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 Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 1   Some may use other names for a cheesecake like this. How about this one: <name_of_this_kind_of_recipe> ::= {"Baked " (("Cookies" ("-n-" | " [']n['] " | " and " | "-and-") ("Cream" | "Creme" | ("Cr" <egrave> "me"))) | "Oreo") " Cheesecake"}. Well, if John Backus and/or Peter Naur (of "BNF", or "Backus-Naur Form", fame) were involved with cheesecakes, perhaps this is how they would express it. The crust here is identical to that used in Prototype 13 of the chocolate cheesecake and Prototype 3 of the chocolate-peanut butter combo. A suggested variation that I thought up here was to substitute about 8 finely ground chocolate sandwich cookies for the 2.2 ounces of Bran Buds. But I wanted to maintain my high fiber approach. The batter matches that of Baked Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 4, except that chocolate sandwich cookies are added here. As for the chocolate sandwich cookies themselves, I could have gone with the oh-so-familiar Nabisco Oreo cookies. For this recipe, I chose instead to use "Joe-Joe's" from Trader Joe's, due to my more natural preferences (but just about any chocolate sandwich cookie should do, so pick a favorite). The Frieling springform pan that I got as a gift made its debut with this prototype. One of things that I discovered was, despite this pan claiming a 9" size, I have found it to be more like 9 1/2".   Crust: 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted 1 1/3 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 cup (8 oz.) lowfat cottage cheese, whipped, no salt added 3/8 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla (next to last ingredient here) 2.2 oz. Bran Buds, ground up Batter: 2 tablespoons melted or softened butter 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup skim milk 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1/3 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 1/2 cups (20 oz.) lowfat cottage cheese, whipped, no salt added 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs 12 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed (add this last, and mix enough to get it blended in) Bake in a tub at 300 degrees for about 100 minutes. I felt that I might have crushed the cookies somewhat too much. I placed 12 of these into a small plastic bag and used only my hands to do the crushing (no rolling pin or other kitchen "tools" were used). With the sandwich creme all over the bag's inside, it was a challenge to get as much of the contents as possible out of this bag and into the batter. Even though this prototype's taste was delicious, I felt that the batter's texture at the outer edge of the cheesecake was a bit too dry or "crusty". I also noticed scattered faint cracks. So I suspected that a 100-minute baking time was too long. Nevertheless, this one did alright during fellowship time at Living Hope Church.   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 2 Repeat Prototype 1, but boost the batter's sandwich cookies by 4, to 16. Also, cut the baking time to only about 90 minutes.   Again, I used Joe-Joe's from TJ's for this one. I would have to admit, however, that their taste differed from that of the Oreo cookies. I performed a cookie taste test and felt that the Oreos tasted noticeably sweeter, this difference likely being linked to the creme filling in the middle—hardly because of the chocolate cookie "outsides". For this prototype, I crushed the Joe-Joe's much less. Instead of putting these into a bag and extensively mashing them (and afterward blending them into the batter by machine for a fairly long time), I broke—by hand—each cookie into a few chunks and dropped them directly onto a still batter in a blender (after having combined all the other ingredients, including the eggs). I then ran the blender, likely with the intent of doing so for only about 10 seconds (at the slowest speed), in order to get the cookie pieces reasonably distributed. To my surprise, the broken cookies quickly got blended into the batter, giving it nearly as much of a brown appearance as my previous prototype—a coloring effect that I had hoped to avoid—all within a few seconds, after which I immediately shut the blender off. I made a mental note to fold in the cookies strictly by hand (with a utensil such as a scraper or spatula) for future prototypes. However, the cookies still turned out chunkier than last time. The batter still ended up with some cracks, in light of the reduced baking time. Yet this tasty cheesecake ended up being a much bigger success (gone in a surprisingly short time) at Living Hope than the first prototype.   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 3:   I wanted a natural sandwich cookie product that tasted like those oh-so-famous Oreos. For this prototype, I gave the Newman's Own brand—Newman-O's (original)—a try.   Repeat Prototype 2, but upon adding the crushed cookies, make sure that they are only folded into the batter. Keep that blender, mixer, or whatever food processor is used, shut off at this point! Then transfer all this to the pan. What a difference the fold-only approach makes! However, the Newman's seemed to taste just like Joe-Joe's (which, I suspected, may have been Newman-O's themselves, packaged under the Trader Joe's label, until I realized many weeks later—through nutrition and ingredient label comparisons—that there were considerable differences). I brought this to the Italian Community Center in Beverly, to which Lesa's dart team transferred—in early 2012—after a number of years of being based out of the Sports Page. The cheesecake fared well at the ICC. However, Steve commented about this one—and other cheesecakes that I have previously made—being too dry (nevertheless, he still loved this cheesecake). But this did not surprise me, considering the fact that this was a relatively low-fat recipe (and the already dry cookies would only absorb more moisture out of the batter). Laurie (Lesa's cousin), while feeling that the crust was fine, provided some suggestions for the batter: 1) Add lemon zest (to me, that would be lemon "peel"), about 1/4 teaspoon. 