Daring Bakers: Cheesecake Pops

This month's Daring Bakers challenge--posed by Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell--was a recipe for cheesecake pops from the book "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" by Jill O'Connor.  (Isn't that the greatest title ever?)

The original recipe would have made 40 pops, so I halved it and baked the cheesecake in an 8 inch pan instead of a 10 inch pan.  That part worked great.  I also halved the dipping chocolate, which didn't work as well.  I ended up with 24 cheesecake pops, but only enough chocolate to cover about 15 of them.  Not a big deal--because we certainly didn't need more than that--but something to keep in mind if quantity is important.

These tasted very good, as one might expect from cheesecake on a stick!  They had just the right amount of chocolate per bite of cheesecake.  The stick was more pretty than functional; the cheesecake balls wanted to slip off of it, but that could have been partly because I didn't have enough chocolate to really coat the tops.  (And yes, these were done in Jayhawk colors on purpose.  I made them for the North Carolina game--they must be lucky!)

For the recipe, read on....

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature

2 cups sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

Comments

[Andrea]

Yes, I love the title of this book, too! Your pops look great, so festive!

[Deborah]

Your pops look great!! I love the ribbon on the sticks. Very festive!

[Dolores]

I also had mixed luck with the sticks, used way more dipping chocolate than the recipe called for and loved the chocolate cheesecake combination. Great job!