Daring Bakers: Cheesecake Pops

Yeah! It's Daring Bakers time again! I was glad to see that this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge was from the cookbook “Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey” by Jill O'Connor. I have been eyeing that book and decided this was a good excuse to finally buy it. (Like I need an excuse, lol) There are SO many wonderful-looking recipes; I want to make them all!

The challenge was Cheesecake Pops, chosen by Elle at Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah at Taste and Tell. You'll find the recipe on Deborah's site. Thanks so much for hosting this month, girls.

Quite a few Daring Bakers had problems with the cheesecake being undercooked at the recommended 35 to 45 minutes baking time. I baked mine for an hour and 15 minutes. It was done just fine and in fact, I might try shaving 5 minutes off the time if I bake it again.

I didn’t get any cracking on top. See how nice it turned out…

After the cheesecake was cooled overnight we were to scoop out balls then place the sticks in them and freeze, then dip in chocolate. I thought the scooping would be just that, scooping it out and plopping it on the wax paper. But no, they didn’t scoop nicely so I had to roll each one by hand. I can’t say that I enjoyed that part. Cheesecake tends to get sticky real quick, so I had to wash my hands after every 4 pops or so.

The chocolate dipping went well, nothing eventful to report there. I only got 5 to 6 pops out of the freezer at a time so they stayed firm while dipping.

The verdict: I give the cheesecake an “A”. It was very tasty, very creamy and light. I might just have a new favorite. (My old standby is by Alton Brown. You can find the recipe on the Food TV website -> here. )

The pops, I give a “B+“. I thought they were adorable and there are so many options for decorating. But, they were a little difficult to eat. The cheesecake got soft around where the sticks were inserted and tended to fall off the sticks. That left me eating them with my fingers, which was messy. However, eating cheesecake is never a bad thing, even if it’s a little messy, lol. If I make them again, I think I'll make them smaller... you know, bite-size, so you can eat them in one shot. I'm guessing that would upgrade them to an "A".

I’m glad I tried them. Cheesecake pops are something different and unexpected and this was a fun challenge.

I'll end with my favorite shot, I call it "Cheesecake Pops at the Disco".

Enjoy!