Daring Bakers: Pop goes the cheesecake?

Every month, the Daring Baker's recipe provides me with a new challenge. I don't usually fret about whether or not I can actually make a recipe, though when sometimes is a worry, but I might fret about certain aspects of the recipe: will my gelatin bloom? will my dough rise?

Or in this case: will I have any cheesecake left to turn into pops or will I have to remake the entire recipe?

You see, I love cheesecake. I really do. No fancy sauces or toppings for me, I like plain cheesecake with a graham cracker crumb base.

So when Elle of Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell presented us with our April Challenge, Cheesecake Pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor, I was both excited and nervous. Yippee, I get to make cheesecake ! Oh dear, I get to make cheesecake.

And they want me to what? Turn them into little popsicle like balls with chocolate and candy on them? What?

That was my first thought. My second was... OMG! How many packages of cream cheese? FIVE!!! I have never seen a recipe that used that many packages. And the author expects it to fit into a 9x9 pan? No way.

I have to say, I still seriously think that has to be a typo. I don't have a 9x9 pan, so I used a large corningware and it barely fit. Think I should have gone with my 9x13 and hoped for the best.

And speaking of typos... 35 minutes? Mine went more like 80 minutes. And I'm sure it could have gone at least 5 more but I did not want to over cook my cheesecake.

However after the worry came the fun part. I melted down a pound of Callebut milk chocolate candy chips, allowing me to skip the oil or shortening needed to make the chocolate have a nice snap to it, set out bowls of candy toppings, and called in the children.

Then I had a little fun myself with a cookie cutter.

I didn't want too many pops, and the recipe was supposed to make 30-40 2 oz pops, so I continued on with the ice cream theme. Sure looks like an ice cream sundae, doesn't it?

Ice cream sandwiches are a favorite thing of mine to make in the summer (we like chewy oatmeal raisin cookies with vanilla frozen yogurt), so how could I resist making a few "ice cream" sandwiches with the remaining cheesecake and chocolate? I personally did not eat one of these but I have it from a good authority (as in the person who ate the most of these) that these were Mmmmmmmm.

In the end, this challenge was fun, though a bit expensive in cream cheese and chocolate (and time consuming in baking, chilling, scooping, freezing, decorating, chilling). Thanks Elle and Deborah!

And in case you didn't know yet - the Daring Baker's have gone public with a brand spankin new website and forum! You have to be a Daring Baker to get into the private area where we discuss the challenge before it's reveal, however anyone is welcome to come join in the public forum, where baking questions are always welcome (as are answers!) Considering there are at least 900 of us now, that's a pretty large group of bakers to turn to if you need help or just want to share something amazing!

Finally, many, many thanks for Ivonne and Lis for their ongoing leadership of our "little" baking group, as well as for the great new place for us all to hang out and chat!