Cheesecake Lolipops

I don't have too much to say about these except MAKE THEM! These have been on my "to make" list for a long time and as soon as I tasted one I wanted to kick myself for not making them sooner. I took them to a 4th of July BBQ this weekend and they were a huge hit with everyone.

It's cheesecake, chocolate, and festive sprinkles on a stick... what more can you ask for? Plus, it's bite-size so it doesn't have calories, right? Just like broken cookies (the calories fall out when the cookie breaks), your birthday cake (everyone knows food doesn't have calories on your birthday), and raw cookie dough.

These were a little time consuming because you need to cook the cheesecake, chill the cheesecake for a few hours, scoop the cheesecake into balls, freeze those for a an hour or so, and then (finally) you can dip and decorate! The recipe comes from a book called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey which is AMAZING! The pictures are incredible and I seriously want to make about 98% of the recipes on the book.

A couple notes about the recipe.

1. My cheesecake took much longer than the recipe stated. The recipe stated 35 - 45 minutes, but mine took almost 70. (It could just be my oven though)
   
2. The recipe called for 5 (yes, FIVE!) blocks of cream cheese but I used about 4 1/2. I know, I know when you're using 5 blocks of cream cheese what's another few ounces gonna do? But I like my cheesecake a little more on the dry, cakey side and less on the uber creamy side. I just don't like feeling like I'm biting into a huge block of cream cheese (to which my husband replied "mmmmmm...I do")
3. I added an extra 1/4 cup of flour. Again, made it a little cakier.
   
4. The recipe calls for scooping out 2 oz balls of cheesecake to get about 30 - 40 pops. I made mine a little smaller. I used a cookie scoop that is 1.5 TBS (which is plenty big because these are really rich). I ended up with about 60 lolipops.
5. The cheesecake can be really sticky. It's easiest to roll them into balls if your hands are a little wet so the cheesecake doesn't stick to your hands.
   

Recipe
Cheesecake Pops
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
• Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, sprinkles, graham cracker crumbs, etc. (Optional)

Directions:

1. Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, melt the chocolate.
   
7. 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.
8. Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.