Spring Showers «

Spring Showers

May 21, 2009 by thenourishedsoul

I have a confession. I do not read very many food blogs. In fact, until recently I have never regularly read any food blogs for two reasons. The first is that I am already entirely overstimulated by food ideas. I have endless lists, scribbles, and even an entire journal dedicated to the hundreds of things that I want to try/make/improve. I am constantly flooded with new inspiration on a daily basis without even trying. It is overwhelming to be faced with my own daily mind racing with fantasies of savory cocktails, sweet curried stews, and dozens of coffee ideas each week. I feel painfully anxious flipping through food magazines, wandering in a grocery store. There simply isn’t enough time in the world for all the things I would like to experiment with, the places I would like to eat, the spices I would like to sting my tongue.

Shamefully, the second reason I tend to avoid food blogs is that they make me bitterly jealous of other people in an unfair and irrational way. People who have more time, better cameras, abundant resources, formal training, and superior writing abilities or who, in rare instances create their livelihoods off of them, make me crazy with envy.

The good news is that because I have many friends who also love food, cooking, and all things edible, they very often send me links to particularly interesting entries. And it seems as though back in April (that would be two Aprils ago) cheesecake on a stick was one of these entries that kept appearing again and again in the food blog world and as a result in my inbox. It was part of a daring bakers’ challenge and the call was to create a fabulous cheesecake ball pop. Well, I missed the boat but soon took a better late than never approach.

Being a cheesecake fan I thought about this project for a while. I was initially hesitant because I am, above many things, a cheesecake purist. I love cheesecake with a lust that is sinful. It is one of my preferred desserts but I like my cheesecake plain and simple. I want it to taste like cheesecake and not like anything else. Gooey, fruity jelly-like toppings do not belong on my beloved cheesecake. Save them for toast. I like nuts a lot and coffee even more but I don’t necessarily want them near my cheesecake. I especially dislike chocolate cheesecake. I mean it’s fine enough in theory. I can even see how it is desirable until you remember that you are eating a diluted version of one the finest confections in existence. Eating chocolate cheesecake just reminds me that I could be eating regular cheesecake which in my opinion is far superior.

Now that you know this about me you can understand why I was suspicious about the cheesecake on a stick coated in many other things. There were some things about this idea that were very appealing to me though. They were adorable, really very adorable and I’m never one to miss an opportunity to combine being crafty with food. They were also frozen and I particularly like frozen cheesecake. I learned this years ago when I froze some as a preservation method with the intention of defrosting again before eating it and wound up devouring it still frozen- it’s a texture thing. They also seemed like the perfect party food for when you want to try a slice of the cheesecake but there’s a million other fun and rare desserts to choose from. You know, those times when you want to scoop just a spoonful of cheesecake onto your plate but it somehow seems socially deviant to break up the slice.

I decided to first attempt this creation for my friend’s bridal shower and then later by request (blushing) at a birthday party. To be honest the situation was a mess, literally. In the interest of time I opted for bakery cheesecake instead of making the suggested recipe. It was pre-cut and had a Graham cracker base that made it difficult to scoop into balls even when chilled which led to a lot of wasted cheesecake. Let me rephrase that, it led to me eating a ton of mushy melty cheesecake too deformed to be salvaged into balls. I found the only way to get the remaining cheesecake shaped properly was to really get in there with my hands, spoons, knives, forks, wax paper, you get the idea. Cheesecake everywhere- all over the counter, floors, cupboards, dishes, towels, sink, etc.

I used a doubler boiler method for all my chocolates and caramel which was fine in thought but sloppy in execution. I was one person with four boilers going all at once and they kept drying out before I could use them thus making me go faster leading to my dripping everywhere. The pre-made cheesecake kept falling off the stick and into the chocolate bowls making them clumpy and unusable. The chocolate got thick and dry and eventually refused to coat the balls which ended with me mushing lumps of chocolate and nuts and cheesecake together with my hands. There were times when I doubted these cheesecake pops were going to make it out of my mouth/floor/freezer/chocolate pot. There were a lot of casualties. I found all sorts of chocolate and nut pieces in crevices of my kitchen for the next several days.

