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Pop Goes The World…

Well, this was a Daring Baker first for me. No, it’s not that I haven’t made this before, it’s that I have never waited until the day it was due to do the challenge! AHHHHH. I thought I had more time, guess not.

This month’s challenge comes from Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. They selected Cheesecake Pops from one of my newer cookbooks, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. These fell into the messy category as the dipping in the chocolate and the flying sprinkles everywhere got a little messy. Then again, I was in a bit of a hurry. 🙂

These fun little pops would be a great thing to make with your kids or to serve at one of their parties. They can be formed into many shapes. If I had a little more time to be creative, I would have gone that route. Even if you are not a kid, these are certainly tasty…I mean it’s cheesecake on a stick…covered in chocolate!

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 ¢â¬â€œ 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 ¢â¬â€œ 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 ¢â¬â€œ 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 ¢â¬â€œ 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¢â¬â„¢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.

Source: Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O¢â¬â„¢Connor

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Comments

  1. heheheeee! Time flies doesn’t it? Well I am SO RELIEVED you’ve posted.. I’ve been clickin’ all day. 😛

    They are very cute! Well done on the fly, Gracie my love!

    xoxooxo

    Reply

  3. I love the triangles – it made me realize that these would be great as little Christmas trees for the holidays! I’m glad you were able to do the challenge – they look wonderful!

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  14. Errr, I mean blue and yellow – not green. That’s the border at the side. Must move away from the screen. Too much time on the computer is making my eyes cross.

    Reply

  18. Nice to see your post and glad I wasn’t the only one who waited until the last minute! Your pops are totally cute and fun 🙂 I can just imagine the flinging of chocolate and sprinkles!

    Reply

  24. These are so pretty and colorful! I love seeing how creative everyone has gotten with these. The pink sprinkles are especially lovely.

    Reply

  32. I made mine early in the month but for some reason thought I had a lot more time to write the post, I was scrambling to get it done tonight, (of course, I had all day to do it, but morel hunting got in the way).

    Reply

  34. You’re still on time and those are cute and creative pops. Like you say, cheesecake on a stick and chocolate…what’s not to like?

    Reply

  36. i waited till day-of, too (but i have done that on a few challenges before)! this time it was an accident, as i had it in my head that it was due on the 30th. love your pastel decorations!

    Reply

  39. a hurry or not, these pops look terrific!! oops, i see someone else just wrote that, haha. well basic shapes or not, i love the spring colors!

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  57. They look great none the less! I would like to try white chocolate next time I make these. I ended up using milk chocolate this go around.

    Reply

  67. I love the triangle shape! Your pops look beautiful with the way the sprinkles stand out.

    Yeah, made the cheesecake on midnight, then finished the pops on Sunday. That has been the latest I’ve ever finished a challenge.

    Reply

  80. Welcome to my world Peabody. Hey… at least you got it posted on time. 🙂 And you did a great job of capturing this whimsical challenge photographically.

    Reply

  84. I LOVE that you made them in triangles… do you like the flavor with the white chocolate? I wanted to use it, but I was afraid (from the comments about white chocolate being harder to use).

    Yours are just adorable…
    :o)

    Reply

  85. I like the beautiful color combos–mine thought they were going to be triangles, but when push came to shove they changed their minds and insisted on ball shapes. Sigh.

    Reply

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