Recipe Scrapbook Home Bran Buddy / HiFi Buddy Bars Chocolate Peanut Butter Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Prototype 8 Chocolate Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Bars Prototype 1 Chocolate Cherry Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Peanut Butter Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Banana Prototype 1 Fluffernutter Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Lemon Prototypes 1 & 2 Orange Prototype 1 Pumpkin Prototype 1 (plus Balls variation) HiFi Buddy Balls Orange Prototype 1 Chocolate Prototype 1 (plus Orange-Chocolate variation) Prototype 2 Peanut Butter Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Chocolate Peanut Butter Prototypes 1 & 2 Maple Prototype 1 Eggnog Prototype 1 Pancakes Eggnog Pancake Batter Notes Trader Joe's Mix Latkes Spicy Latkes Matzah Pizza Stack Basic Crust Bran Buds Pie Crust Pies Chilled Eggnog Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Chilled Pumpkin Eggnog Prototype 1 Key Lime Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Pecan Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Eggnog Notes Additional Eggnog Notes Cheesecakes Chocolate Prototype 10.1 Prototype 10.2 Prototype 10.3 Prototype 10.4 Prototype 10.5 Prototype 11 Prototype 12 Prototype 13 Prototype 14 Prototype 15 Prototype 16 Prototype 17 Prototype 18 Prototype 19 Prototype 20 Prototype 21 Prototype 22 Prototype 23 Prototype 24 Prototype 25 Prototype 26 Eggnog Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Prototype 8 Prototype 9 Prototype 10 Prototype 11 Prototype 12 Prototype 13 Prototype 14 Prototype 15 Prototype 16 Prototype 17 Prototype 18 Prototype 19 Prototype 20 Prototype 21 Prototype 22 Prototype 23 Prototype 24 Prototype 25 Prototype 26 Prototype 27 Prototype 28 Prototype 29 Prototype 30 Prototype 31 Prototype 32 Prototype 33 Peanut Butter Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Maple Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Prototype 8 Lemon Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Orange Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Chocolate Peanut Butter Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Prototype 8 Prototype 9 Prototype 10 Banana Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Pumpkin Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Prototype 8 Prototype 9 Prototype 10 Prototype 11 Prototype 12 Prototype 13 Plain Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Prototype 8 Prototype 9 Prototype 10 Prototype 11 Prototype 12 Prototype 13 Prototype 14 Prototype 15 Prototype 16 Prototype 17 Prototype 18 Prototype 19 Prototype 20 Prototype 21 Prototype 22 Prototype 23 Prototype 24 Eggnog Pumpkin Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Cookies+Creme Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Prototype 8 Prototype 9 Prototype 10 Prototype 11 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Chocolate Eggnog Prototype 1 Vanilla Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Orange Vanilla Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Chocolate Banana Prototype 1 Prototype 2 S'mores Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Pumpkin Pecan Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Whoopie Pie Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Pecan Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Marshmallow Prototype 1 Cherry Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Fluffernutter Prototype 1 Dulce De Leche Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Chocolate Cherry Prototype 3 Strawberry Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Prototype 6 Prototype 7 Prototype 8 Almond Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Chocolate Strawberry Prototype 1 Chocolate Almond Prototype 1 Neapolitan Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 Triple-Plus Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Prototype 1 Blueberry Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Patriotic Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Key Lime Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Cheesecake Tips Pecan Pie Filling Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Cream Cheese Spread Pumpkin Additional Notes Name Change: Bran to HiFi Birthday Gift Replacement of Bran Buds with Regular All-Bran Batter Composition Changes (Mid-2015) Batter Composition Changes (Mid-2017) Update Since COVID-19 (Late-2021) All Recipes & Notes Red Velvet Research Project Preliminary Secondary My 1980's Cheesecake Prototypes Pitfalls to avoid: Unsuccessful recipes

Baked Blueberry Cheesecake—Prototype 1:   At long last! This one would be my first new cheesecake flavor since COVID-19 hit our world. With the pandemic restrictions greatly eased by June of 2022, I produced a blueberry cheesecake early in that month. One of the top reasons for doing so was to have a hopefully useful-enough, blue-looking prototype, which I could utilize in the future for a red-white-and-blue cheesecake—hopefully in time for the following month's Independence Day.   3-Cheese Blend (1CT-1NC-1YG): Prepare ahead of time 16 ounces of yogurt cheese, derived from one 32-ounce container of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 16 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. To this yogurt cheese combine 16 ounces of whipped, lowfat cottage cheese and 16 ounces (two 8-ounce packages) of softened Neufchatel cheese ("light cream cheese"). Grease a 9 1/2" (or 9") springform pan, but do not wrap foil around it yet (see below). Crust: 2 oz. melted, white chocolate 8 oz. (1 