As you can probably tell from these photos, I do not have a bright future in decorating cheesecake pops. Now, this recipe was not difficult for someone who has been baking her whole life. What made it “daring” for me was the presentation element.
I surf the net visiting food blogs, and I am absolutely amazed at the 
talent out there! It takes practice and skill to present and decorate food. And a lot of patience. So thanks to Deb of Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms for choosing this month’s challenge, because it showed me an area that I have to work on. When I can find the patience to do so! Please be sure to check out their blogs for the recipe for the pops, which they selected from Jill O’Connor’s fantastic book, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth
I cut the recipe down by about a third (believe me, we do not need 40 cheesecake pops
around here!), and used low-fat cream cheese. Now, I’ve never made a cheesecake before using low-fat cream cheese, because baking experts like Eleanor Klivans say not to do it, that the texture won’t be the same. I decided to live on the edge and threw caution to the wind. I’m glad I did, because the cheesecake was delicious, and after I froze it and covered the pops with Green & Black’s 70% chocolate, I could detect any difference in the texture. Heck, the pops were good without the chocolate! I know, because I ate three naked ones.
A couple thoughts: First, once you dip the pops in chocolate, wait until it just begins to harden before you roll the pop in anything, or the chocolate will be too liquid for the toppings to adhere to the pops. Finally, I used a good bar chocolate, Green and Black’s, so I didn’t add any shortening (none on hand) to the melted chocolate, and everything worked just fine.
The Daring Bakers is now a huge, world-wide group of bakers who get together once a month. I encourage you to visit not only your favorite bloggers, but to try new ones, too. You can find the blogroll here. And for updates on what the Daring Bakers are up to, be sure to visit the blogs of the founders, Ivonne of CreamPuffsInVenice and Lis of LaMiaCucina.
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20 users responded in this post
I think they look wonderful! Decorating is always the hardest part for me, too, but you did a great job!
Deborah is right, decorating is the hardest part! I suck at icing cakes and decorations too. But as long as it tastes great who cares?
Yours look great! Love the Green & Black’s chocolate 🙂
I chose the plunge and roll technique with the decorative bit…what ever stuck, stuck…
j
You did a great job!
Very cute! I went with the ‘dip and stick’ method of toppings… But I love the look of your chocolate.
Ah decorating is my private nightmare too! They do look uber cute though! I liked the flavour of the naked cheese cake as well.
your pops look great. i too feel i need to work on my pics.. i am always in awe of photography and presentation on some blogs.
Your pops are very cute. G&B chocolate plus the creamy cheescake must have been so delicious.
I hear ya. I cut the recipe by 5 and still have too many. I had a heck of a time decorating as well (I swore a lot and made a huge mess). I think your pops turned out fantastically! So stop beating yourself up because these were a pain in the butt to work with 🙂 Good job!
I think you did a great job! I had a lot of dripping issues that conveniently did not get photogaphed. ha! 🙂
It’s nice to know that the recipe works well with reduced fat cream cheese–I wondered about that. I agree that the cheesecake is quite tasty naked… I made the whole recipe but didn’t make all of it into pops, so I’ve been eating some of the remainder with a spoon. =)
You did a wonderful job on the cheesecake pops. My family preferred them naked too.
Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go
You pops look so yummy! Great job.
They look fabulous to me. I love cheesecake too much. It’s a trigger food for me and I can’t stop eating them! I would have gobbled all your pops down!
This is something I wish I had done more with – the decorating side, because making cheesecake wasn’t new to me either. What kind of DB am I? Yours look delicious.
You’ve made me very happy now that I know using all low-fat creamcheese does NOT hurt a cheesecake. VERY HAPPY. hehehe
I think they look great! But I also agree.. the naked ones were pretty darned good on their own too. 🙂
xoxo
They look great! I agree these are not for the impatient. I left some of mine naked also — my (sweet-toothed) daughter preferred them that way.
Oh I think you did a great job decorating!!!
I made them full recipe and full fat the first time (and shared them with a large group of friends) but I’m pleased they can be reduced in both dimensions without great sacrifice. Thanks for sharing!