Bake-Off was a great experience for Mill Creek cook
Published 3:43 pm Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Elizabeth Bennett’s mocha-walnut bars didn’t win her $1 million.
That’s OK, she said by phone from Texas on Tuesday.
It was enough just to make it, to be a part of the oldest and most respected cooking contest in America.
“I still can’t even believe I’m here,” she said. “I’m finished and it still won’t even sink in.”
The 38-year-old Mill Creek woman beat thousands of others to compete at the Pillsbury Bake-off on Monday in Dallas.
She and 99 other finalists walked into an auditorium filled with music, screaming spectators, cameras and reporters.
They marched two-by-two to a bank of 100 mini-kitchens, each equipped with a stove, counter space and cooking utensils. The contestants were allowed to bring nothing but their know-how to the floor, not even a tube of lipstick. Bennett manned oven No. 7. An announcer broke through the noise. Time to begin cooking.
Pandemonium: knives chopping, sizzling frying pans, boxes ripping open. For the first few minutes she and the other contestants furiously cooked. Some dishes took 15 minutes to prepare, others hours. Bennett’s mocha-walnut bars take three hours start to finish, but most of that time is spent waiting for each of the three layers to cool.
After 20 minutes, the media and spectators are allowed onto the floor to question the contestants. By then, Bennett had already shoved a pan with the bottom layer of her cookie, a salty-sweet mixture of nuts and butter, into the oven, and she started on another.
Contestants were allowed to make their dishes three times in five hours. One batch was for others to sample. The best were ferried to a special room away from the action. There, sequestered judges spent the rest of the day tasting every one of the 100 finalist entries.
The bake-off requires entrants to use at least one ingredient from a list of Pillsbury products and a secondary list of sponsored products, such as brand-name peanut butter or jam. The rest of the recipe must be entirely the entrant’s own creation.
This year’s bake-off featured several categories: breakfast and brunches, pizza creations, Mexican favorites, entertaining appetizers and sweet treats — that’s Bennett’s.
She was one of the last to leave the floor. While she was waiting for her bars to bake and cool, she wandered among her competitors and sampled. She decided a raspberry brownie and a pork burrito with a mole sauce were her favorites.
One woman used brownie mix to make crepes, a gorgeous confection filled with sliced bananas and topped with dollops of whipped cream. Bennett had no idea who would win.
Back in her own station, the microwave didn’t melt the chocolate chips like hers did at home, and the top layer of the cookie, a silky ganache, didn’t have that same consistency.
“I wouldn’t say the cookies turned out exactly like they did at home but I was pleased with them,” she said.
She returned to her hotel room exhausted, climbed into bed and began work on her laptop. Bennett runs an event-planning business and even if she bakes the best cookies on the planet, she still has work to do.
“Some of the dishes looked as good or better than the photographs in the booklet,” she said. “I don’t know how the judges ever pick a winner.”
They did. Tuesday morning, Sandra Lee of the Food Network’s “Semi-Homemade Cooking” announced the million-dollar winner amid cheers and confetti cans blasting: Double-delight peanut butter cookies created by Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg, Md. Gurtz also won a special award and another $5,000 from Jif Peanut Butter.
“That must be some cookie,” Bennett said. “I didn’t have an opportunity to taste it but I’m going to make it when I get home.”
Bennett isn’t too disappointed. She never considered herself a contender for the grand prize. She was in it for the experience.
“The thought of a million in cash is fun to think about, but just being here is exciting,” she said. “The contest organizers kept telling us we were the top 100 out of tens of thousands of recipes and I feel honored to be here in the first place. I had a fantastic time and I can’t be disappointed.”
She got her photo taken with a 7-foot tall Pillsbury dough boy. She traveled to Dallas and stayed in a swanky hotel, all expenses paid. She cooked against some of the best in the country. And she’s already thinking of what she’ll make next year.
“Someday I hope I can make it back as a contestant.”
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
Pilsbury Bake-Off winners
The grand prize winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off receives $1 million and kitchen appliances. Each of the category winners receives $5,000 and appliances.
All the finalists’ recipes are available online at www.bakeoff.com
Million-dollar winner
Double-delight peanut butter cookies created by Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg, Md.
Category winners
Breakfast and brunches: Mascarpone-filled cranberry-walnut rolls, Pamela Shank, Parkersburg, W.Va.
Pizza creations: Apple-jack chicken pizza with carmelized onions, Niki Plourde, Gardner, Pa.
Mexican favorites: Mexican pesto-pork tacos, Vanda Pozzanghera, Pittsford, N.Y.
Entertaining appetizers: Salmon pastries with dill pesto, Edgar Rudberg, Saint Paul, Minn.
America’s favorite recipe: Toffee banana brownies, Gwen Beauchamp, Lancaster, Texas
GE Imagination at Work Award: Blue cheese and red onion jam thumbprints, Phyllis Weeks-Daniel, San Diego, Calif.
Jif Peanut Butter Award: Double-delight peanut butter cookies created by Carolyn Gurtz, Gaithersburg, Md.
Double-delight peanut butter cookies
1/4cup dry roasted peanuts, finely chopped
1/4cup sugar
1/2teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2cup creamy peanut butter
1/2cup powdered sugar
1roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury “Create ‘n Bake” refrigerated peanut butter cookies, well chilled
Heat oven to 375 degrees. In small bowl, mix chopped peanuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.
Cut roll of cookie dough into 12 slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise to make 24 pieces; flatten slightly. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls.
Roll each covered ball in peanut mixture; gently pat mixture completely onto balls. On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Spray bottom of drinking glass with CRISCO® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray; press into remaining peanut mixture. Flatten each ball to 1/4-inch thickness with bottom of glass. Sprinkle any remaining peanut mixture evenly on tops of cookies; gently press into dough.
Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.
Makes 24 cookies.
