Sunday, April 27, 2008

Cheesecake - Daring Baker Style


Yay it is nearing the end of the month and I am sure you all know what that means. It's Daring Baker time!! Elle at Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah at Taste and Tell chose this month's recipe of cheesecake pops. Although this is not a very challenging recipe it does incorporate some techniques that some bakers are not familiar with which is why this recipe was chosen.


The recipe was very self-explanatory and easy to put together but many people had problems with the bake time and cheesecakes not setting up. The recipe says to bake the cheesecake for 35-45 minutes but mine took well over an hour and I even divided the batter in half into two different pans (a 9" and a 10" springform).


After baking and chilling the cheesecake I took one of the pans and cut out flowers with my Pampered Chef creative cutters set and took the other pan and rolled them into balls. The taste of this cheesecake was wonderful, very rich and creamy. Forming the shapes was quite a sticky mess and dipping the pops in chocolate was fun but frustrating. My melted chocolate had a lot of tiny little pieces of cheesecake in it, from dipping the pops, and it was hard to keep the oreo's and crushed M&M's from falling right off the balls. All in all I will probably make these again but I would probably enlist someone to help with the rolling and dipping.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the daring bakers cheesecake pops by visiting the blogroll.

Cheesecake Pops
(Adapted from: Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor)

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

Ingredients
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


Directions
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.

36 comments:

Christine said...

Awesome job! Your cheesecake pops look so good!

Anonymous said...

Yours look so pretty! You have so many combinations. I like the white chocolate ones- I'll have to try that next time!

Jerry said...

Lovely! Glad you experimented with white and dark chocoaltes!

Jessica said...

You did a fantastic job, Amber! The color from the m&m's really make them pop (pop, get it? haha)

Liz said...

Wow! They look great! I am impressed.

Robin said...

These look great (and a lot prettier than mine!)

Deborah said...

Even though you had a bit of difficulty dipping them,they turned out beautiful! Great job on this challenge!

Lis said...

Way to go! I love how you decorated and presented them!

xoxo

Carrie said...

These look yummy, I love cheesecake, I might have to try these.

Anonymous said...

so pretty!

Anonymous said...

Really cute, the crushed oreos are a great idea!

Dagmar said...

Adorable presentation!

Mama Mia said...

your cheesecake pops look perfect! I just joined DB and will be starting next month! So excited! :)

Shelby said...

Great job Amber, the pops look so good!

Barbara said...

What cute pops! I love how you wrapped them up. It makes the look fancy.

Jaime said...

i love the packaging! too cute! i wish i had had more time to play around w/the dips/decorations like you did...

Anonymous said...

Looks great!!!!

Unknown said...

I like the mold idea, that might have helped with the inherent messiness mine seemed to suffer from!

Anonymous said...

I love your colorful pops. They look tasty!

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Great job. Your cheesecake pops look incredible!

Anonymous said...

Mmmm... oreos and m&m's... love it! Your pops look great!

Anonymous said...

Fabulous job!

That Girl said...

It might have taken a lot of time, it might have been difficult, but the final result is breathtaking!

L Vanel said...

Very creative and cute wrapping! Excellent!

Ally said...

They are beautiful Amber!

Brilynn said...

A sous chef to help with rolling and dipping would have been very useful!

Mandy said...

great job on the cheesecake pops! With the promise of tasty pops, I am sure you wouldn't have problem enlisting help from anyone.

Dolores said...

Yep, this one would definitely work well as a team project. Great job!

Carrie said...

I have nominated you for blogging with a pupose, check out my blog for details.

http://adamswife.blogspot.com/2008/04/blogging-with-purpose.html

Lunch Buckets said...

Nice job! Love the wrapped ones :)

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed at all the experimenting you did. They look great.

Texana said...

Fantastic! Hard to say which I like better, but I think the cut out ones are very elegant. The oreo ones, though, would be hard to beat.

Gigi said...

Oreo crumb toppings! *Drooling*

Anonymous said...

i love the food very much.specially chesse cake.thanks for the recipe.

creampuff said...

Amber, they're all so cute! Nice job!

Cassi said...

These were AWESOME!
I would like some more! I'm eating lunch now and these things still make me hungry!