Sunday, April 27, 2008

Cheesecake on a Stick!

It's Daring Baker Challenge time again! This month it was Cheesecake Pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor. Now I happen to love cheesecake, but the Brain and a significant portion of his family are lactose intolerant so I knew that I needed to find a place to give these babies away or I would really become Jaba the Butt. As it so happens, last Wednesday I was cleared by the physical therapist to be able to drive up to Michigan to go to the opera. My best friend T. and I have season tickets and La Rondine by Puccini was playing and it hasn't been performed in 37 years. It was I think my favorite opera so far and the people at the Michigan Opera Theater were really great about moving my balcony seat to a box seat and letting us have a primo parking space. They were really terrific about the challenges I faced on crutches.

Conveniently my friend T's son, my godson, is turning 2 on Tuesday (yes, this is an old photo) and he had a big birthday party yesterday. So I merely transported these babies up to her (and about 10 to my family) and minimized the risk of me eating the entire batch of cheesecake pops by myself. And trust me it was a real danger. They were delicious! And my track record for sampling as I was making them was pretty sad.
The batter went together super easy. Although I sort of shuddered at the 5 8oz packages of cream cheese, I figured that there's no butter in it and if you only eat one pop it wouldn't be so bad for you. That's one pop. Not 4 pops that you run out of chocolate coating for. I licked the beater so I knew the cheesecake was going to be good, the batter is good. And for the first time I actually put the cheesecake in the water bath. My cheesecake baked in about 55 minutes and was nice and solid.
The recipe says to scoop the cheesecake into 2oz balls. So I got out my little scooper. I'm sure it has a fancy name, its a little ice cream scoop that I use for portioning out cookie dough or frosting. Anyhow, I was scooping away and eating the scraps of cheesecake, which turned out about as yummy as I imagined, when I decided to stick one of the little buggers on a scale. It was 3/8 oz. Crap. They looked good though. Just a nice bite. But I am a direction follower so I got out the big ice cream scooper that I use for portioning out cupcakes. And I scooped one and weighed it. It was 1 1/4 oz and they looked pretty big. I started thinking that 2 oz was about the size of a softball and the cheesecake was far to rich for that.


So once I had all my little 3/8 oz balls rolled and scooped out and my tummy was seriously hurting from eating too much cheesecake ("What did you have for dinner?" "cheesecake"). And I somehow managed to rearrange my freezer to be able to have all these cute little balls on sticks fit, I froze them. I should mention here that lollipop sticks can be found at Walmart. I just happened to conveniently have some bright orange candy melts in my pantry. Don't laugh, my sister Super G discovered she had a can of Jamaican sardines in her cupboard this week. It happens. So I melted those up and coated my little cheesecake lollipops. And it was a kitchen of orange. I have an orange Kitchenaid and orange plastic mixing bowls and my favorite spatula is orange. And somehow these candy melts were the exact color of orange. Which thrilled me. I am easily thrilled. Even when my stomach is hurting from eating far too much cheesecake.

I did have a little trouble getting them to stay on the stick when they were thawed out so I did have to keep sticking them in the freezer. My sister M when she tried hers at home fell of the stick too. I think they'd be almost as fun just without the stick. As like tiny little bon bons. This was definitely a challenge for me. I'm not sure if it was just complicated for me to scoop them out and roll them into a ball and then dip them in chocolate or if I was just at the point in the day where standing becomes uncomfortable and I'm pretty much done. I don't think I'd make this again for a weekend dessert or a casual birthday party, but probably if I was going to a bridal shower or baby shower I would. They're a lot of work, but they're really impressive.

Thanks to the wonderful Deborah at Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms for picking a recipe that I probably wouldn't have picked myself. It was a good challenge. Also make sure to check out all the other talented Daring Bakers. And if you'd like the recipe, you can either buy the book, or check out Deborah's blog. And I'm headed back to the couch.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the bright orange color, very festive. Great challenge.

Mary Ann said...

I too, love the color! Fun, fun fun!

glamah16 said...

Its like a creamsicle in color. You really has fun with these and it shows. And I didnt know you were a Opera fan. Ever come down to Lyric?

Deborah said...

I am so impressed that you did these while injured! And I just happen to love the orange color!

Pixie said...

Terrific job Mary, well done!

Sheltie Girl said...

You did a wonderful job on your cheesecake pops. I love the color of your white chocolate, it makes them look so cheerful.

Natalie @ Gluten a Go Go

Kristen said...

Love the orange cheesecake pops! What a great color. I too ate too much cheesecake and probably gained 5 pounds as a result of this challenge but oh was it worth it!!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

These are like Creamsicles on a stick. Great job with the challenge Mary:D

Lis said...

Aww am so glad you got to go to the opera! And I love hearing how well they treated you - that's fabulous!

Your godson is adorable! :)

Lovin' the orange pops! I think anything orange has got to be good.. but jam a stick in it and you know it's downright heavenly. hee!

xoxo

Shandy said...

OMGoodness! What a great idea for the future for these. . .little bon bons! I want to make these when my parents come for their yearly trip and I think you just helped me figure out how to serve them! There is no way I could keep them frozen and the sticks fall out when they aren't frozen. Genius! BTW, your orange color is so bright and FUN! =D

Mrs. White said...

These look delicious, and I'm so jealous of your season tickets to the Detroit Opera! I've never been but have always wanted to. Sometime this summer after things calm down at bit I hope!

Andrea Meyers said...

Your pops look like creamsicles, so good! Great job!

Cakelaw said...

LOL - I love the "Jaba the Butt" phrase, I can use that. Your pops and your godson are just gorgeous. Glad you were able to get out and enjoy the opera, and I hope that your recuperation is going nicely.

Elle said...

Love the orange pops...so cute. I gave mine away, too. The temptation is high with these to just eat one more :) Great job on the challenge even while injured!

Lunch Buckets said...

Nice post! And hey, if Cheeto cheesecake balls make you happy, that's all that counts!

L Vanel said...

The little heart shaped sprinkles are adorable, as was your captive fan! We are also music fans. See you next challenge!

KayKat said...

I love the orange colouring - totally looks like orange creamsicles :)

Cookie baker Lynn said...

I, too, had serious cheesecake overload from licking up the extra bits. Yours look delightful. Good job on the challenge.

Unknown said...

Such a festive bright color. Great job!

Tempered Woman said...

No laughing~ I love the orange! My monkey is a huge orange fan too. These look really great~ glad you had an event to share them with. It makes a ton of cheesecake doesn't it?!?!

Barbara said...

I love the color! I too had to share mine since the huz and I didn't dare try to eat all of them (not that we could, which is the problem). My staff at work were the lucky recipients.

Dolores said...

Jabba the Butt! Thank you... it's been a long week and I NEEDED to laugh like that.

Turns out I'm repeating this recipe this week -- cheesecake planets for a space themed party -- and I bought the orange melts planning to make some suns. Was nice to get a preview of how they'll look.

Great job! Looking forward to seeing how you handle the May challenge.