Cheesecake Pops are evil!

Better slightly late than never. The April Challenge, my first. And challenge it was. I'm a little late posting so let's get on with it. This month's challenge was a recipe from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor.
I wanted to stay as true to the original recipe as possible. So a basic veganization. My altered recipe follows.

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages tofutti cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 pkg extra firm silken tofu
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, flour, and salt until smooth.
Using a mixer, mix on low speed in another bowl the tofu, sugar & vanilla.
Beat the two together.
Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the 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.
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. You may need to lightly freeze to firm the cake up enough to scoop.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake 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. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

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.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.
They aren't all that pretty. I didn't really get the chance to decorate these. They were too delicious and didn't last long at all. The recipe could use a little tweaking. I may revisit this again to perfect it as they would be a great treat to share. Mega yum!