Daring Bakers Challenge, Cheesecake Pops

These little Cheesecake Pops had quite the photo shoot, let me tell you!  This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell. When I first heard what the recipe was this month, I was a little apprehensive. I've never been a big cheesecake fan. But then I started to think of what I could do creatively to decorate them, and then I got really excited. My mom helped me make these little beauties. It was so much fun! And the cheesecake is sooooo delicious! That means a lot to a person who doesn't care for cheesecake in the first place. It was so creamy and sweet.



I saw that many people had problems with cooking time and so I planned on cooking mine at least an hour. My Mom said that she always cooks her cheesecakes at least an hour and fifteen minutes. And that is exactly how long mine took, and it was cooked perfectly.



It was fun rolling the cheesecake into balls and shaping them into squares. Nice and messy. I dipped the pops in white chocolate, some in milk chocolate and some in semi-sweet chocolate. We then covered them in a variety of toppings; nuts, crushed oreos, nuts, crushed heath bars, graham cracker crumbs, and sprinkles. My favorite combinations were the white chocolate and crushed oreos and milk chocolate with the crushed heath bars. In one word, delicious!



I will definitely make these again if I have a special occasion or I'm just wanting a good cheesecake! 

Cheesecake Pops
From Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

Ingredients:

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

Directions:

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.