2) Add a "splash" (about 1/8 teaspoon) of lime juice. 3) Use Hydrox cookies. 4) Replace at least some of the cottage cheese with cream cheese (about 6 ounces). She furthermore suggested using stevia, one of the newest sweeteners on the market, a natural sugar substitute with hardly any calories. I felt reserved about some of her suggestions—the probability of artificial ingredients in Hydrox cookies, the relatively high-fat characteristic of cream cheese and—in my experience—the insufficiently sweet taste of stevia. Furthermore, based upon some Internet research, it seemed that Kellogg's (home of the Bran Buds from the All-Bran line!), the owner of Keebler/Sunshine Biscuits, which in turn had put out Hydrox in the past, retired this cookie (it was reportedly brought back for a limited time around 2008). Neither was there hope for "Droxies", a updated replacement for Hydrox. Anyway, I felt that it was time to give another natural/organic brand of chocolate sandwich cookies a try, this one being Nature's Promise. I conducted a taste test between this one and genuine, Nabisco Oreos. What was the outcome (this happened to be on a "Friday the 13th" BTW)? I could not really detect a difference in taste...I have finally found my desirable kind of cookies—classic Oreo-style taste, all-natural ingredients (this product was even "organic"—that was a bonus)! Now for those of you interested in these particular cookies, you may or may not have to seek out yet another alternative. It depends on where you buy your groceries. I was fortunate enough to obtain this product, Nature's Promise Organic Chocolate Cookies with Vanilla Cream, from a Stop & Shop supermarket in my area. If you do not live in Stop & Shop territory, but still have access to another grocery chain owned by Ahold USA (corporate parent not only of Stop & Shop, but also Giant of Carlisle, PA, Giant of Landover, MD, and Martin's), there's a good chance that you can pick up these same cookies, given that Nature's Promise is Ahold's private natural/organic brand. Best wishes ("good luck" as some say)! So I made another instance of Prototype 3, but this time I used Nature's Promise. This cheesecake got devoured very quickly at a Living Hope Church meal (although there wasn't much of a selection of other desserts on this particular occasion). I became concerned, however, about the dryness in regard to the cookies.   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 4:   This one is an effort to make the cookies turn out more moist.   Repeat Prototype 3, but make up a mixture of 1/2 cup of skim milk and 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar, and soak the cookies—lightly broken up—in this mixture, until the chocolate outer cookies soften. Then fold all this into the cheesecake batter before baking. (Note that the milk for this "soaking" mixture is in addition to the 1/2 cup already used in the batter. So one full cup of milk is used altogether for this recipe. In fact, if it becomes difficult getting all the cookies moistened, at least some of the 1/2 cup of milk intended directly for the batter could instead be shifted to the cookie mixture.)   I used the Nature's Promise cookies here. I also learned that in order to make the soaking process go smoothly for nearly 16 cookies, I would need a bigger container than a pint (perhaps more like 3 to 4 cups in size). Another lesson learned was to avoid crumbling the cookies too much, if they were going to be soaked. In trying to break each cookie into no less than four pieces, I ended up with a cheesecake that had an appearance that was somewhere between Prototypes 1 and 3 (whereas I preferred chunkier, Prototype 3 results).   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 5:   The quest was on to improve on the cookies. I came up with a new idea on how to soak them. At this point, I made a major change for the batter, and—to some degree—for the crust as well. I replaced the cottage cheese with yogurt cheese for this cookies+creme prototype after having experimented beforehand with some plain cheesecakes (see Baked Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 7 for more details). I also made some further adjustments, particularly in boosting the sugar. Among other things to be noted here: no milk (except to soak the cookies), lemon juice or arrowroot used.   Crust: 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted 1 1/3 tablespoons cocoa powder 8 oz. yogurt cheese (half of it lowfat, the other half nonfat) 3/8 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2.2 oz. Bran Buds, ground up Batter: 2 tablespoons melted or softened butter 1 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 20 oz. yogurt cheese (half of it lowfat, the other half nonfat) 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs Cookie Mixture: 16 chocolate sandwich cookies, broken preferably in halves (at least make a reasonable effort here) 1/2 cup skim milk Fill a resealable ("Ziploc") sandwich or 1-quart bag with the 16 cookies and 1/2 cup skim milk. Seal this bag and shake it to distribute the milk and moisten the cookies. Refrigerate for a few hours. Then add this to the batter before baking. Bake the cheesecake in a tub for about an hour at 300 degrees. Cool it down afterwards for about 90 minutes before refrigerating. At first, the bagged, milk-soaking approach seemed like a great idea. But after a few hours of letting this sit in the refrigerator, the bag's contents turned to a chocolate "mush". Anyway, I tried to make the best of this outcome by distributing this "mush" throughout the cheesecake batter before baking. I was also moved at