use real butter

The Daring Bakers strike again, this time with cheesecake pops!

we knead to bake

Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell are our lovely co-hosts this month and they selected this recipe from Jill O’Connor’s Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.

beat the eggs into the cream cheese and sugar

oven-ready batter, pre water bath

Seeing as no one in this house is a cheesecake fan and that I have trouble eating during my chemo, I almost bailed on this one. Yeah, I know… But math is my friend and I took a cue from Ashley of eat me, delicious who successfully reduced the recipe by a fifth. I mean, I was willing to participate, but not with 4 dozen freaking cheesecake pops… I baked the cheesecake batter in two small ramekins.

what a craptastic mess

taking great joy in skewering these sticky bastards

I started yesterday afternoon, the day before the deadline. I figured I’d be cutting it close with all of the refrigeration and freezing required. I let the ramekins cool in the fridge overnight. Then this morning at 4:30, I got fabulously ill and worried that I wouldn’t be able to finish the pops this morning (well, I worried that I might suffocate in the night too). But I rallied, I swore a lot, and I made a huge mess in my kitchen. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think cheesecake was meant to be scooped, let alone stuck with a stick.

i used semi-sweet chips for the coating

dippity dip

Normally, if it’s a recipe I’m jazzed about, I’ll go the distance and spring for Valrhona or some other lovely chocolate. Because I was not loving this recipe from the start, I bought generic Nestle semi-sweet chips for the coating and nuked it on half-power, stirring the shortening into the warm chocolate at the end. It’s a thick glaze which sets up in about 5 seconds on the frozen cheesecake balls. Since I didn’t want to purchase a bag of lolly sticks (I was pretty ornery about this one, wasn’t I?), I used some bamboo skewers we had on hand.

there was one casualty - just too soft

most of them held up just fine

The nice thing about using skewers was that the sharp ends stuck nicely in my styrofoam base so the pops could set up easily. The bad thing about the skewers was that the sharp ends also stuck nicely into my hand at times… Since the chocolate firms up in no time flat, I had to work quickly on rolling a few in chopped pistachio nuts.

drizzled with white chocolate

The end products are totally adorable and I hope my neighbors will dig on these because I don’t want to see the pops ever again. That was fun, but definitely not my thing. I hope all of you DBers know how much I freaking love you guys because I was not wanting to finish this challenge this morning…

jolly little lollies

a bouquet for you… no really

To see the different cheesecake pops cropping up all over the foodblogosphere, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll. I think we’ve reached something like a billion members now. I’d also like to thank Lis, Ivonne, Andy, and Katrina for the new and wonderful DB website which doesn’t put me in the foulest of moods the way freaking Blogger did. Thank YOU!! xxoo

Cheesecake Pops
Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor
makes 30–40 pops

5 8-oz pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream

boiling water as needed
thirty-forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 lb chocolate, finely chopped
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
assorted decorations: chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees (optional)

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.

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

I’ve been on puke watch all day since 4 am.

No, not for me. Chemo has done everything else to me including making me feel like I want to puke, but so far I can report no hay pukeage para mi. Let’s be thankful for the little things.

Someone in our household engaged in some Unsupervised Dietary Indiscretions… Take a guess.

huh?

I think she’s on the mend now. The interesting thing is that Kaweah is such a creature of the moment that when she pukes she’s sad and traumatized, but then after she pukes her reaction is, “w00t! Someone left food on the floor!” If only life were that simple.

Yet some things in life are almost that simple. Over ten years ago, in the little college town of Ithaca, New York, Jeremy and I acquired an ice cream maker for $30. Living just above the poverty line in the name of Science, we figured it was high time to start making our own Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream instead of paying $3 for a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. We even bought their recipe book. This was mostly Jeremy’s scheme since I don’t typically touch the stuff - it makes me spastic, as does all caffeine. He made a few batches. He said it was “okay”. We calculated the cost of making it ourselves and decided it was about the same as dealing through the Boys of Vermont… and their ice cream was better in quality, so we gave up.

But last summer I blew the dust off of Ye Olde Ice Cream Maker and tried some new recipes via The Lebovitz… David, that is. His custard-based ice creams really won me over. When I made his coffee ice cream recipe, Jeremy fried a circuit gushing over how rich, creamy, dense, smooth, and coffee-y it was. Good stuff, kids. Pure joy.

Fast forward to last week when Jeremy and I were cruising the aisle for after-Easter sale candy. I mentioned that I had some egg yolks to use up after the Daring Bakers Challenge and what flavor ice cream would he like me to make? He replied coffee (because he already had chocolate in the freezer that I made earlier). Sure, coffee. Why not put some Heath Bar in there while we’re at it?

why not?

