| Beef Stroganoff | Heath Bar Cake | |
|
Prep time/ease of ingredients (15 pts) |
15
|
15
|
|
Likeliness of making it again (20 pts) |
16
|
4
|
|
Overall Flavor (50 pts) |
40
|
20
|
| Value $ (15 pts) |
9
|
12
|
Final Score:
Stroganoff 80 Heath Bar Cake 51
Interesting match up. How did this game go, Heather?
Recipe 1 notes:
A good solid crockpot meal. All my kids ate it (which is saying something!). My family does not like mushrooms, so in the future I would leave those out, but I was trying to make it just like the recipe said. I loved how tender the stew meat turned out. It was super easy. The flavors were good, but quite mild, maybe it could have used some salt or Worcestershire Sauce (that’s what my husband’s family puts in their stroganoff). We had never had stroganoff over rice before but it was very good that way. We have stroganoff often, and I don’t know if we liked this better than my recipe, but it was great and very easy! A 4 star recipe for us. I knocked it down on the value points a bit because pre-cut stew meat is kind of pricey but you could buy your own slab of meat and cut it yourself to save a bit of money.
Recipe 2 notes:
I don’t know whether to blame it on myself, the crockpot, or the phase of the moon…but this dessert did not turn out for us. It was easy to prepare and smelled heavenly while cooking, but I checked it at 1 ½ hours and it was not even beginning to firm up. After 2 hours the far outer edges looked cooked (about an inch around the side) but the rest was still raw batter. But it was time for the kids to go to bed so we scooped out the edges and ate them. They were actually burned in spots. So burned edges and raw middle. But it is chocolate, so it tasted okay. You couldn’t taste the heath bar bits AT ALL. It was chocolaty, but just nothing special. I turned the crockpot down to low and let it cook for another 1 ½ hours and then it finally looked done. We ate it as a leftover the next day. It was sweet & chocolaty, I guess – but I would never make it again. I guess it was a 2 star recipe for us.
I know others have had better success with this recipe, maybe my crockpot was too big, too hot, too cold, too old? I’m not sure.
Making desserts in an oval slow cooker is the best choice since it will cook more evenly. Heather, is your slow cooker really old? Is it round? One thing I’ve learned is that all slow cookers cook very differently. You have to get to know your slow cooker and figure out how to adjust recipe times to get it right.
My cooker is round, only a couple years old. I tried this recipe twice. It smelled heavenly while cooking. Like Heather, however, the middle was raw. Both times. The first time I let it cook 5 or 6 hours, until the outside was burned and concrete-like, and the middle never cooked. The second time, I used firmer sour cream, a smidgen less water, and all of that. It is a little better, but still raw in the middle, going on hour 3. Can anyone who has made this cake maybe share their secret?
My crockpot is oval. It is only about 3 or 4 years old. I have never done any baking in my crockpot so I guess I would just have to experiment more. The leftovers weren't bad the next day 🙂