Cheesecake on a Stick!

Cheesecake Pops with Caramel, Chocolate
and Graham Cracker Crumbs

mmm

I've been looking forward to making these Cheesecake Pops for awhile. I knew I wanted to make them for a Halloween potluck because they resemble caramel apples, but are a delicious cheesecake. This recipe is from a book called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. It was the first time I've actually made cheesecake and I was nervous that it wouldn't come out right, but the end result was pretty and tasty, too. I think that these pops are pretty forgiving in terms of cooking the cheesecake correctly because there are so many additions to the outside of the pops.

This recipe allows you to decorate them in any way you want to and I chose to cover mine with caramel followed by milk chocolate and then I rolled them in graham cracker crumbs and drizzled them with white chocolate. I halved the recipe and used an overflowing tablespoon to portion the cheesecake pops and made 25 pops. Before the chocolate step I made a caramel and dipped the pops into the caramel and froze them before dipping them in the chocolate. Here is the original recipe!

Cheesecake Pops

Ingredients:
5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 lb chocolate, chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white
2 tbs vegetable shortening
Assorted decorations

Directions:

1. Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer set at low speed, 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 (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.
3. Lightly grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan). Pour the cheesecake batter into the cake pan and place in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with 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.
4. 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.
5. When 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 pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.
6. 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. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.
7. Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
8. Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate.
9. 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 confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.
10. Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.