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.