Bonnie’s Balls are par-baked cheese curd, bacon and beer-filled fried dough balls. They are available at many local events or in the freezer section at Brennan’s Market in Madison.
Bonnie’s Balls are parbaked cheese curd, bacon and beer-filled fried dough balls. They are available at many events, including the upcoming Taste of Madison, or in the freezer section at several local markets.
Bonnie Raimy, founder of Bonnie’s Balls, restocks her product at Brennan's Market. Bonnie’s Balls are parbaked cheese curd, bacon and beer-filled fried dough balls.
Bonnie Raimy, founder of Bonnie’s Balls, restocks her product at Brennan's Market in Madison.
Bonnie’s Balls are par-baked cheese curd, bacon and beer-filled fried dough balls. They are available at many local events or in the freezer section at Brennan’s Market in Madison.
Bonnie Raimy, founder of Bonnie’s Balls, restocks her product at Brennan's Market.
Bonnie’s Balls are par-baked cheese curd, bacon and beer-filled fried dough balls. They are available at many local events or in the freezer section at Brennan’s Market in Madison.
Bonnie’s Balls are par-baked cheese curd, bacon and beer-filled fried dough balls. They are available at many local events or in the freezer section at Brennan’s Market in Madison.
Certain foods and flavors can evoke strong memories of childhood: chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven; hot dogs cooked around a campfire; cotton candy at the county fair.
Growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania, Bonnie Raimy had a special nostalgia for warm balls of deep fried pizza dough filled with mildly spicy pieces of pepperoni. Crunchy and golden brown on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside, “pepperoni balls” were the treat from her childhood that she often purchased on trips home, making sure to grab some extras for her new Wisconsin neighbors.
“My family and friends loved it when I brought them back here,” she said. “One day I tried making them myself, stuffing the dough with local cheese curds instead of pepperoni.” And thus, the prototype for Bonnie’s Balls was born.
After a long process of trial and error, Raimy got the ratio of dough and cheese right. Confident that she had something special, she began translating her Midwestern take on an old regional favorite into a new business about five years ago, with a few stops and starts.
Raimy quickly realized that making the cheesy fried dough balls by hand wasn’t cost-efficient, so she spent a year considering other manufacturing models. Eventually Raimy found a co-packing facility in Long Island, New York, that could produce her Wisconsin/Pennsylvania hybrid snack.
“Once I found a partner, it took a year of research and development to get operations functioning,” Raimy said. “The weekend I took my product to a food expo, COVID hit, which shut everything down.”
Bonnie Raimy, founder of Bonnie’s Balls, restocks her product at Brennan's Market. Bonnie’s Balls are parbaked cheese curd, bacon and beer-filled fried dough balls.
Bonnie Raimy, founder of Bonnie’s Balls, restocks her product at Brennan's Market.
Recently, Raimy has been ramping up operations to bring Bonnie’s Balls to more and more Wisconsin customers. Far from the home kitchen set-up she started with, Raimy currently ships 1,000 pounds of Ellsworth Creamery cheese to the co-packing facility, then flies to New York to oversee the actual production of roughly 4,000 balls, using the co-packer’s machines and staff.
After the balls are assembled, they are deep fried, flash frozen and shipped back to the Midwest. From her cold storage facility in Madison, the balls are distributed to local retailers. Individual diners can also order her product delivered directly to their door on the website, bonniesballs.com.
If you’d like to sample the cheesy, chewy bites before you fill your freezer with them, Raimy also vends from her own tented stand at events all over Wisconsin, including the Dane County Fair, Madison Night Markets, Taste of Madison (coming up Labor Day weekend) and the New Glarus Oktoberfest.
Bonnie’s Balls are parbaked cheese curd, bacon and beer-filled fried dough balls. They are available at many events, including the upcoming Taste of Madison, or in the freezer section at several local markets.
Currently she is making two varieties of Bonnie’s Balls, each focused on Wisconsin cheese. One has mozzarella cheese curds and chives at the center ($15 for a 6-pack). The other is filled with a mixture of cheddar cheese curds, beer and bacon ($16 for a 6-pack).
“Both flavors are really popular,” Raimy said. “Eventually I’ll introduce a couple sweet varieties.”
How should one consume Bonnie’s Balls? Raimy recommends the hand-held snack for tailgating, watching TV or noshing while walking around events and festivals.
“I’ve put them in a panini press and used them as slider buns,” she said. “I’ve also had customers cut them open and stuff them with scrambled eggs for their morning commute. Pretty much anything goes with them.
“I hear that folks at Babcock Hall even tried them with ice cream!”
Bonnie Raimy, founder of Bonnie’s Balls, restocks her product at Brennan's Market in Madison.
My family couldn’t resist trying out some of Bonnie’s Balls. We sampled the deep fried dough, reheated in our own oven. Following the package directions carefully, I placed three of each flavor on a cookie sheet and heated them for 10 minutes.
After cutting one in half, I realized the centers were still cold, so back into the oven they went. (Raimy cautions on the packaging that heating times will vary from oven to oven.) After five more minutes the balls were quietly sizzling and the outer crust had firmed up with a light crunch. Pulling them apart to reveal the cheesy center, the curds were melty, but not molten hot.
My family agreed that the beer/cheese/bacon was our favorite; they had a more intense flavor than the mozzarella/chives version. Unlike batter fried cheese curds available at many Wisco restaurants, these are more than a crunchy mouthful — and they are very filling.
The bready exterior of the balls had a slightly sweet taste, more like a fluffy dinner roll than a pizza crust. It enveloped the oozing centers quite sturdily.
We agreed that Bonnie’s Balls would be a go-to comfort food in the colder months, perhaps paired with a thick, beefy chili or homemade tomato soup.
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For more inforation, visit bonniesballs.com or follow Bonnie’s Balls on Facebook and Instagram. Bonnie’s Balls are sold at the following markets:
Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday: 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Babcock Dairy Store, Babcock Hall
Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
The Conscious Carnivore (coming this fall)
Monday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Monday-Friday 11 p.m.-5 p.m.
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