Lemon HiFi Buddy Bars—Prototypes 1 & 2:

The ingredients are the same for both of these prototypes. The difference is in the ways that the filling is handled.

Crust:
5 oz. lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/3 cup sugar
16 oz. whipped lowfat cottage cheese
(blend the above three ingredients first before adding the Bran Buds)
8.8 oz. Bran Buds, ground up
(blend this into the above mixture as fast and "furiously" as possible)

Filling:
6 oz. melted, white chocolate
1 oz. lemonade concentrate, thawed

Spread the crust mixture into an 8" x 8" pan, then add the filling on top, and chill until firm.
 
As for how much "concentrated" the lemonade concentrate was, the directions—on the can it came in—would have called for 4 and 1/3 cans of water, in order to make the lemonade drink itself. Thus a 12-ounce can would need 52 ounces of water (in order to make 64 ounces of lemonade). Of course, I did not use water, because I was not making this drink. Instead, I used the concentrate for Buddy Bar flavoring purposes.

For Prototype 1, I chilled the crust for perhaps about 10-20 minutes before adding the filling. The way that I prepared the filling itself involved microwaving the lemon concentrate and white chocolate together. At times the concentrate seemed to boil. I aimed for a soft liquid, and it looks like that is what I got. But after pouring this onto the crust, I failed to cover the entire surface, probably due to the crust's chilliness cooling the filling too soon. So I heat-treated the recipe with broiler heat in order to get a hopeful filling distribution before I resumed chilling. As a result, the filling turned out a bit hard and crusty, almost like hard candy.

So for the second prototype, I microwaved the white chocolate alone, carefully trying not to get it too hot. Then I added the lemonade concentrate, making sure beforehand that it was warm (but not hot). I mixed these two ingredients very quickly, hoping for sufficient softness, before adding this to the crust, which this time I did NOT chill beforehand (in fact, I slightly heated this crust in order to have it a little warm in preparation for placing the filling on top of it). Instead of dumping all of the filling at once onto the middle of the crust's surface, I placed this melted topping in small amounts around the edges and worked my way towards the center. However, the surface looked too uneven, so I very sparingly applied broiler heat (about 60 seconds), then tilted the pan for a more even distribution. Even then the filling appeared to have a somewhat unblended look (perhaps due to the water of the lemonade concentrate not blending well with the fat content of the white chocolate?), but I did not want to push any further with heating. So I placed the pan in the refrigerator for about an hour. I afterward cut up the bars (with plenty of ease this time around) and returned them to the refrigerator for additional firming. The outcome: The topping's softness was just right—a pleasant firmness that I had been used to with my Buddy Bar recipes—without the abnormal crunch.

So I learned a new lesson: Steer clear of overheating certain chocolate mixtures (such as white chocolate and water-based drink concentrates).
 
Lemon HiFi Buddy Bars—Prototype 2

The amount of lemon flavor (at least in my opinion and hopefully those of many others as well) was just right (for both prototypes). Jude, a close friend of mine (and sister of a guitar player who performed in a cover rock band with my drum-playing brother back in their high school days), immensely enjoyed these bars, especially the second prototype, possibly as her favorite HiFi Buddy Bars of all time (or at least up to this point).
 

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