Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Daring Bakers do it again! Cheesecake Lollipops!


What a wonderful and fun recipe this was. Out of all of the things that I have made for the Daring Bakers challenges this is probably one of my favorites. The only problem that I had with this one was the time frame. I really thought I had until the end of the month. Thank goodness yesterday I registered with the new Daring Baker Forum and saw that I needed to post today!!! Needless to say I got started right away!

This recipe was easy, straight forward and delicious! The only problem I had was the length of time it took to bake. But I had checked out the forum and I was prepared for this. I made mine in a 9 inch square pan and it took close to 75 minutes to be set properly. The great thing about this though is once it was set it was a breeze to work with. I was able to hand roll them into balls with virtually no trouble at all. I did not have lollipop sticks so I used 6 inch bamboo skewers.

Hosting this month’s event is Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell. Thank you Elle and Deborah for hosting D.B. this month.

Cheesecake Pops (Jill O'Connor's Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.)

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.

For toppings I used cinnamon graham crumbs, chopped pistachio's and assorted sprinkles.



Would I make this again?: I loved the cheesecake recipe so I would definitely make a cheesecake using this recipe but the lollipops...maybe not. It was pretty messy and I had 2 sets of little hands trying to help me and it just ended up really messy although they had a ton of fun doing it. To try and transport them somewhere would be almost impossible as well. They tasted great though and as I said I LOVED the cheesecake!

Once again thanks Daring Bakers for taking me out of my comfort zone (which right now isn't too hard)!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

23 comments:

Pixie said...

They look great and bamboo skewers were a good choice!

Proud Italian Cook said...

It's a good thing stepping out of are comfort zone now and then, just look what you created! Great job!

glamah16 said...

Great job Judy.You look like you had a ball( no pun intended) making these.

Lis said...

Too cute! Very time consuming recipe, but I'm tickled with the results.. and to see all of your creations is such a treat!

Very nice job, Judy :D

xoxo

Helene said...

Happy belated birhtday! You did a wonderful job with the pops! All the decorations are superb!

Jade Is Green! said...

Wow yours are so pretty. If I make these again I hope they turn out half as good!

Unknown said...

I love your confetti! Too cute! Good thing you saw on the forum it was posted today! You did a great job by the way. I have to agree with the whole messy thing. I must've washed my hands 50 times during the rolling process.

Christine said...

well done on this challenge. The pops look beautiful!

Andrea Meyers said...

Your pops look great! They were quite messy, but still tasted yummy. :-)

Lunch Buckets said...

Your pops look nice - where on earth does everyone get those shaped confetti sprinkles? I think I have sprinkle envy.

Rosie said...

They look really stunning and I really like your idea of using bamboo skewers :)

Rosie x

Brittany said...

Oh my goodness...those look like heaven on a stick!

Sheltie Girl said...

Great job on your pops! My favorite is the pink and white ones...very pretty.

Natalie @ Gluten a Go Go

Anonymous said...

What an interesting and very tasty idea - just in time for warmer weather (if it ever gets here, that is! lol).

I never thought of using cream cheese in a frozen pop; love it!

Anonymous said...

Those look great. I know the little hands had a great time also!That was probably the best part, wasn't it?
You really did a good job.

Deborah said...

Your pops look great! Makes me want to reach into the screen and take one!

Susan @ SGCC said...

The deadline almost slipped away from me too. Your pops look great. Very festive! How fun that your girls got to help you make them. I'll bet they had a ball!

Núria said...

What beautiful pictures!!! They look lovely :D Eventhough, I'm not a fan of cheese, I think I would try one of these lolipops!

Barbara said...

I agree with you, I'd make this cheesecake again but probably wouldn't make the pops.

Yours look great!

Anonymous said...

Kids and gobs of cheesecake, yeah, I see where that might have been the real challenge of the DB challenge for this month.

I hope you have a good supply of those magic erasers to help you clean up!

creampuff said...

Nicely done!

Dharm said...

Lovely pops! You did a fantastic job Judy!

Dolores said...

I think these would be a perfect slumber party activity... as long as the parents (and the guests) are prepared for the mess and the cleanup. Great job!