Brand Loyalty

Are you loyal to specific brands when baking? For the most part I am flexible to whatever is cheapest, except for butter, chocolate, and vanilla extract.

For butter I have ALWAYS used Land O Lakes butter. However, since the Hershey's Chocolate Chips that I use have jumped up 70 cents in the last four months I thought that I should try using store brand butter to try and even out the cost. That way I am not having to jump the price up on customers or loose profit myself.

As an experiment I made my oh so yummy chocolate chip cookies with the store brand butter and gave some to Joe not telling him anything was different... just asking him to critique like I always do. After ONE bite he immediately asked what I did different. Before telling him I asked him if the tasted better or worse. He replies that they didn't taste bad per say but one bite in he knew something was different and he didn't care for the new "whatever".

So.... long story short I am sticking with my LOL butter and I am going to have to find something else to "cut costs"

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

Sounds delicious right!? Ummm.... Fail! The hubby loved them... but then again there is very little sweet that he does not love!  I think my biggest disappointment was the fact that you couldn't taste the Nutella! Ummm if I am going to use over half a jar of that delicious goodness... it better darn well taste like it! I also was disappointed in the "cheesecake" part of it.


I am thinking that with a little work it *MIGHT* have potential to be a good recipe.... but honestly I am just not in the mood to do anything but finish this jar of Nutella... with a spoon.

(here is the recipe if you want to play with it)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
• ¾ cup + 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons water
•  ¼ cup applesauce
•  ½ cup canola oil
• 1 block (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons Nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheti.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour in water, applesauce, and oil; mix until well blended. Spread evenly in a greased 9×13 inch baking pan.
3. In a small bowl, stir together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Microwave on high for 10-15 seconds or until soft and easy to pour. Pour evenly over the brownie batter, drop Nutella by the spoonfuls on top, and make swirls in the batter with a knife.
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Yield: 12 brownies

Baking!

Hey all! I LOVE to bake. In fact I own a small.... VERY small business in Virginia. I wanted somewhere I could post my recipes, get feedback and ideas, and just plain have fun! I hope to inspire someone else to give a new recipe a try!

Warnings: I will probably be horrible about posting regularly. I am NOT a photographer so while I will post pictures.... they will not be the best of quality :) Oh... and I am not a writer either ;) so please dont expect to be amazed by any wittiness or such... I bake.

Enjoy!