Chocolate Dipped Cheesecake Lollipops – April’s Daring Bakers Challenge

This months Daring Bakers challenge is brought to us by Elle & Deborah… who in my opinion are the 2 smartest ladies on the Daring Bakers Blogroll!!! This is by far my FAVORITE challenge!!!! They got this recipe from “Sticky, Chewy, Messy, and Gooey” by Jill O’Connor. This is a great title for a cookbook… but after this challenge I am going to just start referring to it as my Bible. As soon as I read this recipe I KNEW I had to have this book. Just thumbing through it I have found at least 15 recipes that I just HAVE TO try! I am so excited… stay tuned in for those later.

My favorite part of this challenge is that I got to dip my lollipops into all kinds of toppings. And I did EVERYTHING!!!!! I had granola, mint candy, pecans, cashews, pistachios, almonds, dried cranberries, and of course sprinkles. And I did them all in BOTH in Ghirardelli’s white chocolate & milk chocolate. I wrapped each one in a little baggie and tied it off with a cute little bow. They looked so fantastic and made me just giddy to look at them. Not to mention that they are just pure UNADULTERATED YUMMINESS!!!!

The only problem that I encountered on this challenge was my appetite. When I was scooping the cheesecake into balls my fingers and hands were all covered in cheesecake and I couldn’t stop eating my hands!!!! I must have washed my hands about a 100 times (have to wash hands after licking them…. Don’t put back into the batter!!!!). So today my hands feel all dry, lesson learned keep a bottle of lotion next to the kitchen sink.

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.

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 2, 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 confectionery chocolate pieces) as needed.