Sunday, April 27, 2008

Cheesecake pops with the Daring Bakers

food April 2008 081 #2

Here it is, the end of the month already and time for another installment of the Daring Bakers. This months challenge was hosted by Deborah from Taste and Tell and Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms. I have to say that I was so excited when I found out that the challenge was Cheesecake pops. Cheesecake is one of my all time favorite desserts and I knew that I would have no problem making and eating this delectable treat.

pink_db

The recipe was pretty straight forward. Bake a crustless cheesecake in a water bath, chill and scoop into balls. Freeze the balls with a lollipop stick in them and then dunk in tempered chocolate and coat with various toppings. The only thing that I found wrong with the recipe was the baking time. The recipe called to bake the cheesecake for 35-45 minutes and mine took about 60. That is a pretty huge discrepancy, but it seems that many of the Daring Bakers had the same problem. It makes me wonder if the recipe was written wrong in the cookbook as I have never baked so large a cheesecake in less than 50-60 minutes. Luckily having baked several cheesecakes before, I knew not to take it out so early.

The recipe turned out a silky smooth cheesecake that was extremely delicious. I will admit that I only made half of the recipe into the pops (which still gave me 30-40 pops). The rest I ate bite by bite throughout the day gaining me 5 extra pounds that week, but oh was it worth it! (I just can't resist cheesecake!!!)

I treated the cheesecake pops like caramel apples. I dressed part of the batch in dark chocolate and sprinkles, another part of the batch with dark chocolate, walnuts and chewy caramel. The last part of the batch I dipped directly into the hot chewy caramel and then into walnuts and then drizzled them with dark chocolate. I did have a bit of trouble dipping them into the caramel as it needed to be at a higher temperature to be thin enough to dip. This caused the cheesecake to start to melt a little and 2 or three of the bites fell off of the sticks. No matter they still tasted delicious with their chewy outer shell and their velvety centers. All in all it was a great challenge and one that I am likely to repeat.

food April 2008 067#2

Cheesecake Pops

food April 2008 064 #3

adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor
Makes 30 – 40 Pops (or more if you make them small like I did)

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs (I used 3 eggs when I baked half the recipe without a problem)
2 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean, seeded
¼ cup heavy cream
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, chopped or in chips
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) I also used cut chocolate transfer sheets.
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. (Mine took 55-60 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 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 to 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.

The Best Ever Caramel

(adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe for caramel apples)

1 1-pound box dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Whipping cream (if necessary)

Combine all ingredients except for the whipping cream in heavy 2 1/2-quart saucepan (about 3 inches deep). Stir with wooden spatula or spoon over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves (no crystals are felt when caramel is rubbed between fingers), occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush, about 15 minutes.

Attach clip-on candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat to medium-high; cook caramel at rolling boil until thermometer registers 236°F, stirring constantly but slowly with clean wooden spatula and occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush, about 12 minutes. Pour caramel into metal bowl (do not scrape pan). Submerge thermometer bulb in caramel; cool, without stirring, to 200°F, about 20 minutes.

If caramel becomes too thick to dip into, add 1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream and briefly whisk caramel in bowl over low heat to thin.

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32 comments:

Anonymous said...

The caramel looks so delicious! I thought the cheesecake was extremely delicious also.

Anonymous said...

Caramel is my favortie, wonderful pops!

Sheltie Girl said...

Ohhh these look simply decadent. Yummmmm!

Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go

Ramona said...

So yummy! Thanks for stopping by

Katrina said...

oh wow.... the caramel looks scrumptious! Fabulous job!

Proud Italian Cook said...

Kristen, Wow!! That last picture is to die for!!!

Mary said...

I love that you added caramel to yours! I bet that tasted fantastic! They look great too.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Kristen I've been waiting for these - chocolate, caramel - I knew somebody had to do it.
My goodness they do look lush! Great job!!

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

They look awesome! I love the dark chocolate, caramel and walnut combination. Nice blog you havd and great music!

Veron said...

oooh these cheesecakes pop are fantastic. I'm drawn to the caramel ones.

Jade Is Green! said...

Wow they look sooo yummy. The caramel is making me swoon!

Phoebe said...

Am feeling warm and fuzzy just by imagining dark chocolate and caramel together! Lovely lovely combo! :)

Unknown said...

Ohh...they do resemble caramel apples, really stylish and fancy caramel apples! Yum!

maybelles mom said...

love the addition of caramel. great job.

steph- whisk/spoon said...

yum! i bet the caramel is fantastic with this! great idea!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Your pops look absolutely scrumptious! I love the decoration...

Cheers,

Rosa

Helene said...

A success! I love the idea of the caramel! Great way to challenge yourself!

Rosie said...

Oooooh gosh what flavoursome beautiful pops!! Just adore the caramel great idea :)

Rosie x

April said...

I love the caramel!! Your pops look wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! You dipped some in caramel? I bet they tasted divine.

Deeba PAB said...

I LOVE the way you dressed 'em Kirsten...the pops are beautiful. Can only dream of how luscious caramel, chcolate & walnuts must have tasted. Really really nice!!

Meandering Eats said...

Caramel's one of my favorite things, so I loved the drizzle on your lovely cheesecake pops. Great job!

Lunch Buckets said...

Nice job, that caramel looks delicious!

Pamela said...

Caramel...yum! those look delicious

Unknown said...

Caramel yummy! Your pops are wonderful! I hope your children enjoyed them as much as my little one did!

creampuff said...

Oh, the caramel!!! Yummy ... they're so decadent!

Jaime said...

looks like we were on the same wave length :) it was tricky dipping them in caramel w/o it gooping and dripping all off i think...but in the end it was worth it :)

PheMom said...

These look soooo good. I thought about caramel but I wasn't brave enough to try to pull it off. Now with this recipe next time I will try for sure. Incredible job.

Elle said...

Caramel apple cheesecake pops! Great idea...and they are so pretty.

Deborah said...

Cheesecake dipped in caramel? I could eat one (or 10) of these in a heartbeat! Great job on this challenge!

Barbara said...

Great job, caramel....yum!

Anonymous said...

oh god ! I 've never seen so gorgeous pops !!!! the caramel is ... indecent :))))) you've done a so great job !