Cheesecake Pops - Daring Bakers

This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was the lip smacking good cheesecake pops. These frozen treats were apt for the season and were a big hit with whoever got a chance to grab a pop!

This was again my first time at making a cheesecake. I have tasted cheesecake only once before and it never occurred to me to make it at home. Being a Daring Baker is motivation enough to try the untried :-D



The recipe here is as provided to us, what I did is in italics.

You will need: (Makes 30 – 40 Pops)

5 8-oz. packages Cream Cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
30-40 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped (Milk, Dark, or a mix of both)
2 tbsp Vegetable shortening

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. Set a pot of water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well ( 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. I used butter to grease the 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. I had to bake mine for more than an hour for the cheesecake to firm up completely. This depends on your oven, so keep an eye.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Once it has come to room temperature you will be able to tell clearly if your cheesecake is baked through and firm or not. 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. I did not use any shortening while melting the chocolate. I used half semi sweet and half milk chocolate. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

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.

I rolled few of the pops in a mix of chopped walnuts and hazelnuts and the rest in sprinkles. These pops were so much fun to make except shaping the balls part which was messssyyyy, but all in all, worth every bit of the effort. My friends had come over on Friday evening for a small tea party, and they all loved it, so I was glad I made the whole recipe (was planning to halve it initially)

It is important to work very quickly while dipping the pops in chocolate, because the chocolate sets on the pops in the blink of an eye and also the melted chocolate will begin to thicken too.

Thanks to Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell for this wonderful DB challenge.

Another truly tasty challenge completed! :)