this point to perform another comparison test between the Oreo and Nature's Promise brands, because the Oreo cookies on a previous try seemed to have absorbed some mint flavor due to being stored in a container which also had, from what I best recall, a package of chocolate-covered mints. In that earlier test, I reasoned that the two brands still had close enough tastes, apart from the mint interference. The more recent test would be a cleaner comparison. I ended up concluding that as long as I thoroughly combined the chocolate cookie outsides and the inner cremes together, the tastes were hopefully close enough for me to be unable to tell the difference. In fact, with my eyes closed, I incorrectly guessed (likely the majority of times) which brand I was eating. However, in comparing the outer cookies, I felt that Nature's Promise's was a little sweeter. On the other hand, I felt that the Oreo's inside creme was a little sweeter than that of Nature's Promise. Perhaps with the right amount of sugar-shifting between the outer cookie and inner creme of one brand, its taste could indeed be very indistinguishable from the other brand's. My conclusion at this point: mix the cookie and creme together in each brand's case (at least inside the mouth), and the amount of overall sweetness hopefully evens out between Oreo and Nature's Promise. I made this cheesecake for Lesa's friend Steve, in celebration of his 60th birthday. This prototype ended up faring nicely at the Italian Community Center in Beverly, where the occasion took place. The chocolate sandwich cookies, I felt, gave this recipe a really nice taste. However, on the heels of Prototype 7 of my plain cheesecake—and my ongoing quest to improve the flavor of the plain batter, I felt that the batter of my latest cookies+creme prototype, apart from the cookies, still had that "ho-hum" tinge. Karen, among those at Steve's party, suggested cutting down on the flour (she also discussed with me some red velvet tips).   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 6:   A lot of things have changed since Prototype 5. Among them were refinements for my plain cheesecakes, the 10th prototype of which would be a major influence in the latest cookies+creme prototype presented here. Unfortunately, as I started looking into this one, I was confronted by a surprising absence of Nature's Promise Organic Chocolate Cookies with Vanilla Cream from the shelves of Stop & Shop. I tried at least a second store. Then I finally made a customer service inquiry, only to be given the bad news that this product had not shipped for a while, at least to the location where I asked. The clerk there suspected discontinuation on this cookie and chocolate chip varieties as well (which further disappointed me, because Nature's Promise Natural Chocolate Chip Cookies had been a chocolate "fix" for my brother Eric—of California—during his visits here in Massachusetts). I tried at least 3 additional Stop & Shops, but to no avail. Just when I thought I had a terrific sandwich cookie to work with, I did not even have a whole year to enjoy it! Now I was faced with a void. Trader Joe's and Newman's Own weren't as sweet as the Oreos. But I already had three other natural brands lined up as potential replacements. Country Choice was the first candidate for this new round. Its taste seemed less salty compared to the Oreos, so I felt that Country Choice was not an ideal replacement. But if I had to choose between the "less sweet" taste of Trader Joe's/Newman's Own and the "less salty" taste of Country Choice, I would have gone with the latter. After all, the chocolate sandwich cookie, at least to me, certainly belonged more in the "sweet" category than in the "savory" one. The next candidate here was Back To Nature. I ended up feeling a lot happier about this one. I was actually wavering between whether or not I could tell "BTN" and Oreo apart—I hoped not! I could not truly discern whether one was sweeter than the other. Neither could I differentiate on the saltiness. I strived to be "blind" about this comparison. But the Oreo brand was crunchier. BTN was softer. But this kind of "feel" didn't matter to me. I was only interested in the flavor for this test, not the firmness. But that difference made it very hard for me to guess blindly. I strived to chew both brands in ways that would hopefully stop my mouth from detecting the differences in firmness (in my quest to prevent identifying the brands this way). If I could incorrectly guess the brand by flavor in enough test bites, that would hopefully lead to sufficient grounds to determine that I could not sufficiently differentiate the flavors between two brands. I managed perhaps only two wrong guesses. If it weren't for the difference in firmness, I probably would have gotten more incorrect guesses—which I sought! That was the goal. If I were, on the other hand, to keep on correctly identifying which brand I just tasted, that would fail to support my hopes for the inability to detect flavor differences. Not long after this BTN-Oreo evaluation, I was moved to try a sample Country Choice cookie. I ended up concluding that this brand was indeed more distant than Back To Nature was, from the Oreo taste. That easily made Back To Nature my top running candidate to replace Nature's Promise. I still had one more candidate to evaluate. This was "365", a private brand from Whole Foods Market. Like Back To Nature, 365 was hard for me to distinguish from Oreo. 365 seemed to have more crunch than BTN, but not as much as Oreo. Still, this helped me to more "blindly" compare the flavors. I was able to make three incorrect identification guesses here. But I still suspected some minor differing tinges with 365, although I likely detected these in BTN as well. I became curious about what 365 and Back To Nature were like compared directly to each other, so I did a brief flavor test here. It was hard