CHOCOLATE COVERED CHEESECAKE LOLLIPOPS

I tasted these for the first time in the office last week when Joelle brought them in as a treat.  She had all so many varieties in her lollipops like mint chocolate, chocoloate cheesecake with coffee bean chippings.  They were absolutely delicious.  I just had to make them for our family gathering Christmas evening.  What I liked most about this idea is that you can use your imagination and be creative with the shapes, and colours.  It requires a lot of time and needs a couple of days to complete but the good part is that you can make them weeks in advance and freeze them until they need to be served.

2 packages of Cream Cheese (250gr each, 500 gr total), room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

4 tablespoons heavy cream

Dipping:

250 gr chocolate

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Topping:

Crushed Skor Candy Bars

Coconut

Any kind of unsalted nuts like hazelnuts

Wooden skewers (short ones for shish kebaps work fine)

Makes 35 to 40

• First make the cheesecake:  Mix together cream cheese and sugar until soft.  Add all of the ingredients and mix well to even consistency
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Prepare a 8 x 8″ square cake pan or spring form pan by melting butter at the bottom or  line it with cooking paper.
• Pour cheesecake batter into the cake pan
• Bake for 40 to 50 minutes
• Leave the cake in the fridge overnight.  Make sure it is covered.
• Making the Lollipops is the creative part.  First decide the shape you would like (balls, circles, hearts use your imagination).  You can cut out the pieces as you like.  Insert a wooden skewer into the cheesecake to make them into lollipops
• Cover and freeze overnight.
• Prepare your toppings.  My favorite is ground Skor candy bars.  I usually freeze them first then use a blender to ground them.  All kinds of colourful candies or chopped (unsalted) nuts work very well.
• Melt chocolate
• Dip cheesecake lollipops in melted chocolate, dip into the topping of your choice
• Cover and freeze overnight.
• Take out of the freezer 1/2 hour before you need to serve