Again and Again, Over and Over

# 34 - 2008

This month the Daring Baker challenge recipe came to us from two wonderful and delightful ladies I’ve enjoyed for many times and many great recipes.

Elle - Feeding My Enthusiasms

and

Deborah - Taste & Tell

And what would their challenge recipe be (like you haven’t already been to 1000 other blogs and know what it is?)??

CheeseCake LolliPops

Adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey

Jill O’Connor

The reason I’m going to talk about “Again & Again, Over & Over” is because for me it’s what the Daring Bakers are all about. It seems I have this little routine with myself:

1.What!? That’s the recipe!? Three options here, either “Oh goody” OR “Oh NO” . . . OR “Gadfry, there’s no way I can do THAT”!!
2.Time goes by.
3.Read recipe.
4.Other things to bake (that would be mostly bread).
5.OK . . . are you going to do it or not?
6.Work self into the spirit of adventure, hardest thing in the world for me is to try to just follow the recipe.
7.Bake, I have since I joined.

First, you mix up cheesecake batter. It’s very typical cheese cake nothing difficult about it. At least until I went to pour it into the pan.

Leaping Lizards!!! And this was the result!

I figure the bad ju-ju could have come from

1. I wasn’t baking this with my two over the pond buddies Karen & Ilva or

2. because our backyard is full of these guys having a field day.

3. Peabody did it . . .

Did you read this great post Peabody did on bad baking ju-ju? Well, right after she wrote that she got on a jet to Dallas (yes, I swear she did). Her only luggage was a rolling pin - security people were a bit curious about that and the fact that this was a Seattle to Dallas out and back trip in less than 10 hours. She somehow snuck in and out of my kitchen in such a flash, I didn’t see her.

The water bath technique slows baking and tends to result in a level cheese cake. That ucky looking spot there is thanks to more bad ju-ju in my oven. I know with heavy moisture I get dripping and dumbly put the pan right under that spot . . . what can I say.

A cup and a half short of batter, I still got a full 10 inch cheesecake so go figure that one. Did my leaping bowl save me from an oven bellowing smoke!? Maybe. I’m going for the idea that the bad ju-ju was short lived and hopped away with some bunnies.

Chill the cheese cake well (several hours or overnight). I used a scoop to size the balls. Put the balls on a silpate sheet on a baking pan, stuck a pop stick in each one and sat it all in the freezer, you want these frozen solid because you’ll be dipping them in HOT chocolate - haha, yes HOT CHOCOLATE!!

When they’re frozen solid, melt chocolate of your choice and a very small amount of vegetable shortening in a double boiler. Dip the frozen balls in the hot chocolate and refrigerate until ready to use in about 24 hours.

I tried some sparkle sugar on the chocolate but it doesn’t show up, wouldn’t do that again.

Next time I want a cheese cake, I have some fun ideas to try, one will be an almond joy cheese cake ball dipped in chopped almonds and coconut! Christmas I think a peppermint cheese cake rolled in peppermint with a candy cane stick.

When I started this recipe, I thought this was sort of a silly idea to ruin a perfectly good cheese cake. Now I think this is just about the slickest idea of how to serve the perfect bite of cheese cake there is with an infinite number of ways to get happy with flavors and toppings! Any cheese cake recipe would probably work for this. Find the recipe for this one here or here.

There are changes a-foot at the Daring Bakers. It is mind boggling when such a simple idea of baking with some friends can come together and bloom into something like the Daring Bakers. I think there will be some very exciting news coming from our two very fantastic founders, Ivonne, CreamPuffsInVenice and Lis, LaMiaCucina, so be sure to check their sites. And thank you both for your tireless efforts to keep this really a fantastic and growing group!

On the right hand side bar you’ll find the Daring Baker’s Blog Roll where you’ll also find we’re getting closer to 1000!! Can World Domination be far behind!