Cheesecake Pops

April 27, 2008 at 6:00 am | Posted in Daring Bakers, Dessert | 51 Comments

Cheesecake Pops! This month’s Daring Bakers Challenge was Cheesecake Pops! I had a lot of fun on this challenge and will definitely make these again. Here are some of my creations…

White Chocolate with Oreo:

White Chocolate with Springtime Sprinkles:

Dark Chocolate with Rainbow Jimmies:

Dark Chocolate with Sweetened Coconut:

Of course, I did encounter some challenges with this one. I followed the recipes to a “t”. My cheesecake needed more than 55 minutes to bake. When I pulled it out of the oven, it looked like this…

I allowed the cheesecake to cool completely and then let it set up in the refrigerator overnight. The next day I attempted to roll my cheesecake into balls, but found that my cheesecake was still a bit soupy in the middle.

Wanting to use the cheesecake I had made, I decided to dump the finished cheesecake into my kitchen-aid. With a paddle attachment I let it run for a minute. It turned into baked cheesecake liquid that was thick enough to be filled into a pastry bag. Then I piped the cheesecake out into rounds and let these set up in the freezer…

Once frozen, they were so easy to dip. I think it actually made for a much neater and easier way to get the cheesecake into pops.

At first I thought it was a drawback that they had to be kept in the freezer. Turns out it was perfect for my family. It was like eating ice cream on a stick. Yep, I’ll make these again soon.

Thanks to Elle at Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah at Taste and Tell for this fun challenge! And be sure to check out the thousands of other Cheesecake Pops on the Daring Bakers Blogroll!

The recipe…

Cheesecake Pops

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, 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

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 confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

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