to tell the difference. I was able to obtain one incorrect identification guess, although this was a small test, involving only about one-third of the number of cookies that I used in each of the three "candidate" evaluations indicated above (i.e. Oreo vs. natural brand). Again, I tasted Country Choice shortly after experiencing 365. Country Choice remained easily distinct, with which my mouth suspected an inferior taste. Sorry, Country Choice, I am afraid that I cannot "offer you the position" at this time. It was looking like a tie between Back To Nature and Whole Foods 365 at this point. I also tried a quick but visible comparison between the chocolate cookie outsides of these two latter brands. I failed to find any taste differences here. It could very well end up that if I wanted to use a natural substitute for Oreo, either of these two brands would work reasonably well—in fact, hopefully well enough to rival the supposedly retired Nature's Promise, since I suspected that there might have, in fact, been a trivial tinge difference there as well, hopefully not too much smaller than that of Back To Nature or 365. So over the course of probably a little more than one year, I have "pitted" six natural brands of chocolate creme sandwich cookies against Nabisco's Oreo, and I have found half of them to be more or less satisfactorily close in flavor to this popular (but not so natural) reference classic that has billed itself as "America's Favorite Cookie". Nevertheless, I felt that I could have done more justice in the Oreo vs. Back To Nature evaluation if only the Oreos did not crunch like a Marshall stack. So what I did was chill some Oreo cookies, then steam them a little in hopes of building some condensation on them, allowing plenty of time for this moisture to sink a little into these cookies in order to somewhat soften them. It seemed to work, and in a downsized BTN-Oreo test, I accomplished an incorrect identification guess. I also performed a even smaller test with 365. For some reason, I now picked up some kind of notable differing tinge with that brand. I could not recall a differing tinge nearly this significant with Back To Nature, except that I got a little suspicious earlier in that rematch about Oreo having a little more saltiness. But when I further tried looking out for a saltier taste in Oreo compared to Back To Nature, I did not succeed. Maybe my taste buds were still "warming up" earlier. I wasn't sure. But it was that very faint tinge from 365 in this rematch round that would finally lead me to select Back To Nature as the winner, narrowly edging out Whole Foods Market's 365. But the sheer faintness of this runner up's tinge made it a very close competitor. This was close enough that if Back To Nature were to discontinue its chocolate sandwich cookies, I would highly likely be content to utilize 365, rather than seeking out additional natural brands. But I ended up choosing BTN for Prototype 6. Furthermore, several weeks after making this prototype, I ended up performing inner-creme-only and outer-cookie-only comparison tests between Oreo and Back To Nature. I hardly made any big effort to perform incorrect-guessing attempts. I simply went back and forth, somewhat blindly, between the two brands and hoped that I could not detect any differences in tastes. I ended up failing to really notice any flavor distinctions. That was a bonus! Even Nature's Promise presented taste differences with Oreo upon my comparing the inner cremes alone and upon my comparing the chocolate cookie outsides alone (as explained in Prototype 5). If I could not even detect these "component" differences between Back To Nature and Oreo, that would certainly give Back To Nature a noteworthy advantage over Nature's Promise. This outcome thus greatly reduced my lament for Stop & Shop's discontinuance of its natural offering. So in wrapping up this quest to fill the void left by Nature's Promise, I would be using Back To Nature in my cookies+creme cheesecakes. 365 would be my future backup, should the chocolate sandwich cookies from BTN come to an end.   2-to-1 Blend of Yogurt Cheese and Cottage Cheese: Prepare ahead of time 1 pound 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 8 ounces (1 cup) of whipped, lowfat cottage cheese. Crust: 2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted 2 teaspoons cocoa powder 4 oz. (1/2 cup) 2-to-1 blend of yogurt cheese and cottage cheese (see above) 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1.1 oz. Bran Buds, ground up Batter: 2 tablespoons melted or softened butter 5/8 cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 1/3 tablespoons arrowroot 1/4 teaspoon salt 20 oz. (2 1/2 cups) 2-to-1 blend of yogurt cheese and cottage cheese (see above) 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs Cookie Mixture: 1/4 cup skim milk 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar 16 chocolate sandwich cookies (such as Back To Nature Classic Creme Cookies), broken preferably in halves (at least make a reasonable effort here) Blend the milk and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar together. Place the cookies in a resealable ("Ziploc") sandwich or 1-quart bag, then add the milk-and-sugar mixture to it. Close the bag and shake it to distribute the wet mixture and moisten the cookies. Let this sit for about 1 or 2 minutes. Then add the contents to the batter before baking. Bake the cheesecake in a tub at 300 degrees for 60 minutes (if using a 9 1/2" pan), cool (outside of oven and tub) for an hour, remove from pan and refrigerate (adding a border of chocolate chips on top of the cheesecake, while it is warm, is a suggested option). The wording on the Back To Nature packaging was a pleasant sight, including "No Artificial Preservatives, Flavors, or Colors" and "All Natural Cookie with Dutched Cocoa". But I seemed to especially enjoy the clause "No High Fructose Corn