If there is one thing that I say I make better than anyone...it's cheesecake. Swear. I know there are some good ones out there, but I'll put mine up against anyone. The base recipe comes from Mom, thanks Mom! Her cheesecake is renowned.
The idea came from those little ice cream bites, Dipps. While popping the last one in my mouth the other night (go ahead and try to not eat the entire container, it can't be done), I wondered how good would a little creamy frozen cheesecake taste? After licking the remnants of the melted chocolate off my fingers, I forged into the first of many recipe testings. I did look around to see what type of recipes are currently out there. Unfortunately most of what I found was for the the cool whip type of frozen pie; these are too light and airy to fill the creamy dense taste sensation that defines a cheesecake. There was one or two recipes featuring a gelatin base. This may be something to try as a comparison, but again, there is a fear of a more glopping or jelly product than creamy. A decision was made to simply start with my base and adjust accordingly.
There are a few things to learn from my first experiment. Rule number one is to work quickly, especially when you get to the melted chocolate step. Second, is have patience while they are in the freezer. If you keep 'testing' them in your mouth to see if they are frozen, you may end up making a second batch!
Here is the basic recipe I started with:
4oz cream cheese, 1/4 sugar, dash of almond flavoring and 2 Tbls sour cream. Mix with a hand held blender until sugar is dissolved. Using an ice cream scoop (use a very small size) form into balls and freeze on a parchment lined sheet pan. Once partially frozen, I rolled them into crushed chocolate cookie crumbs. Return to freezer. Melt chocolate and cream over a double broiler. Dip each ball into the chocolate, replace onto the parchment lined sheet pan and place back into freezer until ready to eat.
Overall I'm quite happy with the first test batch; as were my testers! But stay tuned for more updates on refining the process.
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