Cheesecake Fiasco begins

Admittedly, I approached this month's Daring Baker's Challenge with "Oh that will be easy." This month’s challenge was from Deborah of Taste and Tell and Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms .They chose a fun party recipe for chocolate coated cheesecake pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. Now that the challenge is over I can safely say that I have no intention of making cheese cake pops again! I am a cheesecake devotee, unfortunately my dear husband does not share my sentiments, so I don't make cheesecake very often. This challenge gave me the perfect excuse. This very weekend I had a dinner party planned and I thought these would make a crowning last touch.

So on Thursday night I baked the cheesecake. I decided to use amaretto for flavoring rather than the vanilla because I thought it would go well with toasted almond topping. My current oven is less than accurate or reliable, making each baking episode an adventure. This time... the cheesecake just didn't want to bake. It looked relatively done at 60 minutes so I took it out and put it in the freezer. I don't know why I just seemed to remember that the directions said to freeze the cheesecake ( but that was actually a much later step) So on Saturday, the day of my dinner I pull it out to start cutting the cheesecake pop shapes. The first two, beautiful! The next a blob of goo. Realization washed over me that it wasn't done... Oh no! and I only had a few hours until the guests were coming. So I pop it back in the oven and started to check it spastically. Needless to say I took it out a couple more times just to find that it still wasn't quite perfect because of course now the cheesecake was warm and not chilled and set. So shaping was out of the question. Before you know it , the cheesecake was back in the freezer for another round of chilling.

30 minutes before the party was to start I tried dipping a few of my creations. They looked sad and pathetic. The cheesecake wanted to fall off the popsicle sticks leaving bits in my melted chocolate... what a waste of gorgeous chocolate. So I decided to quit making them and wait until Sunday morning to make some presentable cheesecake pops.

Sunday was a whole new day and the cheesecake pops came together nicely. Instead of dipping the pops I went with a drizzling method. I topped each pop with either almonds or crushed graham cracker. The final result was delicious, but I think I will stick with more traditional cheesecake forms in the future! The amaretto was more subtle than I hoped, next time I try flavoring cheesecake with it I will probably add some almond extract. All in all I have learned a lot about trying to shape cheesecake and knowing when cheesecakes are done in an unreliable oven! Thanks Daring Bakers for bringing me in to the fold. I look forward to the next challenge!

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 amaretto

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

Assorted decorations - crushed graham crackers give a nice crunch, toasted almonds play well with the amaretto

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.

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.