Vegan Cheesecake Pops

Lest you think that I have been unusually obsessed with making vegan cheesecake lately, let me reassure you. I have and I haven't. :)

First off, my husband made that vegan chocolate cheesecake and I am the one who made the raspberry sauce. Secondly, I did make the vegan peanut butter chocolate cheesecake but it was for my husband's birthday. Finally, I take no blame for making these cute little creamy pops.

I had been seeing banners for The Daring Bakers on other cooking blogs for a while, and finally decided to investigate further. I hadn't realized it, but being a member of The Daring Bakers means you have to participate in monthly baking challenges. I'm always up for a challenge, so I decided to join.

So there you go. The Daring Bakers are at fault for making me make cheesecake again. I'm not upset about it at all though.

When I first saw the recipe for these pops, as well as the directions that I had to stay pretty close to the recipe, I was a little concerned. Standard cheesecake has a lot of eggs and egg replacer probably wouldn't exactly be a sufficient replacement for eggs. I already had a foolproof vegan recipe, so I was also afraid that if I attempted to veganize this other recipe I'd have a disaster on my hands - wasted ingredients and a terrible taste.

So what I did was cut this recipe down to an amount that wouldn't be a huge disappointment if it did fail, and altered it enough to where the taste and texture would be just right.

Vegan Cheesecake Pops
Original non-vegan recipe for Cheesecake Pops can be found here

• 1 package of Tofuffi Better Than Cream Cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened Silk soy milk)
• 1 Tbsp. corn starch
• Boiling water as needed
• 1/2 pound chocolate (I used Trader Joe's 70% Dark Chocolate)
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable shortening (You can probably use coconut oil here instead, although I did use the shortening myself)
• 10 Lollipop sticks, more or less (I used short skewers because I couldn't find lollipop sticks)
• Sprinkles or anything else to roll the cheesecake pops in

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In your food processor (or you can use a mixer), mix together the Tofutti cream cheese, sugar, salt, vanilla, and vegan milk until smooth. Add the cornstarch and mix for another minute or two.

Lightly grease a small cake pan or Pyrex dish (not a springform pan). Pour the cheesecake batter into the cake pan and place in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with 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. You will likely want to watch the cheesecake for the last 10 or 15 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn.

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 cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchement paper-lined baking sheet.

Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the 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. 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.

The recipe says to refrigerate these for up to 24 hours, but I found that refrigerating only made them not hold together as well. I would suggest sticking these in the freezer.

These turned out really well. It was a relief when I bit into my first one to discover that they were tasty, and that other vegan cheesecake recipes do turn out.

I think that if I were to make these again, however, I would add some other flavors. They were a little on the bland side so peanut butter might be great, or making the cheesecake part chocolately might be a good variation.

At any rate, it shows that you really can be creative with cheesecake and that even non-vegan cheesecake recipes can be veganized.

So I challenge you - try these little suckers!