Cheesecake Pops

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Well here they are! This was my second Daring Bakers challenge and I'm just getting it in under the wire. I've had a long day of cooking, cleaning, and making these suckers. I'm tired, my feet hurt, and I wanna go to bed. So, all I have to really say about this challenge is that it was fun, fairly easy but time-consuming, and this would be a great project to do with your kids if you have them. I would say wait to involve them until you're ready to dip them into the melted chocolate and then into the toppings; that part was fun I thought.

Ok, so I'm going to bed now... Here's how I made them in pictures (see recipe at the end of this post). Nah-night!

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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.

Comments

  1. Your pops look delicious! Great pictures of the process!

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  2. They look great, and I would go for the coconut one for sure.

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  3. Hope you got some sleep. Love the 'dipping in the melted chocolate' photo--I could lick my screen! Nice job this month!

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  4. Are those silver dragées I see? Those are some chic cheesecake pops you made!

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  5. barbara - Thanks! It was a fun challenge.

    jenny - Yeah, I love coconut too and I had some left over from last month's challenge!

    Bumblebutton - Yes, I hated posting so quickly without much explanation, but I simply ran out of time! Oh well, I feel rested now. :-) Wonder what the challenge will be for May!?

    Katie - Yes, I tried dipping a couple pops into the little silver balls (had some left over from Christmas cookie day last year), but I realized that they are a little too hard to have coating the outside of these pops and might break someone's teeth if they're not careful! So I decided not to use them. But thanks for the compliment!

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  6. Beautiful looking pops you got there.

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  7. I'm glad you made them! They look great - I love all of the different toppings.

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  8. and this would be a great project to do with your kids if you have them

    which is why i declined the challenge...

    but you did a good enough job for both of us!

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  9. amber and deborah - thank you!

    CEF - I don't have kids either, which is why I took most of these to work and fed them to my co-workers!

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  10. Great job! Love the variety and colors.

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  11. That looks so good and pretty easy! I'm so ready to make them for my sister's engagement party.

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  12. Great looking cheesecake pops!

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  13. You did a wonderful job on the pops! They look beautiful.

    Natalie @ Gluten a Go Go

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  14. Barbara, Kevin, and Sheltie Girl - thank you! I'm off to check yours out now!

    Marcia - please let me know how they turn out if you decide to make them! I think you'll have a lot of fun. Remember, the key is to keep them chilled or they'll get too soft.

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  15. wasn't it difficult to take photos while dipping your pops in the chocolate ?????
    great result ! well done ;)

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  16. Nice pops, you got them so nice and smooth and round. Great job!

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  17. I have just stumbled upon your blog. I love the clean design and fantastic photos. I am a blogger myself and always thought that design was key and you have certainly captured that! There are so many food blogs out there these days and being different to all the others is key. I have just started www.ifoods.tv which is a website for chefs, foodies and food bloggers to hand out, share recipes, photos and videos. When i was blogging I always thought i should be getting more traffic as my blog was getting lost in the masses of stuff out there so my new site is aimed at giving food bloggers and chefs a bigger platform! Hope you enjoy it and keep up the good writing and design here! I have now bookmarked you so will be regular reader, Cheers!

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  18. marion - not really, I take one-handed pictures all the time so I can show the action of cooking and readers can get a better idea of what it looks like when these recipes are made. and thanks!

    jacque - thank you!

    private chef - thank you for the compliment on my site! I really appreciate it. I am trying to be different from many of the other blogs by showing the recipes that I prepare in a step-by-step fashion. I believe that this will make intimidating recipes look a little more attainable for some people that may think cooking is harder than it really is. I enjoy it and it's always nice to hear when someone else is getting joy out of it, too. I'll have to go take a look at your site! thanks again!

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  19. wow, your cheesecake turned out awesome! Pops look great!

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