Branson's Great American Pie Show Part Two

The saga continues...

Four pie finalists out of the twelve, with the highest scores, were announced on stage and these people would be baking their pies on the second day.

The top four finalists were:
-The Dreamy Creamy Peanut Butter Pie
-Sour Cream Peach Pecan Pie
-Vermont Maple Oatmeal Pie
-Mixed Nut 'n' Fig Pie

The winner of the pie bake-off would receive $2,500! That's a lot of money!

The finalists baked their pies early Saturday afternoon, and as they garnished and sliced them, they called all of the judges on stage. I was the first judge to be announced. Thankfully I made it across the stage without tripping in my yellow high heels.





The judges consisted of a lot of newscasters, Taste of Home people, a chef, me, and AL ROKER!



Here we are walking by the pies, judging on presentation of pie as a whole.
I took my job very seriously.


I really did! I tasted and thought about each pie, because I wanted to make the right decision. The eleven judges (including Al Roker!) sat at one small table and ate pie together.



My favorite pies were the the Vermont Maple Oatmeal Pie and the Sour Cream Peach Pecan Pie, but all of them were incredible.

After judging, my job was finished for the day. Eric and I couldn't wait until they announced the winners a couple of hours later, because we had to leave to attend a wedding. I thought I knew what would win though, and I was right.


The Sour Cream Peach Pecan Pie won.

Well deserved! Congrats to Sherrell Dikes, Holiday Island, Arkansas! Here's a picture of her getting her pie ready to be judged.


I'm so glad I had the opportunity to judge this pie bake-off! I had a lot of fun and I'd do it again in an instant.

Now I'm itching to get in the kitchen and bake some pie creations of my own!

Branson's Great American Pie Show

I was asked if I would like to judge the pie bake-off at the Branson's Great American Pie Show this past weekend. I was honored to have this opportunity and immediately said yes. I would be judging with a panel of local celebrities and AL ROKER! The event took place on Friday and Saturday at the Hilton Branson Convention Center. I was so excited to judge because I love baking and eating all kinds of pie; it's my favorite thing to make.

My wonderful, dashing boyfriend, Eric (Hello! How are you? Remember to get your allergy shot today.), went along with me to Branson, even though he dislikes pie.
You might remember him from the Oh Nuts post? I hired him to be my photographer for the two days, and when I say "hired" that doesn't mean I actually paid him anything.
He was very patient and helped me all day, taking pictures, and just being supportive in general. I felt sorry for him because he had to watch pie baking demonstrations while I judged. Thanks for your help, darling.
I'm glad he was there to support me, because otherwise I would've been all alone.

So twelve finalists from across the country were there baking their pies at the convention center, and they were selected from a contest sponsored by Taste of Home magazine.



Al Roker didn't judge on Friday, so it was seven other judges and myself. We tasted all twelve pies and judged them on taste, appearance, feasibility, and creativity.
I thought there would be a clear winner, but this wasn't so; all twelve pies were delicious. I went into the judging already having an idea of what I would like, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the pies.

Marshmallow-Almond Key Lime Pie by Judy Castranova, New Bern, North Carolina

I wasn't sure the marshmallow cream would work with the lime, but it definitely did. This pie was delicious and refreshing. I think I'm going to try the recipe soon. This was one of my favorites.

German Chocolate Cream Pie by Marie Rizzio, Traverse City, Michigan

This pie was rich and delicious. It was heavy, but I didn't have a problem with that at all.

Vermont Maple Oatmeal Pie by Barbie Miller, Oakdale, Minnesota

Yum! The combination of oatmeal, maple and coconut was great. This was sort of like a pecan or shoe fly pie. One of my favorites.

Frosty Coffee Pie by April Timboe, Siloam Springs, Arkansas

This one uses coffee ice cream.. I love ice cream pies. This would be good for summer.

Raspberry-Lemon Pie by Jan Louden, Branson, Missouri

The crust was really unique with this pie. She lines up chocolate wafers in the pie dish.

Dreamy Creamy Peanut Butter Pie by Dawn Moore, Warren, Pennsylvania

This pie got rave reviews. She used pudding mix which made me want to hate it, but I couldn't, because it was so GOOD! She used a Nutter Butter crust, too. Mmm.

Berry-Apple-Rhubarb Pie by Michael Powers, New Baltimore, Virginia

This pie had soul. You could tell the love he put into it. It was full of delicious berries and rhubarb.

