Another month, another Daring Baker Challenge. What I want to know is where the month of April went! Did I forget to set my alarm and sleep through a solid chunk of days? Or for that matter, did I even get to sleep once, since the longer days of sunshine have persuaded me to add in a few hours to my daily routine? Either way, I found myself scrambling to get this one done, and I’m almost embarrassed to present my haphazard results after browsing through so many other far more impressive and professional works of pastry art.
Right off the bat, this one didn’t sound too difficult; Cheesecake pops. We’re talking cheesecake, scooped into balls, skewered onto lollipop sticks, and dunked into chocolate. What could be bad about that? Modifications were pretty basic, and conversions from regular cream cheese to tofutti was a no-brainer. I happened to have vegan sour cream on hand, so that replaced the egg, and I also used potato starch instead of flour because I wanted to share these with family during Passover. Finally, there was little choice but to scaled down the recipe in a big way, because there was no way I could justify shelling out the cash for 5 tubs of tofutti cream cheese for this little side project. Adding in just a touch of peppermint oil for a refreshing flavor to contrast with the chocolate, I set up a miniature water bath in an 8-inch round cake pan- My small batch of cheesecake batter fit perfectly!
Patience became a thing of the past once the base was fully baked and out of the oven- Forget waiting 3 hours for it to “thoroughly chill;” I tossed the whole thing into the freezer straight away, anxious to finish up and get a taste! It was a very forgiving recipe and no harm came of my haste, so before long I had 18 lovely lollipops dipped in chocolate, and then rolled in either chopped pistachios or cacao nibs. Just do me a favor and ignore their partial nudity, as I had just finished munching away on my chocolate chips when I realized that they would be needed for other applications… My remaining supply was a bit limited.
While unimpressive in appearance, these little morsels of creamy goodness were a wonderful treat, and were certainly easy enough to consider making again for a gathering or party. But until then, I beg you to go look at the other Daring Bakers’ creations, as their talent really puts me to shame this month.