Syrup" (I didn't need some kind of compromising sugar substitute, thankyouverymuch)! On another matter, however, I was very surprised at how quickly the cookies became too mushy (although not as badly as in Prototype 5) even after an extremely short amount of time soaking in the bag with the milk-and-sugar mixture. Maybe I should have immediately unloaded these cookies into the batter, rather than let them sit in the bag (even if only for a minute). Why, then, did the unsoaked cookies back in Prototype 3 end up seeming too dry? It quickly dawned on me that the Newman-O's used at that time may have been fairly crunchy in their initial form, just like Oreo. Back To Nature, on the other had, had considerably less crunch to begin with. So this brand's relative softness may have rendered the soaking unnecessary in my pursuit of a moist enough outcome for chocolate sandwich cookies after baking (hence my plan for next time if using BTN). I made this cheesecake to bring to my cousin Rachel's family in Vermont, letting her daughter Lily select this chocolate sandwich cookie flavor months ahead of time. This one didn't last long. She, along with her sister, Mya, and brother, Peter, anxiously dug into it, beginning on a Saturday afternoon, and this cheesecake was gone by the following Sunday evening (they couldn't even resist this dessert at breakfast time on Sunday!), and I myself did not get much of this to eat—but it was very tasty.   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 7:   No cookie soaking this time! I also doubled up the recipe (and gave the arrowroot a slight additional boost to bring that ingredient to a more-rounded 3 tablespoons) for a church lunch.   2-to-1 Blend of Yogurt Cheese and Cottage Cheese: Prepare ahead of time 32 ounces of yogurt cheese, derived from two 32-ounce containers (that's 64 ounces altogether) of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 32 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. To this yogurt cheese combine one 16-ounce container of whipped, lowfat cottage cheese. Crust: 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted 1 1/3 tablespoons cocoa powder 8 oz. (1 cup) 2-to-1 blend of yogurt cheese and cottage cheese (see above) 3/8 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2.2 oz. finely ground Bran Buds Batter: 4 tablespoons melted or softened butter 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons arrowroot 1/2 teaspoon salt 40 oz. (5 cups) 2-to-1 blend of yogurt cheese and cottage cheese (see above) 2 teaspoons vanilla 4 eggs Cookies: 32 chocolate sandwich cookies (such as Back To Nature Classic Creme Cookies), broken preferably in halves Pour the batter on top of the crust. Do not pre-soak the cookies. Simply add them, broken up, directly to the batter before baking. Bake the cheesecake in a tub at 300 degrees for 105 minutes (if using a 9 1/2" pan). Then cool the cheesecake down while still in oven (with this oven shut off) and in tub with door slightly ajar for an hour. Afterwards, remove from oven and tub and continue to cool down at room temperature for another 105 minutes (if desired, add a border of chocolate chips while cheesecake is still warm), then remove from pan and refrigerate. I think this one came out a little overdone, at least on some of the cookies exposed at the top. Perhaps I should have taken a two-layered approach, such as first baking a lower layer with all the cookies in it for a while, then adding a small "reserved" amount of "cookie-less" batter on top (just enough to cover the cookies sticking up through the top of the lower layer) for later baking. The baking times that I chose here were based largely on Prototype 5 of my pumpkin cheesecakes. But it may have been that the cookies themselves, due to their relative dryness, reduced the baking times that I actually needed for a cookies+creme cheesecake. With so many cookies overwhelming the top of the cheesecake, I ended up deciding not to add a chocolate chip border. In fact, the cookies tended to float upward, thus dominating the upper part of this dessert. The "cheese" batter was largely driven downward. I also suspected that maybe I was using too many cookies—and that I should therefore cut them back next time—despite my probable feelings of using too few of them back in Prototype 1. I served this cheesecake at one of Living Hope's "communion dinners" (one of those nearly once-a-month meals enjoyed shortly after morning services). The weather was snowy that day with a few inches of flakes, so the turnout was reduced, but not all that badly. There was still plenty of food and desserts served, and I suspected that the snow-related reduction in people present would probably leave me with close to half of a cheesecake. To my surprise, there ended up being just two slices left, which Bill, a leader of this church's Loaves and Fishes ministry, took home (by the way, I gave him a ride back to his place on that day). I commented to probably at least a couple of people about the cookies tending to float to the top, but at least one person liked the cheesecake that way—with a crunchy top. But another person commented about this prototype not tasting (or hardly tasting) like cheesecake (she easily picked up on the taste of the cookies)! So it was, indeed, time for me to cut those cookies back. At least I myself did not find the cookies to be too dry, at least underneath the surface. But I felt that not only was a cookie reduction in order for next time (revert from 32 to 24 of them, or in the case of a "single" size, from 16 to 12?). I also had to come up with an extensive layering plan if I wanted to get more cookies settled towards the bottom.   