April Daring Bakers - Cheese Cake Pops

This month the Daring Bakers have Elle & Deborah to thank for choosing the challenge; Cheesecake Pops!
What a wonderful sounding desert. It is New Yourk cheese cake, baked and scooped into balls, but it doesn’t stop there, the cheese cake is coated in chocolate and sprinkles.
Sound delicious? Yep.
Taste delicious? Yep.
Look cute? Hell yeah!
Easy? Err... Nope.
Firstly the cheesecake took twice as long to cook as the recipe recomended, mine baked for about 70 minutes, and was still a little too soft in the middle to stay in shape. I had to freeze the balls overnight in order to make them work.
The chocolate coating was easy. I used Green and Blacks Organic Mayan Gold Chocolate, Dark Chocolate and Milk Chocolate. I also added a bit of peppermint oil to the milk chocolate.
I played with sprinkles a little bit, I used almonds, pistachious, coconut, and 100’s and 1000’s.
I didn’t fiddle with the cheesecake at all, it was yummy and very creamy and not too sweet.
The chocolate makes a lovely crisp shell over the soft creamy cheesecake. The dark chocolate was my favorite, the mayan chocolate over powered the cheesecake a little. I loved the nuts my children loved the 100’s and 1000’s but they were a big hit all ‘round. Everyone enjoyed them and had seconds.
Would I make them again? Maybe, if someone begged me, for a special occasion.
I think I might go have another one.

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

1135g cream cheese at room temperature

400g sugar

30g 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 20cm lollipop sticks
450gms chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 450 grams of flavoured coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colours, 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, coloured jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, degrees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 160 degrees C. 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 25cm 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 its 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 colour 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.