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 Cocoa 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 Prototype 34 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 Prototype 7 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 Prototype 14 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 Prototype 4 Prototype 5 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 Prototype 4 Key Lime Prototype 1 Prototype 2 Prototype 3 Prototype 4 Cookies+Creme / Chocolate Peanut Butter ("OReesEO") Prototype 1 Prototype 2 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 Eggnog Cheesecake—Prototype 34:   This October 2025 update included a few adjustments, especially with baking and cooling times. Among other things, I aimed for a greater defense against the top surface's "snap" effect.   Crust: 4 oz. melted, white chocolate 8 oz. (about 1 cup) whipped, lowfat cottage cheese 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 3 oz. graham crackers, ground up (if these are cinnamon-flavored, omit the cinnamon shown above) Place the resulting mixture into a greased 13" x 9" glass ("Pyrex") pan and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, then remove from oven and cool down at room temperature (for at least 30 minutes). Batter: 16 oz. (about 2 cups) whipped, lowfat cottage cheese 8 oz. softened Neufchatel cheese ("light cream cheese") 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon rum extract 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 2 cups light eggnog (such as Hood) 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum 3 eggs Original Baking Procedure: Expect close to 6 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. For each of the first three installments, gently scoop about 1 1/2 cups of batter into the pan, fully covering the surface (here's a tip—scoop small amounts of batter into scattered places throughout the pan, letting this batter fill in nearby gaps, and if any of these remain, use a rubber spatula and gently spread the batter to cover these gaps up), 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 5 minutes of baking time, but only at 300 degrees (that's a 30 minute "baking installment"—the first 25 minutes at 325 degrees and the next 5 at 300). For all four installments, bake with the pan in a tub filled with at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch of boiling water. After the first three installments are done, there should be about 1 1/2 cups of batter left, with 80 minutes of baking time reached at this point (25 minutes for each of the first two installments, and 30 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. Resume baking for another 30 minutes. 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 120 minutes, then (with cheesecake still in pan) refrigerate. Unfortunately, the "snap" effect was still present (surprisingly very present, in fact), BUT...right after I made this cheesecake, I came down with a cold. That hindered my ability to try—and more accurately evaluate—a slice within a time window to my liking (typically at least one, but no more than three, days after baking). So I let this one just sit there in the refrigerator as I waited close to a whole week before biting in. By then, the top of the cheesecake was probably too dried out (as typical with all my cheesecakes these days, I did not cover this one while it was chilling in the refrigerator). An idea for next time: Throw some "Saran" (plastic) wrap directly on the top surface no later than a day after putting a rectangular cheesecake with very thin batter installment layers (like this one) into the refrigerator.   New December 2025 Baking Procedure: Expect close to 6 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 (or—as an alternative—use a cheesecake pan bath wrap) 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 these four installments, gently scoop about 1 1/2 cups of batter into the pan, fully covering the surface (here's a tip—scoop small amounts of batter into scattered places throughout the pan, letting this batter fill in nearby gaps, and if any of these remain, use a rubber spatula and gently spread the batter to cover these gaps up), and then bake this pan with its contents for 25 minutes—at 325 degrees for the first two installments, and at 300 degrees for the remaining two. For the first three installments, 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. However, fill up the tub generously with boiling water just before the final baking installment. 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. Earlier this December, I gave this more simplified baking approach a try with my pumpkin cheesecake (December 2025 baking procedure of Prototype 14). I was satisfied enough with that outcome, so I ended up doing the same kind of thing here with this more recent eggnog one. It worked out fine as well. This time, the top surface seemed (at least hopefully) not too "snappy". Unfortunately, a made a few errors. I initially measured out 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar for the crust (I was likely stuck in this mentality due to the crust formulation for many of my other cheesecake flavors, such as pumpkin). I was barely able to pull back about a couple of tablespoons, so the amount of this ingredient ended up remaining at about two tablespoons, as opposed to one. My second mistake was preparing the blend of cheeses meant only for the batter but allocating nearly a cup of it for the crust. At least I become aware of this problem before adding any additional ingredients to the crust's container. I carefully scraped out the contents as much as I could (leaving behind about an ounce, due to residue issues) and returned them to the batter's container. I then added only cottage cheese to the crust's container (even with a tiny amount of Neufchatel present at this point, I felt that this "stain" made no more than a trivial difference). My third strike was overshooting upon adding the white chocolate chips for the crust. At least they were not melted but were rather sitting atop the whipped cottage cheese. But I still had a pathetically sloppy time scooping out the excess chips, taking some cottage cheese residue with them. Ultimately, although my "triple-trouble" mishap was a very frustrating(!!!) experience, the outcome of my recipe was far from disastrous. Whew! The eggnog cheesecake was enjoyed, in large part, by my fellow associates at The Home Depot.