cup) 3-cheese blend (see above) 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2 oz. All-Bran, ground up Place the resulting mixture in the greased pan and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall. Batter: 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 40 oz. (5 cups) 3-cheese blend (see above) 2 teaspoons vanilla 12 ounces of blueberries, pureed 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum 6 eggs (brown recommended, large) Optional: 3/8 teaspoon heat-resistant blue food coloring Expect close to 8 1/2 cups of the resulting batter, but do not add this to the pan all at once. Rather, this needs to be done in four installments. Wrap the pan in foil just before adding the first batter installment (to minimize the foil's disturbance and therefore its leakage risk, do not put it on any earlier). For each of the first three installments, gently scoop about 2 1/2 cups of batter into the pan, fully covering the surface (here's a tip—scoop small amounts of batter around the edge of the pan, letting this batter flow towards the middle on its own), and then bake this pan with its contents for 25 minutes, at 325 degrees. However, at the end of the third installment's 25 minutes, add on another 30 minutes of baking time, but only at 300 degrees (that's a 55 minute "baking installment"—the first 25 minutes at 325 degrees and the next 30 at 300). For these three installments here, bake with the pan in a tub filled with at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch of boiling water, but (to reduce spillage risks) do not fill the tub all the way at this point, because the whole tub-and-pan assembly is going to need to be removed from the oven (in order to comfortably add contents to the pan) between installments. After these first three installments are done, there should be about 1 cup of batter left, with 105 minutes of baking time reached at this point (25 minutes for each of the first two installments, and 55 for the third one). Now comes the fourth installment—carefully add the last of this batter on top of the pan's earlier installments, fully coating the entire surface. Next, return the entire pan-and-tub assembly to the oven, with the temperature remaining at 300 degrees. At this point, fill up the tub generously with boiling water. Resume baking for another 105 minutes (based upon usage of a 9 1/2" pan). Afterward, shut the oven off, and leave its door slightly ajar, with the cheesecake still inside—and in the tub—for an hour. Next, remove the cheesecake from the oven and tub. Continue to cool it down at room temperature for another two hours. After doing so, remove the cheesecake from pan and refrigerate. Because this was the first time that I made a blueberry cheesecake, I wanted to see if the blueberries would give the batter a nice, blue appearance without adding any blue food coloring. By omitting this and relying solely on the color from the fruit itself, I saw what seemed to be a light purple appearance in the batter before baking. After the baking and the pan removal, I saw what appeared to be more of a light, brownish-red color in this cheesecake. For a strictly-blueberry, single-flavored one, I was okay with that. But I had plans for a more decorative one—to be included in a forthcoming patriotic, three-color cheesecake. Blue food coloring and July 4th, here we come! The baking procedure for this cheesecake was based primarily on the 2017 version of Prototype 6 of my banana cheesecakes, whose texture I was somehow happy with. However, I felt that the blueberry cheesecake still came out too soft. I should have given consideration to my pumpkin prototypes as well as to the banana ones. More xanthan gum and/or baking time for the next blueberry cheesecake, if I ever get around to it! At least the flavor was good—I could taste those blueberries (or at least somewhat). This one went extremely well when I brought it into The Home Depot for my fellow associates to enjoy. As I checked in on this cheesecake nearly 75 minutes later, it was almost completely gone. There was just a tiny morsel left.   Baked Blueberry Cheesecake—Prototype 2:   Last year, I brought a three-layered, patriotic cheesecake to The Home Depot's July 4th cookout for my co-workers. One of those layers was blueberry, but I felt that this layer seemed a little too greenish. So I needed to come up with a revision for the future. Rather than use 1/2 teaspoon of blue food coloring, cut it down to 3/8 teaspoon, and add 1/8 teaspoon of red. But what if that were to still yield unsatisfactory results? How about making a blueberry cheesecake—just this flavor—but in three different color formulas, close to each other? I would then have two backups to choose from in case I wasn't happy with the first revised formula (and hope like crazy to be pleased with one of the others in such a case). It was a matter of my getting around to baking such an experimental color cheesecake. With a Home Depot bake sale coming up in late April of 2023, I finally made my move. The food colorings for the three layers would be as follows: Top layer (last two baking installments): 3/8 teaspoon blue, 1/8 teaspoon red Middle layer (middle two baking installments): 1/4 teaspoon blue, 1/8 teaspoon red Bottom layer (first two baking installments): 3/8 teaspoon blue only, no red I also made a "last-minute" decision to sweeten up the blueberry flavor a little.   