Daring Bakers' Cheesecake Pops

This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was to bake Cheesecake Pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor, and the recipe was picked by Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell.
Le défi des Daring Bakers ce mois-ci est de préparer des sucettes au cheesecake d'une recette du livre Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor, et le défi a été choisi par Elle de Feeding My Enthusiasms etd Deborah de Taste and Tell.

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

pour la recette EN FRANÇAIS, cliquer ICI

Ingredients

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup 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 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, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, 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, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Method

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. 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 springform 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 confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

As always, I substituted the sugar with Splenda. Instead of forming balls, I cut into bite-sized squares and rather than using assorted decorations, I used a firm ripe fresh strawberry for each bite. I could not find any lollypop sticks, so I used hors d'oeuvre skewers. Since I was going to put a strawberry on top, I dipped the bite-sized pieces into the warm chocolate without a skewer (I used a large toothpick that I removed immediately after)
Comme toujours, j'ai remplacé le sucre par du Splenda. Au lieu de former des boules, j'ai coupé le cheesecake en petits carrés et plutôt que d'utiliser des décorations en bonbons, j'ai utilisé de belles fraises fermes et rouges pour chaque bouchée. Je n'ai pas pu trouver de bâtonnets pour les sucettes, j'ai donc utilisé des pics à hors d'oeuvres. J'ai trempé les bouchées dans le chocolat à l'aide d'un immense cure-dents que j'ai retiré aussitôt).

This is a festive treat and the size of the lollipops makes for guilt-free enjoyment. Thank you Daring Bakers for another lovely challenge.
Ce sont des bouchées festives et la taille des sucettes font qu'on peut les déguster sans se sentir coupable. Merci aux Daring Bakers pour un autre joli défi.