes, but traditions, like our cookie exchange. I think we all have those special recipes that take us home, even when we aren’t home.

So today I am going to share one that I love taking to holiday treat exchanges, and that my mom has been making for years. We call them “Dream Balls” haha, which cracks me up every single time.

dreamball ingredients

They are quick to whip up, and taste like a dream. My mom used to make them without the cream cheese, but I like that it gives them a tad more heft so I eat a few less (a precious few).

Dream Balls: Connecting with Family through Food

Today I am sharing a special recipe with you that simply takes me home, and makes me think of family, and holidays, and time spent together.
2.72 from 7 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dream balls, simple dessert
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 24
Calories: 80kcal
Author: Rachael

Ingredients

  • 1 big Chocolate bar 6.8 ounces Preferably the kind with almonds and toffee
  • 1 container of Cool Whip 8 ounces
  • 8 ounce brick of cream cheese softened
  • 2 Cups mini Vanilla Wafers

Instructions

  • Break your Chocolate bar up into a microwave safe bowl, and melt in the microwave in 20-30 second increments, stirring between each heating session.
  • Use a hand mixer to beat the cream cheese and melted chocolate together, then stir in whipped cream.
  • In a food processor crush up the vanilla wafers by pulsing for about 30 seconds
  • Spoon about 1 Tbs of "dream ball mixture into a ball, and drop in crushed vanilla wafers.
  • Roll in wafers, place on parchment lined sheet, and chill so they will hold shape

Nutrition

Calories: 80kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 67mg | Potassium: 24mg | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 125IU | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 0.1mg

Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.

Tried this recipe?Mention @ezpzmealz or tag #ezpzmealz!
Want to use this recipe in a meal plan?Try PrePear, my FREE Meal Planning App that allows you to save your recipes, plan meals, shop for groceries, and cook simply in one place. Join Here!

holiday dream balls

These little treats really help connect me with my family, just like Western Union does for so many of their customers who live here, and work here, but still love their culture, and often selflessly send money home to family. You can learn more about Western Union here.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

And here are a few of my family’s favorite recipes:

Apple Slab Piebite of pie

Pumpkin Toffee 

Pumpkin Toffee

Peppermint Glaze Sugar Cookies

snowman peppermint glaze cookies #ad

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Related

Related categories:
Dessert#WUHomeCooked chocolate cookie exchange cream cheese dessert dream balls food and family new years treats NYE NYE treats virtual cookie exchange whipped cream

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Shelby says

    December 30, 2014 at 4:57 pm

    Rachel, I loved this post. I am sure many people will connect with food and family. It also brought back memories for me. My most precious ones are Christmas Eve memories - where we always went to my dad's parent's for the holiday. Mom would always take a cheese ball (which I have blogged) and every time I see that recipe I remember those times. Music is a big tradition in our family also and we always had guitars/banjo/ fiddle music as well as singing for those gatherings. Thanks for the trip down memory lane and those dream balls sound delicious! I LOVE Symphony bars!!
    Reply
    • Rachael says

      December 30, 2014 at 7:25 pm

      Shelby! Sounds amazing. I am going to head over to find that cheeseball! I am grateful we don't have a lot of singing with our traditions because we are all tone deaf. Haha, but we like listening to music!
      Reply
  2. Erica (@Erica's Recipes) says

    December 30, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    My sister LOVED vanilla wafers growing up. So I'm reading your post and that's all I can think about is her. Thank you for that - great post and great recipe!
    Reply
  3. 4Graces says

    July 22, 2016 at 2:49 pm

    My neighbor Boo entertains a group of women once a month for movie night on their big screen TV. I like to furnish a dessert for her snack table. This recipe came in today's email. It looks simple and I hope it is simply delicious because I am going with it for the August movie.
    Reply
    • Rachael says

      July 25, 2016 at 10:39 am

      You will love it!!! It is a family favorite.
      Reply

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