0 Cheesecake Lollies

I don't really like cheesecake. There, I said it. I'm just not a fan of cream cheese especially when it's the star of the dish like with cheesecake. But even so, I make cheesecake pretty often since everyone else seems to love cheesecake. Also, cheesecake is one of those easy-to-make-little-effort-big-wow-factor desserts. I'm always a big fan of easy, especially lately as I've been too lazy to bake and totally neglecting my blog. But since cheesecake is so easy and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell chose cheesecake pops for this month's Daring Baker challenge, I got off my a$$ to join the challenge.

The original recipe for these cheesecake pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor makes a whole lot of cheesecake. Too much if you ask me. Of course some would say that you can never have too much cheesecake. I made only 2/5 of the original quantity since I only had 16 ounces of cream cheese. Well, truth be told, I only had 8 ounces of Philly, but I also had 8 ounces of mascarpone which is like cream cheese but creamier and richer and definitely much less tangy than regular cream cheese. Because I was using 50% mascarpone in my 2/5 recipe, I omitted the heavy cream since I was afraid the batter would be too runny and not set up correctly. (Baking tip: Cream cheese plus heavy cream is a decent substitute for mascarpone in some recipes. So I figured that the opposite would be true too which is why I left out the heavy cream.)



I baked my cheesecake in ramekins that were deep enough to scoop out balls of cheesecake. Each ramekin has a 6 fluid ounce capacity and I got 3 walnut sized balls per ramekin. The resulting cheesecake was super creamy and even better when dipped in chocolate. I have to admit that they were pretty good. Maybe I've become a cheesecake convert? Well, I wouldn't go that far. But that's the power of the Daring Bakers. Like I say with every month's DB challenge, step outside of the box and discover or learn something new. I discovered that I like the 50/50 combination of cream cheese and mascarpone for making cheesecakes and I learned that bamboo skewers are not a good substitute for lollipop sticks. No matter how clean the cut is, you'll still get splinters.



FULL RECIPE

Cheesecake Pops
(makes 30 – 40 pops)
(from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor)

5 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temp
2 cups granulated 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
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

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

Instructions:
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 its 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 as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

0 Candy? In Pie?

When my dear husband found out that I was using leftover Easter candy to make something called Snickers pie for tonight's baking session, he asked "Isn't that a bit Sandra Lee"? (For those who haven't heard of Sandra Lee ["SL"], she has a show on the Food Network called "Semi-Homemade Cooking" although I think they use the word "homemade" loosely.) So to someone like me who actually cooks and bakes from scratch, this could be quite insulting. But my husband's comment was mere observation and I took no offense. In fact, with a name like Snickers pie, I could imagine SL mixing together chopped Snickers candy bars, a tub of Cool Whip, a few cups of instant chocolate pudding, plopping the mixture into a store bought frozen pie crust, drizzling some chocolate liquor over it and calling it a Snickers pie. I mean, the lady does have a tendency to use a lot of candy and booze during the show, don't you think?


Yes, it's true that the pie I baked actually has pieces of Snickers candy bars embedded in it, but that's where the resemblance to anything SL does ends. This Snickers pie has a crust, a fudge layer, a Snickers layer, a cheesecake layer and chocolate topping layer. But is my pie any more homemade than the imaginary SL pie I described? I'd like to think so. But then again, I didn't actually make my own graham crackers although I did crush the crackers with my rolling pin, mixed the crumbs with sugar and butter, pressed them into a pan and baked it. I'm not a dairy farmer so I didn't make my own cream cheese or churn my own butter. I don't have my own hens to provide fresh eggs. But I did make a fudge layer from chocolate, butter, eggs and sugar and a cheesecake layer from cream cheese, eggs and sugar. At what point can something be labeled homemade? Maybe the best I can say is that my pie is less not homemade than something coming out of SL's kitchen.

Well, whether you call it homemade, semi-homemade or not homemade at all, this pie was good. A bit over-the-top but good. Although the pie was too sweet for me, all those layers did result in a very rich and complex pie. The Snickers melted a bit blurring the lines between the fudge layer and the creamy cheesecake layer. The recipe yields 12-16 servings, but I suggest cutting the pie slices even smaller. I cut my 9-inch pie into 20 slices. The slices were thin enough to pick up and eat without a fork and plate.




Snickers Pie
(adapted from Mimi Silbert's recipe found in the SF Chronicle)
(makes one 9-inch pie; approximately 12 to 16 servings)

Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
4 ounces (1 stick/ 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

Fudge Layer
4 ounces (1 stick/ 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces of Snickers candy bars, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
(I weighed the Snickers without wrappers)

Cream Cheese Layer
10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons heavy cream

(I used a different chocolate glaze recipe to top my pie but I didn't like it my topping recipe. I included the original glaze recipe instead of the one I used. So if you make the pie, your topping might look different from what is shown in my photos.)

For the crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch deep-dish glass pie pan.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar in a mixing bowl. Add melted butter, stirring until well incorporated. Press mixture evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of prepared pan. Bake for 5 minutes, until crust is set. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Keep the oven temperature at 350 degrees.

For the fudge layer:
Combine butter and bittersweet chocolate in the top of a double boiler; set over simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Remove top insert and cool slightly.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Set aside dry ingredients.

Using an electric mixer, beat together sugar, egg and egg yolk in a large bowl for 1 minute, until slightly thickened. Add vanilla and cooled chocolate mixture and mix until well blended. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour into crust.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist batter still attached. If crust browns too quickly, cover with foil.

Transfer pan to a rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Evenly arrange Snickers bars over the top.

For the cream cheese layer:
Using an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese and sugar in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add egg, egg white and vanilla and beat until smooth. Carefully spread mixture over the Snickers bars. Bake for 15 minutes, or until cream cheese is set. Transfer to a rack to cool.

For the glaze:
Combine chocolate and cream in the top of a double boiler. Set over simmering water and stir until chocolate is just melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Spread or drizzle decoratively over the pie.

Refrigerate until well chilled. Serve cold. The pie may be prepared up to 3 days ahead. Cover loosely with foil and keep refrigerated.