Cheesecake Pops

Sorry this is a day late, but I was out of town visiting my sister!

Well well well, I wasn't impressed, though this was a challenge. I make a cheesecake every year for my husband's family's passover seder. (Future hint: I use macaroons for the crust instead of graham crackers). So, when I saw this month's recipe I thought, "Great, I'll make these instead. How cute!"

I made the cheesecake, put it in the cake pan, put in the boiling water, and let it bake...and bake...and bake. After about an hour, I finally decided I'd take it out. The top was slightly golden and it seemed pretty firm. Now, my usual recipe lets the cheesecake sit in the cooling oven for another half hour or so. Since it had baked for so long over the recommended time, I was a little weary of doing this, but decided to leave it for 10 minutes just in case. It came out, looked fine, let it cool to room temp, put it in the fridge overnight, got it out, seemed fine, dug in, definitely not "done" in the center. Certainly not soupy, but kind of like cream cheese frosting rather than cheesecake.

I decided that I'd just use the outer portion of the cheesecake and it would be fine. Even that was EXTREMELY difficult to roll into balls, even using my little mini scoop thing. And can I just complain that I had to rearrange my entire freezer, and then refrigerator for these "pops." Into the freezer they went until dipping time. I was hoping they'd be ok since when I stuck them in the freezer they weren't exactly "pretty balls!"

BUT, once they were dipped and decorated (a feat in itself and a very messy kitchen, but fun and creative at the same time), I got excited about them. I stuck them back in the freezer for a couple of days and then took them to the hub's family's passover seder. (By the way, you can sub potato starch for the flour). They LOVED them. They want me to make them again next year. I'm thinking not since they were extremely time consuming. However, they were quite the challenge and turned out so cute.

If I do make these again, I think I'll go back to my usual cheesecake recipe, the one I've made many times and know it sets perfectly!

P.S. I am also submitting this to Joelen's Tasty Tool Challenge. The tool of the month is the mini ice cream scoop seen in my "soupy" cheesecake picture above.

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.

Source: Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor