Pop Goes The Weasel

Posted 4/27 *********Okay, okay, so the Daring Bakers challenge is supposed to be posted today, but I thought (until I saw that all my favorite DBers had posted theirs today) it wasn't supposed to be posted until Tuesday. Anywhoo, I haven't made the recipe yet... but I will! I swear! Tomorrow!

So, check back here tomorrow in the evening for the delicious and awesome (I hope) Cheesecake Pops. Thanks to Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell for hosting this month and choosing this yummy looking recipe. Check the Daring Bakers blogroll while you wait with bated breath for my recipe post tomorrow. Thanks!*********

Posted 4/28
Let it never be said that I'm always right. In fact, I'm frequently wrong. Like that time when I said I didn't like cheesecake, I was wrong. I'll admit, I raised a skeptical eyebrow when I saw the Cheesecake Pop recipe - although it sounded cool and looked like a fun recipe to put together, who, I wondered, will be eating these 35-40 cheesecake pops I'll be making??

Well, I think I figured out the answer. ME! Normally I have a problem with eating cold things... people think I'm crazy, but if its colder than room temperature, I'm not wild about it. But, as you can tell from pictures, I couldn't help myself from eating a nice chunk out of the corner of the room temperature cake. IT WAS SO GOOD!

Thanks again to Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell for opening my eyes to the wonder and deliciousness of cheesecake and the fun of making pops!


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 (I used 3 eggs when I baked half the recipe without a problem)
2 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean, seeded
¼ cup heavy cream

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, chopped or in chips
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.

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 (Randi says: took more like an hour).

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 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 to 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 paperlined 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.

We're ONE! And scallops for two.

Yay! Today the blog turns one, in case that wasn't clear. It's certainly cute and exciting to look through our old posts, especially from the beginning. Georgia and I have a big plan for our one year anniversary, but unfortunately we're not together right now to execute it, so you'll all have to wait with bated breath. But in the meantime, here's an awesome and simple scallop recipe.

I was casually careening through Whole Foods the other day, not planning on making any major purchases, as I had leftovers for Monday, a date Tuesday, and plans on Wednesday. But then gigantic sea scallops were on sale. As scallops are still kinda expensive, despite the sale, I asked for a 1/4 pound.. which amounted to a whole 2 scallops, so I got two more. Anywho, I was able to cut each into 4 smaller pieces, the perfect amount for 2 people. I'm submitting this to Presto Pasta Night @ Once Upon A Feast. Thanks Ruth :)　

I surfed around for different scallop recipes, and was tempted to make a scallop carbonara, but opted for a (slightly) lighter, basic scampi as Georgia was headed to a volleyball game after dinner. I've been kinda frightened of making scallops - fearing I would spend a lot of money and then overcook them and have them turn tough. Ick. On the contrary, they were super creamy and delicious. I don't know that I'd use pasta with this dish again, maybe rice, but the scallops were incredible and pasta was heaty and filling. I did this by eye, but I'll guess at measurements in the directions


Scallops Pseudo-Scampi

scallops
butter
olive oil
salt
pepper
white wine
flour
garlic
spinach
pasta

If the scallops still have the tough arm-thing, pull that off. Rinse scallops well, and then pat dry with a paper towel. In a ziplock bag (this is just how I like to do it), put two tbs of flour and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Put the scallops in the bag, close it, and toss to close the scallops.

Heat 1/2 tbs of oil and 1/2 tbs of butter in a saute pan. On high-med heat, place each scallop into the pan, making sure to shake excess flour from scallops. Cook 1 1/2 - 2 minutes on each side. When scallops are lightly browned, remove to a plate. In the meantime, heat up water and cook as much pasta (or rice) as you'd like.

Depending on how much sauce you want, add 1/4 to 2/3 of a cup of white wine to the pan, letting it deglaze and cook down on low-med heat. When wine has reduced by half, add in 1 to 2 cloves of chopped (or minced, depending how you like your garlic) garlic to the pan. Let that further cook for a few minutes, and in the meantime wilt spinach in another pan with a drop of olive oil. Add the scallops back into the pan with the spinach, warming, for another minute. Serve with pasta (or rice). TADA!