Say Cheese! Cheesecake Pops - Daring Bakers April Challenge

When I found out that this months Daring Bakers Challenge was cheesecake pops I was excited. Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts to make. I've even won a second place in a local baking contest years ago when I was living in Tennessee. It was a white chocolate-raspberry swirl cheesecake. (and not to be out done, I won first place the following year with dark chocolate raspberry brownies)

For those of you who do not know who the Daring Bakers are, let me tell you. We are a group of avid cooks and bakers who all receive the same recipe at the beginning of the month. We have most of the month to make this recipe but we wait until the same day at the end of the month to post. Until that day, our challenge is a secret.

I planned to make the cheesecake a couple of weekends ago but my plans were set aside when we had to take Sophie to the emergency vet. Thankfully she's ok but I was wiped out so no baking. The following weekend was less hectic so the cheesecake was made and set in the fridge to await pop making.

I soon figured out that freezer side of my skinny side by side fridge was way too narrow to fit my cookie sheets. Rats! I had to improvise by using a smaller baking dish and freezing only eight naked pops at a time, letting them set up, moving them to another small baking dish and repeating the process until all 40 pops were formed.

Similarly, I also did this when Jim and I dipped them in chocolate. We could only do about eight at a time because of the skinny freezer space. But once we got a rhythm going all went smoothly. I had an assortment of toppings for the pops set on the counter and Jim stood command at the stove to dip.

We had an assortment of toppings like crushed macadamia nuts, coconut, crushed almonds, mini M&M's and shaved dark chocolate and some pops were just dipped without any extra topping. It took about 2 hours to get all the pops done dipped and back into the freezer. The next day I brought them into work for my staff. Needless to say, they didn't last long and my staff are looking forward to next month's challenge.

And to see other Darking Bakers pops check out the blogroll.