Honestly I wasn't very delighted when I saw this month's Daring Bakers challenge - hosted by Elle and Deborah. I'm a lazy cook, this recipe seemed very elaborated to me. In addition I saw that some of my fellow DB's had problems with a soupy cheesecake. So I was scared too! In spit of all that - as a "real" Daring Baker - I accepted this challenge.

Unbelievable, my cheesecake came out just perfect.

It had the right consistence to form the pops, but still it was toilsome to form them. I'm not a patient person, so I filled half of the cheesecake in ice cream molds and freeze them as well as the pops. I don't know yet how I will serve them, frozen or not? That night I slept well.

The next day my personal nightmare began: The topping! I melted dark chocolate and everything did go more or less smoothly. So I'm quite happy with my Cheesecake Pops. At the end of the day I was happy I took the challenge. Thank you Elle and Deborah!

Cheesecake Pops
recipe halved and converted to grams

570 g cream cheese at room temperature (I used low fat cream cheese)
200 g sugar
15 g all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 small eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
30 g heavy cream (I used crème fraîche)
Boiling water as needed

16-20 lollipop sticks

100 g 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.)

1 tablespoons walnut oil

(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

Some of the ingredients - Vanilla Extract imported from London

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, 50 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.

Frozen pops and 70 % dark 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.

More entries and recipes in English.

daring bakers

To see more Cheesecake Pops visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll

November 2007 Challenge - Tender Potatoe Bread
December 2007 Challenge - Yule Log
January 2008 Challenge - Lemon Meringue Pie
February 2008 Challenge - French Bread
March 2008 Challenge - Perfect Party Cake

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