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 8:   In light of my trying to get a more even distribution of cookies throughout the batter, I actually took a four-layered approach with Prototype 2 of my chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. That concept is utilized in the latest chocolate sandwich cookie prototype presented here. As for how many cookies to use this time, instead of picking a number like 32 or 24, I decided to simply use an entire single package of the Back To Nature cookies, which would give me a number somewhere in between (I counted 29—I expected a multiple of 3, due to the packaging's 3 rows—maybe a minor fluke occurred). I remembered one person commenting on the deficiency of the cheesecake-like taste in Prototype 7. I myself felt that more tartness was needed. This led me to make an all-yogurt-cheese plain cheesecake (see Baked Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 11 for further info), the taste of which ended up being terrific—the tartness, in particular, not being excessive. That approach is used in Prototype 8 here. Even though this one contains chocolate, it's in the form of cookie pieces. I reasoned that while a fully-blended, chocolate-flavored batter would probably be best with a lower-tartness cheese base (such as a 2-to-1 yogurt-cottage blend), a plain-flavored batter with bits of a chocolate sort should be on the higher-tart side. This was due to how the bite of a chunky type of cheesecake would break down inside the mouth. A batter with scattered chunks in it did not quite have the same taste effect as its fully-homogenized counterpart. So, instead of an eater trying to enjoy a single, collective flavor when chewing, he/she was apt to experience multiple distinctive tastes. Conclusion: let the taster enjoy the cookie and the "cheese-i-ness", each in their own right. I also felt that, starting with this particular cheesecake, some changes were in order for the chocolate crust. It seemed that my more recent batters have become so good, that they were putting the crusts to shame. I was starting to reason that the chocolate should be a little more bittersweet. Given that the crust's taste hopefully appeared (at least to me anyway) to be more than sweet enough, I decided to simply add a little more cocoa powder. It was also time to give some thought to the Bran Buds. Why have I been using 2.2 ounces? Why not a more rounded 2?? This "2.2" was derived from a system of measurement going back to my earlier Bran Buddies recipes. This Kellogg's product was sold in 17.7 ounce boxes. In order to make better use of these boxes, I was somehow moved to use simple fractional amounts. When I began experimenting with my Bran Buddy bars, they needed close to half of a box. If I were to stick with precisely half of a box, I could easily make two batches. If I measured out half the box for one recipe, I would afterward have the remaining half pre-measured for a future recipe. If I made a double-sized batch, I could simply open and use one entire box. This led me to specify 8.8 ounces for a typical single-sized batch. Half of 17.7 was actually 8.85, but I simply rounded that to 8.8 (if I ended up using 8.9 "leftover" ounces in the next recipe, the .1 ounce difference was too trivial). In light of my wanting fiber in my cheesecake crusts, I felt that I would make extensive use of the Bran/Hifi Buddy formulas, reducing them by simple fractions. This resulted, among other things, in 8.8 ounces being divided by 4, and 2.2 was what I came up with. For this latest prototype, I felt that cutting down a little on this high-fiber "flour base" would somehow contribute toward making the crust more tasty (yet without too much sacrifice on the fiber). Another thing that I noticed lately was that I was needing more effort in distributing the crust throughout the pan. This was likely due to whipped cottage cheese being less thick than yogurt cheese, and I have been shifting more and more from the former towards the latter these days. So using less of the ground-up Bran Buds would, hopefully, result in the crust mixture becoming a little more easily spreadable again.   Yogurt Cheese: Prepare ahead of time 3 pounds of yogurt cheese, derived from three 32-ounce containers of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 48 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. Crust: 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 8 oz. (1 cup) yogurt cheese (see above) 3/8 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 oz. finely ground Bran Buds Place all this into a 9 or 9 1/2 inch springform pan. Batter: 4 tablespoons melted or softened butter 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons arrowroot 1/2 teaspoon salt 40 oz. (5 cups) yogurt cheese (see above) 2 teaspoons vanilla 4 eggs Cookies: 1 package, a 12-ounce size or—if package is a different size—12 ounces, of chocolate sandwich cookies, broken preferably in halves (Back To Nature Classic Creme Cookies are recommended—not only for their great, all-natural taste, but these were found in 12-ounce packages) Expect about 7 cups of the resulting batter, but do not add this to the pan all at once. Rather, this needs to be done in five installments. Wrap the pan in foil just before adding the first installment. Minimize the foil's disturbance in order to minimize its leakage risk. For each of the first four installments, add about 1 1/2 cups of batter and one fourth of the cookies to the pan. There is no need to be exact—evenly distributing the cookies is the intent here. Because of this, use extra care in the later installments when adding contents (i.e., do it gently) to the pan. Ensure that the cookies are fully coated, and immersed as much as possible. After adding the installment, bake the pan with its contents for 15 minutes. For each of the first three installments, bake at 325 degrees. For the fourth installment, reduce the temperature and bake at 300 degrees. For all four 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 all this is done, there should be about a cup of batter but no cookies remaining, with 60 minutes of baking time