Cheesecake Update

Hey there, just a quick tip or two for anyone wanting to try the cheesecake pops. If you're worried about what to do with all the pops a full recipe makes (30-40), or for that matter, how many a half recipe makes if you use the small scoop like I did (about 30-40)...don't worry. Pop them in the freezer. I have Mark to thank for that idea, and it was a great one. They freeze beautifully and so far (what 4 days?) they haven't frozen rock hard and I don't think they will. So, they're great to eat straight from the icebox....an especially nice treat in the summer!

DB Challenge: Cheesecake Pops

FINALLY.....I have something to post. I started this blog last week, but generally don't have time to bake until the weekend. So, I had to wait all week to finally have something to blog about. And that something is one of the Daring Bakers past challenges. Don't know anything about the Daring Bakers? Well let me tell you...There's this group out there on the web, The Daring Bakers. This group was started by a couple of women in November 2006 who decided to make pretzels using the same recipe and blog about it. Then December brought biscotti and more women joined in the fun. Fast forward a year and hundreds of members and you have the Daring Bakers. There's a new challenge every month....a secret challenge at that. And everyone posts their completed challenge on the same date. So after seeing post after post and how all the results are different and interesting, I decided I'd give one of the challenges a try.

Last month's challenge was Cheesecake Pops. The recipe was chosen by Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell from "Sticky, Chewey, Messy, Gooey" by Jill O'Connor. You can find the recipe on their blogs. I was really excited to try this one. It seemed as though it would be a lot of fun...and it was. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The cheesecake recipe was just okay I thought. But then, that could've been because I halved the recipe and sorta improvised a bit on measurements. I wasn't sure what I would be coating the cheesecake with, so besides adding some lemon juice I didn't really play up the flavor. So that's definitely an area I'd tweak when I make these again. And I will make these again. On the other hand, the chocolate recipe for dipping the cheesecake pops in was perfect. And so easy! Shortening was added to the chocolate when melting and it resulted in the perfect consistency. And when it hardened the chocolate was shiny and had that snap you look for. I didn't go crazy on the dipping flavors/coatings as this was a last minute idea. But that's where the fun and creativity comes in. I toasted some coconut, crushed up some oreos and chopped pecans. Oh, one innovation......I stirred up a couple spoonfuls of raspberry preserves until it was a bit soupy. And after freezing the cheesecake pops for about an hour, I dipped a few in the preserves and put them back in the freezer. The preserves never hardened, but it did firm up a bit and I had no trouble dipping them in the chocolate. So enough talk.... on with the pictures! Let me know what you think.

Just hanging out in the freezer waiting for some chocolate goodness!

Oreo

Coconut

Rasberry

Chopped Pecan