Cheesecake Pops

When I saw that this month’s recipe was for cheesecake I was a little worried, mostly due to my lack of experience making it. However this recipe was for cupcake pops and who doesn’t love food on a stick? And as luck would have it, about a week before I heard about this mission I had offered to make cheesecake as a birthday treat for a coworker, Angela. It was official; this mission would be made just for her. 

The day I started to make this began innocently enough. Everything was going well until step one; I tried to find a pan with tall enough sides to hold a ten inch cake pan but I didn’t own one! The largest roasting pan I had could hold my nine-inch pan, so I decided I had to go with that. I forged ahead.

I prepared the batter as directed, poured it into my cake pan, filled my roasting pan with near-boiling water (that was trickier than I expected) and put the cake in the oven. And because I had to use a smaller pan, I had a fair amount of batter left over. That was when I decided to be a rebel and create not one but two types of cheesecake pops: the “Challenge” version and a slightly modified version. The modified version was made using my new Wilton silicone pan that had 24 1”x1” squares. I prepared the pan the same way I did using the 9” metal one and also baked them in a water bath. The results of each pan were dramatically different. I’ll recap the “Challenge” ones first.

The 9” metal cake pan took an eternity to bake. I had it in the oven for close to 80 minutes and I’m not even convinced that it was finished baking. However since the toothpick came out clean, I took it out of the oven against my better judgment. I let it cool overnight in the fridge and eagerly began the second phase of the recipe.

The top of the cake looked so pretty with its soft, golden brown hue; it seemed like such a shame to have to turn it into mush, but I did anyway. This was when I started to get annoyed. Attempting to shape the cheesecake into a ball shape was akin to rolling a blob of toothpaste in between my hands; it just stuck to me and oozed in between my fingers! I was only able to produce a small ball-like shape but it was nowhere near the required two ounces. So I’m improvised. I prepared a 9”x9” brownie pan with waxed paper, filled it up with the cheesecake mush, put a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface, and stuck it into the freezer for about three hours. Once it was really good and solid, I pulled it out of the freezer and cut the block of cheesecake into about 20 two-ounce chunks. They started to get soft fairly quickly so pushed a hollow lollipop stick into each one and put them back into the freezer to harden.

I decided to make two options for the outer shell. First, I melted a bar of Hershey’s Symphony Milk Chocolate with almonds and toffee in a double boiler. I successfully enrobed six pops and then stuck them back into the freezer. I finished the rest of the pops with a pound or so of melted semisweet chocolate chips. I had the hardest time getting the chocolate to thin out though! I had to add several spoonfuls of vegetable shortening to get the chocolate to the point where it was viscous enough to cooperate. I had to work really fast because the melted chocolate was thawing the cheesecake which would then cause the pops to break apart and fall back into the chocolate. I lost several pops this way. The ones that survived got a either a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips or of rainbow sprinkles and were quickly put back into the freezer.

As for the experimental “square” pops, these were much more of a success. I baked these for about a half hour and each square baked perfectly. The texture was much more firm and I didn’t have to keep freeze them at all. They were ready to go once they had cooled from the oven. I coated them in pink Candy Melts and decorated them with pink, orange, and yellow sprinkles. I didn’t lose any of them to breakage either. These also traveled really well too and they kept forever. I ate the last ones about two weeks after they were made and they still tasted really good. I think these would be a fun option for a bake sale.
When it came time to send the pops to my work,, I was convinced that they would arrive as a vat of cheesecake and chocolate goo. However to my delight they were fine. I packed them in a container lined with ice packs and promptly put them in the freezer until they were served. Later on that day I received several really wonderful comments from coworkers about the bigger, two ounce pops.

So, even though these were kind of a pain to make, in the end they were delicious and allowed me to use some of my creativity. Everyone that had one really seemed to like them too. The flavor of the cheesecake was really very good and the texture was what I think a cheesecake should be. It was very light and just melts in your mouth. The flavor was subtle and not too cream cheesy.

I learned a lot from this challenge. It really pushed me to get creative and to think on my feet. I wonder what next month will bring?

Cheesecake Pops
Yield: After all the casualties I ended up with 15 big, two ounce pops and 24 square ½ oz pops. The original recipe says it makes 45.
From the book: Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 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, confectionery coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Optional
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) -

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat 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 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 spring form 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.