In the end the surviving ones came out darling, if massive. The more frustrated I became the lazier I got and the more rolling, adding, re-dipping, hand molding I started doing and the balls got bigger and bigger. They were so pretty and professional looking and got all the oohs and ahhs that one hopes for when laboring over a dessert for hours so I deemed it worth it. A friend who had been at this party asked if I would make them for a different party and I agreed.

Round two was significantly easier as I took the smarter route of allotting enough time and making the cheesecake myself. We started out far more prepared having all of our toppings already crushed and on dishes and just being generally more organized. I now knew to only operate one boiler at a time and make sure the cheesecake was thoroughly frozen through before even attempting to dip it in hot chocolate. Having an extra set of hands made all of the difference. Someone could be stirring the chocolate to keep it from congealing while someone else was dipping. I also realized that the original recipe calls for Crisco which is to be used in the chocolate to keep it silkier longer- works like a charm. It still took quite some time but we really nailed the process during round two. Rounds 3, 4, and 5 happened at Christmas and New Years, respectively, and I am now planning on making them for several showers before taking a break. If you’re anything like me springtime means lots of babies and brides.

The cheesecake pops have provided some of the most satisfying feedback I’ve ever gotten out of a baked good. Maybe the guests had had a bit too much too drink but one was ever so insistent, dare I say almost begging, that I start my own business and name it “Heaven on a Stick.” At a different party another guest hugged me goodbye saying, “I needed that. That cheesecake is for your soul. Maybe not for your hips but definitely for your soul.” And there’s something about the cheesecake being frozen and satisfying that never even made me wish it didn’t have toppings.

You should use whatever toppings you deem tasty/festive for the occasion but some suggestions include:

Dark Chocolate

White Chocolate

Milk Chocolate

Caramel

Coconut Flakes

Crushed Walnuts

Crushed Almonds

Crushed Pistachios

Crushed Hazelnuts

Crushed Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans

Crushed Oreos

Crushed Heath Bars

Crushed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Crushed Peanut Butter Cups

Graham Cracker Bits

Crushed M&Ms

Crushed Trail Mix (Archer Farms sells a delicious S’more one)

Crushed Pie Crust

Toffee Bits

A few words of advice. This whole process really is a lot of work and time consuming so enlist a friend for the ride. These little babies take up a lot of freezer space and in their beginning stages are too fragile to be stacked, so make room in advance. Rolling them out on parchment saves a lot of mess but some mess is inevitable. Lollipop sticks tend to bend with the weight of the pop so I would recommend getting cookie sticks available in most craft stores.

Not to get a big head about myself but after looking at other people’s photos I think mine came out significantly better for not being flat at the top. It seems as though people let them dry on the baking sheet on parchment or wax paper. To avoid this stick them in between the holes of a cooling rack so that no part of the chocolate is touching anything or being forced flat. Last time I made them there was no cooling rack present so we improvised and used some holes in an upside down colander- it worked just fine. Don’t be afraid if they seem small in the beginning they double in size once they get their toppings.

Do not melt chocolate in the microwave, please! It’s lazy and it never gets smooth enough and there’s nothing to keep it warm so it solidifies again too fast. Also, you’d be amazed at what a wet paper towel can do for cleaning the sticks if they get chocolate or cheesecake on them. It wipes right off and saves your presentation. And lastly, freeze, greeze, freeze. The recipe calls for refrigeration but I go straight to the freezer. You may get ice burns on your hand but it will be entirely worth it when your shaping goes that much smoother. Good luck!

From Sticky, Gooey, Messy, Chewy by Jill O’Connor

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

Ingredients

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature

2 cups sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) – Optional

Directions

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed. You can criss cross two normal cooling racks- I’ve noticed it takes significantly longer than the recipe says to bake through but this could be because I keep the oven on for so long while trying to carefully get the water bath in.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve (says the recipe, I say they last up to a week or so just make sure they’re well covered so they don’t get freezer burn).

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