Sour Cream Peach Pecan Pie by Sherrell Dikes, Holiday Island, Arkansas

I wasn't sure if I'd like this one, but I totally did. It was delicious. Pie crust topped with a sour cream-peach filling, and a pecan streusel. Beautifully decorated. One of my favorites.

Apple Praline Pie by Noelle Myers, Grand Forks, North Dakota

This was a pretty traditional apple pie, but more of a caramel flavor. It had the perfect amount of spice,

Mayan Chocolate Pecan Pie by Chris Michalowski, Dallas, Texas

This pie was rich and very good. I wish I got more heat or smokiness from the ancho. The presentation was great on this.

Mixed Nut 'n' Fig Pie by Barbara Estabrook, Rhinelander, Wisconsin

The nuts, orange and fig worked beautifully in this. This pie would be perfect for the holidays.

Greek Honey Nut Pie by Rosalind Jackson, Stuart, Florida

This pie used phyllo dough for the crust and was similar to baklava. Very tasty.

So there you have it. It was a long day of pie judging. I started feeling sick towards the end. What do you think? Would you have liked this job?

As Eric and I were leaving the convention center, we ran into Al Roker walking in. I didn't see him but Eric did and instantly asked if he would take a picture with us. He seemed pretty busy and tired but was nice enough to oblige.





Thanks, Al! Isn't that awesome?

Come back for day two of the pie show! I'll try to have it up by tomorrow.

Gourmet Dirt Cake

I've really been struggling lately. Strugglin' with that ol' urge to bake.

I've got to fight it! I can NOT be baking every single day. Why?

So glad you asked.. well, it's expensive to buy all of the ingredients I need, and also because I'm baking so many things that everything just sits around and goes to waste.

Those are my main reasons. I'm driving myself crazy with all of the thoughts and ideas in my head. I'm constantly thinking about cooking. I'm starting to wonder how healthy it is. Do you know what I mean? I have a list of about fifty ideas of recipes I want to create.

I find myself wandering through grocery stores for an hour (or two), staring at all of the ingredients and thinking about how I can use them in a recipe. Yesterday I mindlessly carried a package of frozen rhubarb, a container of Greek yogurt, a bag of almonds, and some muffin liners around the store, thinking about what I was going to do with them, before finally putting everything back in its place.

I didn't buy any new ingredients to bake with because I still have recipes I've created and haven't posted about yet. That's what I'm saying - I need to slow the baking down and stop acting like a nut. I'm too obsessed. Does anyone want to hire me to come bake for them?

I like when holidays and birthdays come up because I have an excuse to bake. Like this dirt cake I baked for a birthday.



I had been thinking a lot about dirt cake beforehand. I like to ask people what their favorite dessert is at times. For some reason a lot of guys like dirt cake, and no they weren't little kids, but grown adult men. Dirt cake isn't actually cake, but chocolate pudding with cream cheese, Oreo cookie crumbs, whipped topping and gummi worms.

My dirt cake is chocolate cake layered with Oreo cookie pieces and a chocolate pudding-like frosting. Ohhh yes was this good. Very rich and delicious. I made everything from scratch because I wasn't about to use a cake mix, pudding mix and Cool Whhhhip.

And with that, I leave you this question to ponder on for the rest of your day:
How many free Quaker High Fiber Maple-Brown Sugar Oatmeal packets should one consume over a couple of days? Just curious. No reason at all.

Gourmet Dirt Cake (Recipe by Me)
Printable Recipe

Cake
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1 3/4 cup milk

Frosting:
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweeted cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

1 1/3 cups ground Oreo cookies
Gummi worms

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) round cake pans, or grease using your preferred method.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter and sugar until creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined; beat in melted chocolate until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture, alternating with milk, until batter is well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes; divide batter evenly into prepared cake pans.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or well risen, cake pulls away from edges, and a toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached; cool for 12 minutes before running a knife around outside edges, and inverting onto wire racks to cool completely.

To make the frosting: In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, salt and milk; bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Boil 1 minute or until thickened; remove pan from heat and strain mixture into a small bowl. Cool completely in the refrigerator or freezer.

Beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute, in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed. Beat in "chocolate pudding" mixture until well combined, about 1 minute. Beat in melted chocolate until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

To assemble the cake: spread a layer of frosting over one side of cake and top with 1/3 cup oreo cookie crumbs; top with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over cake. Pack remaining cookie crumbs into sides and top of cake; decorate with gummi worms.

