Chocolate Covered Balls...

...are hard on your waistline - BUT oh so good. (Sorry for the blatant use of a shock factor ;)

So for Father's day I made a cheesecake then fired up the double boiler and made cheese cake balls out of them.  OH MY YUMMNESS.

If covering everything in chocolate wasn't so deadly for the waste line, I think I'd just keep a bowl of chocolate at the ready to dip stuff in.

And I'm convinced that Cake balls were conceived by some very thrifty person who had left over cake, left over frosting and happen to had some chocolate to melt. 

After I made the cheesecake balls, I made cake balls out the left over chocolate cake scraps and chocolate frosting I had from the kids party.  YUM.  Did I mention they had left over crushed Oreo in them?

Lemony Cheesecake Bars compliments of Betty Hartman at Grace Lutheran Church

*1.5 cups graham crackers
*1/3 cup sugar
*1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
*1/3 cup melted butter
*2 (8 oz) cream cheese softened
*1 (14 oz) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
*2 Eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In bowl, combine crumbs, sugar, pecans, and melted butter.  Reserve 1/3 cup crumb mixture.  Press remaining mixture into a 9x13 pan.  Bake 5 mins.  Cool.
2.  In bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Gradually beat in Sweetened Condensed Milk.  Add eggs, beat till combined.  Add lemon juice, stir till combined.  Carefully spoon mixture into crust in pan.  Spoon reserved crumb mixture to cover.
3.  Bake about 30 mins or until knife comes out clean.

Store in the Refrigerator.

For my cheesecake balls, I pulsed the graham crackers and pecans only and set aside.  I made the cheesecake filling as is (making sure to put it in a glass pan so I didn't scratch the bottom when I was scooping).  I used a melon baller to scoop out a ball, then dropped it in the crumbs, using a spoon to cover and compress the cheesecake (I did mine when it was still a bit warm - I think it would have been easier to make the balls if it had been cool).  I put the balls in the freezer for 10 mins (mine were still warm remember?) then dipped half of them in chocolate, covering some of them in more crumbs.  Some I put pop sticks in before I put them in the freezer (dipped in chocolate the pushed in the ball)

Chill

OH.  MY.  YUMMNESS.

This is what is left of the chocolate covered cheesecake balls.