Take care when smashing up the toffee because it can become powder in no time flat. Or maybe it’s that my superhuman strength turns a simple rolling pin into…

the pulverizer

That was fun. I was sure to leave plenty of large chunks of toffee for Jeremy’s snacking pleasure. So once the ice cream custard was cooled and I ran it through our ice cream machine for 30 minutes, it was the right consistency for adding the goods.

mix quickly

The yield is a quart and some change. I don’t actually know how much it costs to make - probably comparable to B&J’s prices… The difference is that this version is way the hell better than Ben and Jerry’s. The coffee flavor is stronger (I use dark roast beans) and the ice cream is richer and creamier. Jeremy friggin’ loves this stuff. It’s his new best friend. I had to pry the tupperware from his arms when he went to bed the other night, he loves it so much… Shazaam!

mission accomplished

You can get the recipe for the coffee ice cream here and mix in 4 crushed Heath Bar candy bars after turning in the ice cream maker, but before freezing.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I suppose people have completed their festive meals, had their family brawls, drunk too much, and are ready to pass out by now? Ahhh, the good old days. Jeremy and I try not to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday. Driving or flying with potential delays, death, or dismemberment due to weather or stupidity or both can really take years off of your life. We really do cherish our sanity. This year we turned down a few invitations and opted for a quiet meal at home.

As expected, I ditched the notion of a turkey dinner in favor of something easier and in my opinion, far tastier. Rather than one ginormous blowout meal, we grazed through three courses starting at noon. My original plan involved surf and turf, but driving home from the grocery store earlier in the week, I came to the conclusion that I was planning an obscene amount of food for Thanksgiving. Thus we had surf and surf and surf… Turf got booted to tomorrow.

In the morning I prepared parts of dessert and made some treats for my pup. I cook all the time, so much so that the dog will snooze under the kitchen table as I work or wander into the great room to soak up all of the sunlight striking the Earth’s surface. She knows better than to beg while I prep. Somehow, she clues in when I am making something for her and she’ll come around sniffing at the edge of the table or she’ll plant herself squarely in front of me, waiting ever so patiently…

kaweah loves squirrels

Jeremy and I started off with scallop carpaccio in ponzu sauce and some Japanese cucumber salad. Raw scallops are better than butter.

start light

An hour later, we sat down for a bowl of steamed Alaskan King crab legs. I am crazy about crab - much more so than lobster. My favorite crab ever is the Chesapeake Bay Blue. I grew up catching and eating them every summer. My family would steam huge piles of the blue crabs, peel and eat them dipped in red wine vinegar and ginger. Sooo good.

king isn’t such a bad substitute

That was a lot of crab. We gathered the dog and went to a local trail to walk off the drowse and breathe the lovely cold air. We actually received some snowfall the previous day - a few inches… not quite the few feet all itchy Coloradan skiers are hoping for right about now. Our nights have been chilly though, -5F for tonight. The dog had a blast running what little brains she has out. The lake was frozen, but not hard enough for the hockey players to come out yet.

frozen lake in late day sun

Walking along the edge of the tiny lake I noticed beautiful ice formations dotting the surface. It’s just ground frost, but it had developed enough structure to be more complex than usual. I love living here because I get to observe natural phenomena that really get a geek like me going.

a garden of ice blossoms

Feeling invigorated after noodling around in the snow, we returned for our main course: lobster. I don’t cook lobster often because it is expensive and I’m always afraid of screwing it up. I consulted with my dad about the lobster. He is a great cook and loves to experiment with all manner of food. He suggested a fairly easy and no nonsense method which turned out beautifully - on the grill no less! It paired well with a generalist Louis Jadot French Chard which we had been sipping along with all of the courses. A bit much with the scallops, but just fine on the crab. I would have preferred a lighter and fruitier white with the scallops, but then I’d be too drunk to type now, wouldn’t I?

8 minutes: grilled asparagus and grilled lobster

After watching a DVD and digesting our staggered meal, we went in for the kill. I really love me some pumpkin pie like nobody’s business. Forget about the crust and the fixings - the pumpkin filling part of the pie will do me just fine. But I didn’t make pie this year, I made pumpkin mousse… and we both loved it. I didn’t love the top layer of pumpkin jello, but the pie crust base, the whipped cream, and especially the crystalized ginger worked wonderfully together. Even the dark chocolate drizzle added an extra dimension to the ensemble. Recipes to follow later.

pumpkin mousse with crystalized ginger

Of course, this holiday isn’t solely about the food. It’s about giving thanks. Maybe you’re thankful for the food or perhaps you’re thankful for the stuff you own or thankful for your health… Me? I have had to think about this a lot lately and it really boils down to two things. Not a day passes that I am not grateful for the wonderful and amazing people in my life: family, friends, my pup, and even random strangers. Not a day. And I’m thankful that I recognize it and can express to them how much they mean to me. Happy Thanksgiving.