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This month’s Daring Bakers challenge, hosted by Deborah of Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms, is Cheesecake Pops. Or, as I like to think of it, cheesecake-onna-stick.
My love of cheesecake is legendary and of course, I’m more than a little fond of chocolate, too. Alas, I’m firmly back on the Weight Watchers bandwagon, so making the cheesecake pops, while great fun, was absolutely tortuous. Still, I valiantly baked and dipped my pops without sneaking any “little tastes.” I did taste all the different pops after dinner, and as they’re very, very more-ish, I shall be packing the rest of them off to work with Dave tomorrow morning!
I made three-fifths of the cheesecake batter and baked my cheesecake in an 8×8-inch ceramic dish for 40 minutes and it set beautifully. It had just gone from jiggly to firm in the centre when I pulled it out and this meant that when it came to scooping the balls, it rolled really well.
It definitely pays to think up flavour/topping ideas before you put the cheesecake balls in the freezer. I came up with some fun ideas for the centre of each ball by which time the pops were solidly frozen, and pressing chopped stem ginger into the balls would have been much easier before they were frozen!
Stem ginger pops
I love the combination of hot ginger with smooth dark chocolate, so this one was a real winner for me. Next time round I’ll press even more minced ginger into the cheesecake as I found myself wanting it to be really hot.
Limoncello pops
First dipped in a limoncello-spiked lemon jelly, then in white chocolate, these pops had a great flavour but the jelly had a disappointingly icy texture. Still quite delicious, though.
Toffee pops
Dipped in dark chocolate and quickly rolled in chocolate-toffee pieces, these were awesome. I had wanted to use Dime bars, but couldn’t find any, so instead substituted Cadbury Chomp Bars which are similar but chewy rather than crunchy.
Classic cheesecake pops
Dark chocolate and a roll around in crushed Digestive biscuits equals classic cheesecake flavour in my book. The biscuits were salty in comparison to the cheesecake and chocolate, making this my absolute favourite of the bunch.
Overall, these were a huge success. I reckon that they’d make the perfect party dessert for kids and adults alike, so I’ll definitely be making them again. Thanks for choosing such a great recipe, Elle and Deborah!
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NICE!!!! Ginger, what a great addition.
Great looking cheesecake pops! I like the different combination of flavors you used for the toppings.
I love all of your pops! They all look so delicious. I love the chocolate and ginger, I’ll have to try that one!
Great combos! I think next time I’ll add cookie (biscuit) crumbles too for a more traditional taste.
Very well done! Your cheesecake pops look great!
Cheers,
Rosa
I think a lot of us divided the recipe, and it came out fine, which was great! Your pops look lovely.
Hi these look absolutely scrummy.
Ooohh, the toffee ones sound wonderful! Actually, all of them look great. Wonderful job on this challenge!
All your pops look wonderful. I love how you have been so creative with the toppings.
Wow, I love the look (and sound) of the ginger ones! yummy!
Wow! Great work only only tasting each one because they ALL look and sound so delicious. Great work!
No tastes???? What on earth did you do with the crusty bits? Your restraint is legendary!
Thanks everyone! They were great fun to make
And yes, no tastes while I was making them. I’m afraid that I did go a bit wild on Monday, but thankfully they’re all gone now!!
wow!! incredible flavours!!
I would love to try the limoncello one
What a fantastic variety of flavours. I wouldn’t be able to choose which one to eat first. Gorgeous!
Mmmm! Lemoncello! What a tasty idea.
Mmm… *great* flavor combinations… I’m especially intrigued by the ginger.
Wow – they look amazing.
Thanks once again, everyone! I’m really chuffed that everyone likes them so much