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 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

Changes to basic cheesecake batter composition, mid-2015   When I started making lower-fat cheesecakes back in the 1980's, I utilized a recipe inside a cookbook from the American Heart Association. That recipe's batter contained the following ingredients: Lowfat cottage cheese Margarine—which I later replaced with butter Eggs Granulated sugar Skim milk Flour Salt Lemon juice Lemon rind (peel) When I resumed making cheesecakes—which was around 2009—I was no longer using lemon peel as a base ingredient (I still used this one for lemon cheesecakes). As the next few years went by, I also removed lemon juice as a base ingredient, due primarily to my starting to use a new cheese ingredient—yogurt cheese—which, like lemon juice, had tart characteristics. I also eliminated skim milk at some point. The salt was, somewhere along these years, removed as well. So these changes left the following remaining "original" ingredients: Lowfat cottage cheese Butter (formerly margarine) Eggs Granulated sugar Flour—of which I used various types, such as whole wheat and, more recently, unbleached all-purpose New additions to the base ingredient list, based largely on my plain cheesecakes, were—within the past few years: Yogurt cheese Vanilla Arrowroot The "cheese base" in particular had undergone changes. This used to be only cottage cheese. More recently, yogurt cheese has taken over this slot, although I would use a blend of both yogurt and cottage cheeses for cheesecake flavors that I felt should not be highly tart. For plain and citrus flavors, I would go solely with yogurt cheese. A cookbook from Health Valley, Cooking Without Fat by George Mateljan, turned me on to this ingredient as well as arrowroot. However, after my somehow losing some satisfaction over a number of my latest cheesecakes, including Prototype 12 of my plain-flavored ones, I felt that another update was warranted. I have come a long way since that initial American Heart Association recipe. Over the last few years, I have researched a number of more conventional, traditional, full-fat, cream-cheese-based cheesecake recipes. What I have found was a typical, popular base set of ingredients among them: Cream cheese Eggs Granulated sugar Vanilla Of particular importance was that cream cheese generally contained stabilizers and/or thickeners such as: Xanthan gum Locust bean gum Guar gum I myself tried using xanthan gum in a number of recipes, but often with unsatisfactory results (maybe I used too much?). Lately, I saw potential in more closely paralleling my lower-fat cheesecakes with their higher-fat counterparts. The basic batter list that I had been working with in recent times consisted of the following: Yogurt cheese (sometimes also with cottage cheese) Butter Eggs Granulated sugar Flour (such as all-purpose) Vanilla Arrowroot So I reasoned that eliminating the butter would bring my list more in parallel with the conventional, higher-fat lineup. However, the two cheeses—cottage and yogurt—did not have enough stability like typical cream cheese. Hence this called for ingredients like all-purpose flour and arrowroot. But I felt that instead of using both of these two items, I would go solely with the Health-Valley-recommended arrowroot, which seemed to be a more efficient (and hopefully better-tasting) stabilizer than all-purpose flour. The resulting list for my new batter base would be: Yogurt/cottage cheese Arrowroot (to help stabilize the cheese) Eggs Granulated sugar Vanilla Compare the conventional list: Cream cheese (with its own stabilizers) Eggs Granulated sugar Vanilla So my new composition was down to 5 simple ingredients. It was with Prototype 13 of my plain cheesecake—the batter, to be more specific—that my usage of this lineup has gotten its debut in this recipe scrapbook series (I added more cooking time as well with this prototype). I continued making changes in my plain cheesecakes by simply adding another egg for Prototype 14. Not only would this return the egg-to-cheese-base ratio to what it was in earlier days, but also make the cheesecake more stable (hopefully) and contribute further to simplification: 1 egg (as well as 1 tablespoon of arrowroot) for every 8 ounces of cheese base. However, I made a fairly bold move with Prototype 15! Okay, I admit that I have seeking to bake lower-fat alternatives to cream cheese cakes. However, there were times when the cheese cultures from the cottage and yogurt cheeses still did not seem to quite work out well enough. So I thought that I would include at least some cream cheese in the mix. More specifically, I decided to take a chance with Neufchatel cheese—often referred to as "light cream cheese". Due to the lighter nature of this cheese, the fat would not surge too much (keep in mind that butter was no longer being used in the batter base ingredients at this point). With this move, Prototype 15 would actually get three kinds of cheese—yogurt, cottage and Neufchatel (yogurt would still dominate over the two others). The goal was to attain the right balance of sweetness, tartness and "cheese-iness". I wanted to ensure more firmness, so I added still more baking time as well.