3-Cheese Blend (1CT-1NC-1YG): Prepare ahead of time 16 ounces of yogurt cheese, derived from one 32-ounce container of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 16 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. To this yogurt cheese combine 16 ounces of whipped, lowfat cottage cheese and 16 ounces (two 8-ounce packages) of softened Neufchatel cheese ("light cream cheese"). Blueberry Concentrate: Puree about 3 half-pint containers (or close to 18 ounces) of fresh blueberries, then put into a pan and cook over very low heat, until nearly 1/3 of the puree's weight has evaporated. Let the resulting concentrate (which should now be close to 12 ounces) cool slightly before using. Grease a 9 1/2" (or 9") springform pan, but do not wrap foil around it yet (see below). Crust: 2 oz. melted, white chocolate 8 oz. (1 cup) 3-cheese blend (see above) 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2 oz. All-Bran, ground up Place the resulting mixture in the greased pan and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall. Batter: 1 1/4 cups + 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 40 oz. (5 cups) 3-cheese blend (see above) 2 teaspoons vanilla 12 oz. (approximate) blueberry concentrate (full recipe, see above) 1 tablespoon xanthan gum 6 eggs (brown recommended, large) Optional: heat-resistant blue and red food colorings (see comments above) Expect close to 8 1/2 cups of the resulting batter, but do not add this to the pan all at once. Rather, this needs to be done in six installments. Wrap the pan in foil just before adding the first batter installment (to minimize the foil's disturbance and therefore its leakage risk, do not put it on any earlier). For each of the first five installments, gently scoop about 1 5/12 cups (or between 1 1/3 and 1 1/2 cups) of batter into the pan, fully covering the surface (here's a tip—scoop small amounts of batter around the edge of the pan, letting this batter flow towards the middle on its own), and then bake this pan with its contents for 25 minutes, at 325 degrees. For these five installments here, bake with the pan in a tub filled with at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch of boiling water, but (to reduce spillage risks) do not fill the tub all the way at this point, because the whole tub-and-pan assembly is going to need to be removed from the oven (in order to comfortably add contents to the pan) between installments. After these first five installments are done, there should be about 1 5/12 cups (or between 1 1/3 and 1 1/2 cups) of batter left, with 125 minutes of baking time reached at this point. Now comes the sixth installment—carefully add the last of this batter on top of the pan's earlier installments, fully coating the entire surface. Next, return the entire pan-and-tub assembly to the oven, with the temperature reduced to 300 degrees. At this point, fill up the tub generously with boiling water. Resume baking for another 60 minutes (based upon usage of a 9 1/2" pan). Afterward, shut the oven off, and leave its door slightly ajar, with the cheesecake still inside—and in the tub—for an hour. Next, remove the cheesecake from the oven and tub. Continue to cool it down at room temperature for another two hours. After doing so, remove the cheesecake from pan and refrigerate. The layered results: Bottom: Still too greenish (cyan) Middle: Too much purple (magenta) Top: A decent blue (hopefully not too purple)—use this one And so I made a good guess for that first revised formula. The "3/8 teaspoon blue + 1/8 teaspoon red" combo wins! The stage was set for my next patriotic cheesecake. And the added sugar for the blueberry batter wasn't a bad idea either. However, the crust turned out to be unbelievably too mushy (separating the crust from the pan's bottom was a frustrating nightmare!), and the top of the cheesecake ended up rather rubbery. As I considered this batter texture problem, I noted some things about this blueberry cheesecake when compared to certain liquid-oriented cheesecakes that I made in the past, especially pumpkin, eggnog and banana. These involved baking in multiple installments, just like blueberry. However, I often baked those in roughly three or—more recently and therefore more importantly—four installments, not six. Why, then, did I do six for this most recent blueberry one? It was because this particular blueberry cheesecake involved three distinctive layers, each a different color. Perhaps I would have been better off with four installments on this one, but the number had to be a multiple of three in this case. Upon my deciding how many installments to bake this prototype, I felt that three was too small—that this number would be too much of a softness risk—and that six was a lot safer (the excess moisture would more easily evaporate with this number). It was especially the batter's topmost installment—the sixth one—that had this rubber-tough texture. That installment also had the longest baking time. This led me to consider that I probably should have cut this time short, due likely to the final installment being plentifully thin. With this three-color experiment hopefully done, I gave some thought to reverting to four installments—and also being more careful about the fourth one itself, especially with the cooking time—upon baking a possible "single-color-layered", blueberry-only cheesecake in the future. Perhaps an alternative would be to stick with six installments—but certainly with a time reduction on the sixth itself. I also had to give some additional thought as to how long to pre-bake the crust—and/or possibly raise the temperature. This latest cheesecake slowly but surely disappeared at my workplace (it did not seem to be one of the better bake sale items).