Pillsbury Bake-Off contestant from Everett saw cooks’ best work

Published 11:17 am Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Julee Cunningham of Everett didn’t win the 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off.

It wasn’t that she didn’t prepare her pecan-sweet potato appetizers perfectly three times in four hours surrounded by competitors and the food-world paparazzi.

She did.

It was that the competitors — 99 other finalists from around the country — made some amazingly good original recipes.

When Cunningham was done cooking, she was allowed to sample some of the other contender’s dishes.

They weren’t just delicious. They were beautiful.

“It was like an art display,” said Cunningham, who works as a corporate communications officer for Snohomish County PUD. “It was just really cool. It was so apparent it would very difficult to be a judge. Nobody in the room didn’t deserve to win.”

Sue Compton of Delanco, N.J., was crowned the $1 million winner with her miniature ice cream cookie cups.

If Cunningham was disappointed about anything, it was that she didn’t get to appear on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where the four category finalists were flown for a live announcement of the grand prize winner on April 14.

It was a Pillsbury first.

“It’s just so wrong,” Cunningham said lightheartedly of the missed opportunity, given to appetizer winner Evelyn Henderson of Roseville, Calif., who prepared salmon pecan-crusted tartlets.

During the cook-off, Cunningham was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey’s producers, however.

They asked: “If your dish was a movie star, who would it be?”

Johnny Depp, Cunningham said.

“It has unexpected flavors in it,” Cunningham said of her appetizer, made with sweet potatoes, blue cheese, savory onions, apricot preserves and candied pecans.

Though Cunningham is exhausted now, she said she can’t imagine not entering the next Pillsbury contest, set for 2012.

She might also enter Sutter Home’s annual Build a Better Burger contest, which offers a $100,000 grand prize.

She, unlike many of the cooks at the cook-off, isn’t obsessed with cooking or contests. She’s a casual foodie.

“I just don’t have that fervor,” she said. “To me, it’s just fun. I think everybody should try for it. You’ve got a shot at $1 million. It’s those kinds of things that add zip to life.”

Cunningham is the second Snohomish County woman to participate in the biennial cook-off in recent years. Mill Creek cooking-contest guru Elizabeth Bennett was a finalist in the 2008 bake-off with her original recipe for mocha walnut bars.

Cunningham loved how everyone in her life came out of the woodwork to support her in the months leading up to the contest.

It wasn’t just her family and friends, but also her dentist, hair stylist and her Jazzercise cohorts.

“It’s ageless. It’s Pillsbury,” she said. “Everybody cheered you on. It was just a really very rewarding experience.

“It was great reminder that it’s a good world. It’s a supportive world. That tends to happen to people around funerals or when you’re down. This kind of let it happen on a positive, rather than a negative.

“It was all fabulous. It was 15 minutes of fabulous fame.”

Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.

Mini ice cream cookie cups

1package (16 ounce) Pillsbury ready-to-bake refrigerated sugar cookies (24 cookies)

4teaspoons sugar

1/3cup Fisher chopped walnuts, finely chopped

1/2cup Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate baking chips

1/4cup Smucker’s seedless red raspberry jam

11/2cups vanilla bean ice cream, softened

24 fresh raspberries

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray 24 mini muffin cups with cooking spray. Place one cookie dough round in each muffin cup. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Place 2 teaspoons of the sugar in small bowl. Dip end of wooden spoon handle in sugar; carefully press into center of each cookie to make 1-inch-wide indentation. Cool completely in pan, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix walnuts and remaining 2 teaspoons sugar; set aside. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered on High for 30 to 60 seconds, stirring after 30 seconds, until smooth.

Run knife around edges of cups to loosen; gently remove from pan. Dip rim of each cup into melted chocolate, then into walnut mixture. Place walnut side up on cookie sheet with sides.

In another small microwavable bowl, microwave jam uncovered on high about 15 seconds until melted. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon jam into each cup. Freeze cups about 5 minutes or until chocolate is set.

Spoon ice cream into cups, using small cookie scoop or measuring tablespoon. Top each cup with fresh raspberry; serve immediately.

2010 Pillsbury Bake-Off grand prize winner Sue Compton of Delanco, N.J.