reached at this point (15 minutes for each of the first four installments). Now comes the fifth installment—carefully add the last of this batter on top of the pan's other contents. Try to fully coat the entire surface, especially wherever cookie pieces may be showing. Next, return the entire pan-and-tub assembly to the oven. At this point, fill up the tub generously with boiling water. Resume baking at 300 degrees for another 55 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, and—if desired—add a border of chocolate chips around the edge of this cheesecake. Continue to cool it down at room temperature for another two hours. After doing so, remove the cheesecake from pan and refrigerate. I was happy with the way the cookies got distributed. The taste of Prototype 8 was great. I felt that even the crust was an improvement, with a nice tartness, yet hopefully still sweet enough. I did have a little concern about there remaining too many cookies, but perhaps only a few too many—I could still pick up some nice cheesecake flavor. And, as typical at Living Hope Church these days, the whole thing was gone quickly enough (probably within half of an hour), among a moderate selection of snacks.   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 9:   This latest prototype's changes include, among other things, replacing Bran Buds with regular All-Bran and omitting the salt. The Back To Nature chocolate sandwich cookies, as used in my latest cookie+creme cheesecakes (at least up to this point), have done well in filling the void resulting from the discontinuance of the Nature's Promise version by Stop & Shop. But as I mentioned in Prototype 6, I was also disappointed about that brand of chocolate chip cookies being cut off as well. But the day after I baked my 9th prototype presented here, I spotted those cookies at Stop & Shop again, and that made me happy for my brother Eric's sake.   Yogurt Cheese: Prepare ahead of time 3 pounds of yogurt cheese, derived from three 32-ounce containers of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 48 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. Crust: 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 8 oz. (1 cup) yogurt cheese (see above) 3/8 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 oz. finely ground All-Bran Pour this crust mixture into bottom of greased springform pan (9 to 9 1/2 inches) and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall. Batter: 4 tablespoons melted or softened butter 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons arrowroot 40 oz. (5 cups) yogurt cheese (see above) 2 teaspoons vanilla 4 eggs Cookies: Chocolate sandwich cookies (with vanilla creme centers), about 2 dozen (Back To Nature Classic Creme Cookies recommended) Expect about 7 cups of the resulting batter, but do not add this to the pan all at once. Rather, this needs to be done in five installments. Wrap the pan in foil just before adding the first installment. Minimize the foil's disturbance in order to minimize its leakage risk. For each of the first four installments, gently scoop about 1 1/2 cups of batter into the pan. Add about 6 cookies (don't bother breaking them up—keeping them whole is fine and, in fact, recommended), ensuring that they are fully coated and—as much as possible—immersed. After adding an installment, bake the pan with its contents for 15 minutes. For each of the first three installments, bake at 325 degrees. For the fourth installment, reduce the temperature and bake at 300 degrees. For all four 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 all this is done, there should be about a cup of batter left, with 60 minutes of baking time reached at this point (15 minutes for each of the first four installments). Now comes the fifth installment—carefully add the last of this batter (do not add any more cookies at this point) on top of the pan's other contents. Try to fully coat the entire surface, especially wherever cookie pieces may be showing. Next, return the entire pan-and-tub assembly to the oven. At this point, fill up the tub generously with boiling water. Resume baking at 300 degrees for another 55 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, and—if desired—add a border of chocolate chips around the edge of this cheesecake. Continue to cool it down at room temperature for another two hours. After doing so, remove the cheesecake from pan and refrigerate.   This was another great success at Living Hope Church. Only a couple of slices were left, and I took those home.   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 10:   It seemed like a very long time since I last made a cookies+creme cheesecake. I had done a lot of cheesecake refinements in general since then, and the latest prototype presented here is based on my major cheesecake batter overhaul of 2015.   3-Cheese Blend (1CT-1NC-4YG): Prepare ahead of time 32 ounces of yogurt cheese, derived from two 32-ounce containers (that's 64 ounces altogether) of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 32 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. To this yogurt cheese combine 8 ounces of whipped, lowfat cottage cheese and 8 ounces 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: 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted 3/8 cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 8 oz. (1 cup) 3-cheese blend (see above) 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 oz. finely ground All-Bran Place the resulting mixture in the greased pan and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 5-10 minutes, depending on the mixture's thickness (closer to 10 minutes if thin enough to be fully distributed across the pan's bottom by gentle shaking, closer to 5 minutes if thick enough to require spreading out this mixture by pressing on it with a utensil and/or fingers), 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 