30 Minute Cheesy Baked Olive Dip

This cheesy olive dip comes together in just 30 minutes and is loaded with salty, briny olive flavors that your guests will love! This creamy, crowd-pleasing appetizer can be made up to 5 days in advance so it’s the perfect make-ahead dip for your next get-together!

 

You Will Love This

• If you’re into olives, you are going to LOVE this easy recipe! It’s quick, easy, and loaded with olives along with plenty of cheese to make it super creamy and delicious!
• If you loved this cheesy baked olive dip, be sure to check out my Simple Olive Tapenade, Baked Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Easy Marinated Feta, and my Olive Oil Braised Chickpeas.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Sour Cream – Opt for full fat sour cream in this olive dip recipe. It will give you the best flavor and texture.
• Cream Cheese – Again, full fat cream cheese is best for this dip. Don’t compromise the flavor and texture with low-fat or fat-free. Some recipes call for mayonnaise but I prefer to get the rich, creamy flavor from cream cheese instead.
• Fresh Garlic – If you don’t have fresh cloves of garlic on hand, you can sub about a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and add more to taste, but fresh sliced garlic is going to give you the best flavor.
• Shredded Mozzarella – I like to grab a block of cheese and shred it myself because it’s cheaper and it melts better than pre-shredded cheeses which are coated in cellulose (to help prevent the cheese from clumping together).
• Shredded Parmesan – You could use shredded or grated Parmesan for this recipe and either will yield great results!
• Black & Green Olives – I like to use a mixture of both green and black olives, usually manzanilla olives and Kalamata olives. But if you prefer one over the other, just use more of them! Feel free to add some capers in there too if you’re a caper lover like me.

Instructions

Add sour cream, cream cheese, garlic, half the mozzarella, half the Parmesan, and a few hearty pinches of salt along with a pinch of pepper to a bowl. Mix until well combined.

Add sliced olives.

Gently fold them in.

Transfer the cream cheese mixture to a greased 9×9 baking dish or medium sized cast iron skillet. Spread in an even layer.

Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Then broil for 1-2 minutes or until the mozzarella on top starts to get dark golden brown.

Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and serve with crispy crostini, sliced French baguette, crackers, chips, or veggies. Enjoy!

Make Ahead Instructions

• This dip is the perfect make-ahead appetizer! You can assemble the dip up to 5 days in advance before baking. Just make sure to cover it tightly with foil and refrigerate.
• About an hour or so before you’re ready to bake the olive dip, pull it out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter to come to room temperature. Then bake according to recipe directions, but plan to add 10-15 minutes or so to the total bake time to account for the cool temp of the dip.
• If you’re baking the dip after refrigerating, I recommend leaving it covered tightly with foil while you bake it. This will trap the heat and allow it to warm through more quickly. Once baked and warmed, then remove the foil and broil for that melted cheesy layer.
• The best way to test if the dip is warmed through is to stick a butter knife directly in the center for a few seconds, then remove and carefully touch the knife – BE CAREFUL, it may be hot. Once the knife comes out warm/hot, then you know the dip is warmed completely through.

Tips

• The cream cheese and sour cream will mix together best when they’re both at room temperature. I typically leave them out on my counter for 30-60 minutes (depending on what kind of weather we’re having) so that they can soften up a bit. It’s more of an issue to have the cream cheese at room temp but it’s nice when the sour cream is as well.
• For pretty presentation, you can reserve a handful of olives when you’re folding them into the dip. Then when the dip is baked toss the reserved olives on top of the dip and garnish with parsley. I like to do this when I’m serving it for guests so that everyone knows there is olives in it.

Serve With

• homemade crispy crostini
• garlic and herb focaccia bread
• Ritz crackers
• sliced French bread
• pita bread
• sliced carrots, cucumber, and bell peppers

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