Cheesecake Pops

This is twice now that I’ve suddenly noticed Daring Baker posts all over the interwebs a little early. I quickly found that we were able to post three days before the end of the month. Regardless, I learned my lesson in reading the fine print and got to the recipe. … And then I found how many it made. Not typically a huge fan of cheesecake, I decided to reduce the recipe. Shrunken by more than half, the recipe made about a dozen of these little delights and they were fantastic. Even for me – revealing that bite sized portions really are an amuse for my bouche.

I’ve been quite lucky lately getting these great recipes challenges to make with the surplus of birthdays in my house.
My son, my sous chef, turns 3 tomorrow, so the last of the terrible two tantrums were taken out on me not letting him lick the raw batter fast enough. You might assume he enjoyed it – thoroughly.

I wanted to jazz these up a bit for the adults coming to the party who rarely gorge on cake in the same way three year olds can. I’d recently been out specialty food shop browsing and discovered this great line of Belgian chocolate bars. The flavour combinations included, Provincial Lavender, White Pepper and Cardamom from Guatemala and Japanese Matcha, just to name a few. So after dipping the cheesecake pops, I melted down the 1oz Matcha and drizzled it over. Mmmm.

Such a fun recipe co- hosted by Deborah at Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiams . Even if you’re not in the middle of a birthday mayham, they’re fun and they’re good – give them a try.

CHEESECAKE POPS
Adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey
by Jill O’Connor
Makes about 10 pops

1 – 8oz Package Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon All Purpose Flour
Pinch of Salt
1 large Egg
1 Egg Yolk
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 Tablespoon Heavy Cream, 35% whipping
4 oz Semi-Sweet chocolate, good quality chips or chopped chunks
1 teaspoon Vegetable Shortening
Lollipop Sticks or Candy Apple Skewers
Sprinkles, Sanding Sugar or Contrasting Chocolate for decoration

Preheat oven to 325F. 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 egg and the egg yolk, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition.
Beat in the vanilla and cream.
Pour the batter into a wide loaf pan, coated with cooking spray. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the loaf pan.
Bake until the cheesecake is firm in the center 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 stick or a straw into each cheesecake ball.
Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

In a small saucepan, heat the chocolate and 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.

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. Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set.
Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.