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (5 tablespoons altogether) arrowroot 5 eggs Cookies: Chocolate sandwich cookies (with vanilla creme centers), about 2 dozen (Back To Nature Classic Creme Cookies recommended) Expect about 7 cups of the resulting batter, but do not add this to the pan all at once. Rather, this needs to be done in five installments. Wrap the pan in foil just before adding the first installment (to minimize the foil's disturbance and therefore its leakage risk, do not put it on any earlier). For each of the first four installments, gently scoop about 1 1/2 cups of batter into the pan. Add about 6 cookies (don't bother breaking them up—keeping them whole is fine and, in fact, recommended), ensuring that they are fully coated and—as much as possible—immersed. After adding an installment, bake the pan with its contents for 15 minutes. For each of the first three installments, bake at 325 degrees. For the fourth installment, reduce the temperature and bake at 300 degrees. For all four 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 all this is done, there should be about a cup of batter left, with 60 minutes of baking time reached at this point (15 minutes for each of the first four installments). Now comes the fifth installment—carefully add the last of this batter (do not add any more cookies at this point) on top of the pan's other contents. Try to fully coat the entire surface, especially wherever cookie pieces may be showing. Next, return the entire pan-and-tub assembly to the oven. At this point, fill up the tub generously with boiling water. Resume baking at 300 degrees for another 80 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, and—if desired—add a border of chocolate chips around the edge of this cheesecake. Continue to cool it down at room temperature for another two hours. After doing so, remove the cheesecake from pan and refrigerate. Again, Lily, my cousin Rachel's daughter, requested this flavor. It was my pleasure to present her with this latest update (and a vast improvement over Prototype 6, which I made for her in the past) during my March 2016 visit. This "creamy" (as described by Lily and/or her sister Mya) cheesecake was enjoyed by Rachel's family, especially by her two daughters and her son Peter—and was gone in only about 48 hours!   Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 11:   It was likely eight years ago since I made my last cookies+creme cheesecake. I brought that one to my cousin Rachel's place in Vermont. I would be doing likewise with this March 2024 update as well. Her son Peter requested this one.   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: 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted 3/8 cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 8 oz. (1 cup) 3-cheese blend (see above) 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 oz. finely ground All-Bran Place the resulting mixture in the greased pan and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 5-10 minutes, depending on the mixture's thickness (closer to 10 minutes if thin enough to be fully distributed across the pan's bottom by gentle shaking, closer to 5 minutes if thick enough to require spreading out this mixture by pressing on it with a utensil and/or fingers), 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 1 teaspoon xanthan gum 6 eggs Cookies: Chocolate sandwich cookies (with vanilla creme centers), about 2 dozen (Back To Nature Classic Creme Cookies recommended) Expect about 7 cups of the resulting batter, but do not add this to the pan all at once. Rather, this needs to be done in three installments. Wrap the pan in foil just before adding the first installment (to minimize the foil's disturbance and therefore its leakage risk, do not put it on any earlier). Or as an alternative to using foil, place this pan in an Easy Bath Cheesecake Wrap—and don't bother waiting for the pan to get comfortably cool to do so. For each of the first two installments, gently (especially with the second installment!) scoop about 3 cups of batter into the pan, and add about 12 cookies (don't bother breaking them up—keeping them whole is fine and, in fact, recommended), ensuring that they are fully coated and—as much as possible—immersed. After adding the first installment, bake the pan with its contents for 20 minutes, at 325 degrees. However, after adding the second installment, bake the pan with its contents, still at 325 degrees, but only for 15 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 300 degrees, and continue baking for another 15 minutes (that's a 30-minute "baking installment" here—the first 15 minutes at 325 degrees and the next 15 at 300). For both 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 all this is done, there should be about a cup of batter left, with 50 minutes of baking time reached at this point (20 minutes for the first installment, and 30 for the second one). Now comes the third installment—carefully add the last of this batter (do not add any more cookies at this point) on top of the pan's other contents. Try to fully coat the entire surface, especially wherever cookie pieces may be showing. Next, return the entire pan-and-tub assembly to the oven. At this point, fill up the tub generously with boiling water. Resume baking at 300 degrees 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, and—if desired—add a border of chocolate chips around the edge of this cheesecake. Continue to cool it down at room temperature for another two hours. After doing so, remove the cheesecake from pan and refrigerate. This one was a sweet success at Rachel's house. Her now-grown daughters, Lily and Mya, were present as well when I served this latest cheesecake (these two put in cheesecake flavor requests in the past—including one by Lily for the aforementioned cookies+creme eight years back). But Peter seemed to especially enjoy it.