This was our first challenge and we were both very excited, we love cheesecake around here. The younger kids were more excited about eating them off of sucker sticks. Makes everything taste better don’t ya know.

 First off, the cheesecake. While it did take longer than the recipe stated, I was prepared for it to. I’ve never baked a cheesecake for less than an hour. It is creamy, tart and just right. One of the best recipes I’ve ever used for cheesecake.

 We used wafer chocolate because I have a slight addiction to buying it. We had a few different colors to choose from. Brie was the chocolate picker this go around. She loves chocolate dipped strawberries so that’s how we did them. The red chocolate is flavored with strawberry flavoring and the chocolate is bittersweet dark chocolate. Man, they are goood! The bittersweet cuts back on the really sweet and rich flavor of the strawberry and cheesecake. A perfect match for us.

 The actual making of the cheesecake balls were easy. I used my handy dandy scales to make sure they were as close to the same size as I could get them, 2 oz each, and made them while dh cooked breakfast this am. (yes, I was late making it. I kept waiting on the rain to stop. Finally realized it may not do that until June and got on with it.) They were a bit large and I’m glad I bought the med sticks, but I think the smaller ones would have been too little for my brood.

 We had to work really fast, in small batches. It’s monsoon season here and the humidity is sky high, even with vent fans and the air on. Everything starts sweating badly the second you take it out of the freezer. The chocolate does not want to stick to wet things obviously. That part took us the longest.

All in all, I’d so make these again. I’ll get the other kids involved and we’ll make a big ol’ mess!

Brie’s Input:

Was not as easy as I thought it would be. Trouble with the double broiler… as my mother put it “cramps my style” < Thats lame though.

Making the cheesecake itself was messy.

It tastes gooooooooooooood. : )

Our thanks to Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms  and Deborah of Taste and Tell for picking a great recipe!

Cheesecake Pops

Adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’ Connor

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, confectionery 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 confectionery chocolate pieces) as needed.

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

Go see what other wonderful takes on this recipe our DB mates have done!

Tags: cheesecake, Daring Bakers, dessert, pops

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