"bake off" news and stories

The 43rd Pillsbury Bake-Off has just been announced. The Bake-Off is one of the longest running and most beloved cooking contests in the US - in no small part because the grand prize is $1 million dollars. The contest started back in 1949 and ran annually until 1976, after which point it took place only every other year. This year, it seems that Pillsbury has joined up with the new Yahoo! Food to promote the contest, which should be a boon for the fledgling food site.

To enter, you must come up with an original recipe (and they have a dedicated staff and a huge reference selection of cookbooks and previous entries to check for originality) that uses two or more eligible products, from prepacked food like refrigerated biscuits and hot fudge sundae topping to basic staples, like sugar and olive oil. The minimum required amount of each ingredient is specified on the list. Once you have a dish, you must select one of five categories for entry: Breakfast & Brunches, Pizza Creations, Entertaining Appetizers, Old El Paso® Mexican Favorites and Sweet Treats.

All recipes need to be submitted by April 22nd, 2007 and finalists will be announced later in the year.

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The Seattle PI held an informal bakeoff that pitted three types of chocolate against each other in a recipe for chocolate decadence cookies, which are so rich, they're basically brownies in cookie form. They used Nestle's Tollhouse chocolate chips, Baker's Chocolate and expensive Sharffen Berger chocolate.

Both the Nestle Tollhouse cookie and the Baker's beat out the high-end chocolate cookie.

Unfortunately, the whole article is approached with what sounds like complete disdain for anything other than the Sharffen Berger chocolate, which is a shame. The fact that it didn't win doesn't mean that the palates of the taste testers weren't sophisticated enough to like expensive chocolates over less expensive chocolates; it means that the testers didn't think Sharffen Berger in particular stacked up. Many people who love chocolate, even very dark chocolates, don't like the unusually bitter notes that are found in the SB chocolates. And for a cookie that has decadence in the name, very few people are going to prefer something that actually tastes bitter (not just bittersweet) over something that tastes rich, chocolaty and sweet.

All in all, the Sharffen Berger cookies were probably still very good, but this little bakeoff just reaffirms the fact that it doesn't really matter what kind of chocolate you use for baking. Save your expensive chocolate for eating on its own.

The Decadence Cookie recipe can be found here.

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