Saturday, April 26, 2008

Daring Bakers April Challenge - cheesecake pops

OK - I should be right up front and tell you that I have a love/hate relationship with this recipe. I love the cheesecake, and the flavors were delicious and the end result was cute as heck, and it was a very good challenge, but in terms of return on investment I don't think I would do it again, because they turned out to be hard to eat and overall they were cuter than they were good. And they didn't stay on the stick - this may well have been my fault for not dipping all the way up to the stick, but I had visions of people dropping cheesecake in their laps!


I made a half recipe of the cheesecake in a 7"x7" pan - I wanted it to be deep b ecause I wanted to cut them into squares instead of scooping then into balls. The baking time was a little longer, but it came out terrific. So far, I love it.




I chilled it overnight, then took it out of the pan in its little parchment paper sling - easy, everything is working great! Then I tried to cut it. Hmmm hmmm hmmmm. Not so good. No matter what I did, the cheesecake stuck to the knife in big chunks - slender knife, hot knife, it didn't matter. What a huge mess! I was hating it at this point. And no, I didn't have any plain dental floss to cut it with (only mint!), though that might have worked.







So, I put the lollipop sticks into the squares of cheesecake and jammed the whole mess into the freezer and waited until they were really frozen. Then found that I had to trim the frozen pops to get a nice smooth surface, but that worked great, really.



I started dipping in white chocolate - I had an idea to use colored sugar to decorate, to coordinate with the ribbons I was going to use. At this point I had a "what was I thinking" moment.


This was not as cute as I had hoped it would be --not nearly as cute as it was in my mind!!

But I decided to just keep on working - I wanted to use orange sugar, so I added some orange oil to the white chocolate so the pops would be like creamsicles (later note - this was a great idea and the orange oil made the white chocolate fantastic!!) But I still wasn't in love with how they looked.





Then, finally, epiphany! Some of the ribbon I had was white and dark brown, so I had the idea to make the pops geometric, with contrasting white and dark circles - I dipped them, then poured a bit of chocolate on some waxed paper and I used a decorating tip as a tiny cutter to make the dots. These were the best yet - I really liked how they looked, and of course the flavors were great. It was fun to do, even though it was frustrating at times. Looking forward to next month!!



28 comments:

Christine said...

These are amazing! I love your decorations!

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa, I didn't know you were a daring baker. They turned out adorable, love the circles. This was my first time and I had fun.

pixie said...

the dark on white and white on dark are very pop art! perfect for the cheesecake pops!

L said...

These are so very cute!

Anonymous said...

I love the polka dots! So pretty!

Jerry said...

I love your decorations on the pops! Very Lovely!

Anonymous said...

The dots are very cute, must have taken you forever! I love th sound of the creamsicle also.

Carrie said...

super cute! Don't you love it when the wheels start to turn in your brain and what you thought of works out so beautifully?

Beautiful!

Carrie
http://fieldsofcake.blogspot.com

Barbara Bakes said...

Your pops are so unique - they look great!

Unknown said...

I really love the polka dotted ones the best. I wonder if putting chocolate all the way up the stick would have solved the falling off problem - I'm afraid what would have happened then is that people would have ended up with cheesecake pops in their laps after the first bite instead of before. Ah well.

Barbara said...

I love your pops! What creativity!

Deborah said...

I think they turned out wonderful! Great job on this challenge!

Shelby said...

You got great looking results for all your hard work!

Megan said...

Love the decorations! Totaly cute.

Marq said...

Very cute decorations! Great job!

Anonymous said...

Creamsicles are yum! I think the geometrics are adorable! Great job!

Anonymous said...

Your decorating is amazing! And I love how you kept going. Well done.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Your cheesecake pops look very pretty! I love the way you decorated them! Gorgeous!

Cheers,

Rosa

Faery said...

Congratulations, They are so beautiful

Lot-O-Choc said...

I think they look great!
I've just joined daring bakers, hope all challenges look as yummy as this one :).

Patti said...

wicked cute...

Heather B said...

Wow! They look so amazing! I love your decorations!

Renee said...

They are so original and unique. I love the look!!

Texana said...

I adore polka dots! How cute! Great job.

Ann said...

Gorgeous!!! Gosh this look good and are so adorable. I would never have thought to make them this way. I love seeing the results of the Daring Bakers. BRAVO! :)

Anonymous said...

fantastic job! I love the polka dots.

Gretchen Noelle said...

The orange ones sound great but I do love the polka dots! Great job on these! Welcome to the Daring Bakers!

Anonymous said...

Heeeeeeeeeeee !!!!! they are so fun !!!!!!
How amazing !!!!! great !