Sunday, April 27, 2008

Daring Bakers Challenge: Cheesecake Pops from Jill O’Connor


Cheesecake pop coated in dark chocolate and pink sea salt. My favorite combo!


Cheesecake pops. Just the title alone made my mouth water. I'm not a fan of cheesecake slices that are thicker than the dictionary so these sounded right up my alley. I love just a few bites of cheesecake and that's exactly what these are! Joy!

The recipe is from
Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. It's a simple recipe with a creative twist in how it's presented and I really loved being able to try out a bunch of different toppings.

The only issue I had while making them was the freezer space. I did not have enough space to freeze all 3o pops before dipping them in chocolate and other yummy items so I just had to hope they would get cold enough in the fridge and work really fast. So in the end they didn't turn out a pretty as I'd like, but the taste is incredible. I thought the cheesecake was so creamy and good that when paired with a dark chocolate coating and sea salt I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.


My second favorite combination was the dark chocolate and rosemary. Yum!

I used dark chocolate for the coating and did batches of just chocolate, graham cracker crust, pink sea salt, rosemary, cayenne pepper and basil. My absolute favorite was the chocolate and pink sea salt, then the rosemary and then the graham cracker and then the chocolate and then the cayenne. The basil was terrible. Maybe if I had used fresh it would have turned out better, next time.

This is a wonderful recipe to have made up and in the freezer for when friends come over for dinner and you don't have time to make a dessert. Just pull them out of the freezer and throw them in the fridge for an hour and you've got yourself one killer dessert. I actually tried this and they thawed beautifully.

A big thanks to Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and
Deborah from Taste and Tell
for a great delicious and very rich dessert! Will be stocking this in the freezer! I love the DB'ers!








11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the idea of the sea salt on your pops. Very on trend. In fact, some of your combos remind me of the truffle flavors at Vosges. Do you know their chocolates?

Carla said...

I have had Vosges chocolates, some really interesting but others not so. I based the basil and rosemary off of some truffles at Whole Foods.

Deborah said...

Your flavorings are so different and wonderful! So creative!! Great job on this challenge!

Veron said...

very interesting flavor combinations. I love salty and sweet in dessert too!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

the sea salt is a wonderful idea! i also have mine in the freezer for storage...glad to hear thawing them out works great!

Tempered Woman said...

uhm, this pink sea salt you speak of?!?!?! did you make yourself? I need more info. Going crazy in da noggin with love for idea. Why didn't I think of that!?!?!
Love your flavor combinations~ very cool!

Carla said...

I goofed a bit on the salt thing. It's actually Himalayan Pink Salt. And it's delicious and it's pink!
I got it as a gift from my Aunt this Christmas and couldn't wait to pair it with chocolate. Next up, trying caramels dipped in chocolate and dusted with the salt. I'm refusing to buy them at WF anymore so I have to learn to make them.

Dolores said...

Oooh... I love the way you combine a bit of savory with the sweet. Great job!

Texana said...

What an imagination--wish I could think outside the box and come up with deliciously unusual flavors like that. I do love pink salt!

Jessica said...

Your flavor combinations sound so unique! I think I am going to have to try the chocolate/sea salt combo.

Anonymous said...

Sea salt was an intriguing idea! The pops look great.