Makes 10 servings

Hubcap Cinnamon Rolls

No new blog post in over a week. Tsk tsk. I'm disappointed in myself. But you see, I've been busy this last week. I'm trying to get caught up on contests... there are some important deadlines today (cough), and the rest of the month.

Then there was the issue with taxes... there's nothing like waiting until April 15th to do your taxes. I swore I wasn't going to be one of those people, but I totally was. Am. I thought I could do them myself, but I had a different form this year and couldn't, so I found myself waiting in line for two hours at Jackson Hewitt in Wal-Mart.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And you know what else was fun? Paying $258 to have them done. Stupid, stupid. That makes me sick.

At least I got to smell every single scent of candle in Wal-Mart, and get caught up on my celebrity gossip from OK. But there was this "Hot Chicken" sign above the deli that was driving me crazy for fried chicken.

And then I had to get my hair cut and highlighted, and that took up a whole day because I have so much hair. I look like a new woman now. This is some verrry blonde hair. I had to have good hair for a very important event on Friday and Saturday, which you'll be hearing more about.

Of course work takes up fifty percent of my time. Of my life. When I first started working at my job there was a sign that I would read over and over.
It said, "This is your second home, so keep it clean." Actually I can't remember what it said, but it was something like that. I always found it depressing that work was my second home, but it's true.

We have giant cinnamon rolls at the cafe I work at and we call them hubcaps. They're very good, but I think we buy them frozen and then just thaw and bake the dough. If it's your birthday you get a free cinnamon roll. Or if I screw something up with your meal you get a free cinnamon roll. That's my golden rule.

I wondered if I could recreate the hubcaps, so I worked on this recipe one night. My first batch was a bust, but this batch was excellent. These are different than your traditional cinnamon rolls. They're very soft, buttery and...billowy? Airy?

I didn't want them to be tough and bread-like, so I thought using quite a bit of leavening would do the trick. I used a combination of dry active yeast and baking powder. The butter is folded in as if you were making danish, creating extra lightness and flakiness. I then just used a traditional cinnamon and brown sugar filling, and a simple glaze using confectioners' sugar and heavy cream drizzled on top.

Hubcap Cinnamon Rolls (Recipe by Me)
Printable Recipe

1 1/4 cups warm milk (not hot)
4 teaspoons dry active yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, plus an additional 1/2 cup, divided use
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons melted butter, plus an additional 8 tablespoons, divided use
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In the bowl of a stand mixer, using a paddle attachment, mix together milk, yeast, and 1 tablespoon sugar, on low speed until combined; allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Add remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, eggs, 2 tablespoons melted butter, baking powder and salt, and mix on medium speed until combined - about 1-2 minutes. Mix in flour, gradually, until combined. Continue to beat for an additional 3-4 minutes or until dough started to pull away from bowl. Grease a large mixing bowl and scrape dough into it. Dough will be sticky! Don't add more flour. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm area for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Roll dough out onto a floured surface, using a floured rolling pin, into a 1/4-thick rectangle. Cut 4 tablespoons cold butter into tiny pieces and dot the dough with 2 tablespoons of it. Fold the dough in half, long end to long end. Dot the dough with remaining 2 tablespoons cold butter pieces. Fold the dough in half, long end to long end. Roll dough into a 1/4-inch thick rectangle; melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter and brush 3/4 of it over the surface of the dough. Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough up, jelly roll style, using the shorter ends. Slice off the ends of the roll, that don't contain any cinnamon and brown sugar. Slice roll into 1-inch thick slices, and place into 2 greased 13x9-inch baking dishes. Brush the tops of cinnamon rolls with remaining 1/4 of butter. Cover cinnamon rolls with towels and allow to rise in a warm area for 30-45 minutes, or until doubled in bulk. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake cinnamon rolls for 22-25 minutes, or until light golden brown. Do not overbake! Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the glaze: sift the confectioners' sugar into a medium sized mixing bowl; whisk in cream and vanilla extract until well combined. I mean, really mix it up and make sure it's well combined.

Spread the glaze evenly over warm cinnamon rolls.

Makes 9 monster sized cinnamon rolls

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookies, cookies, cookies! This post is a cookie bonanza, I'm telling you. I'm so excited I hope I don't toss my cookies. Heh heh. Lame.

First we have to announce the Mrs. Field's Cookies giveaway winner, and then we have to talk about the delicious cookies I made.

Thank you so much for leaving your comments in the giveaway post. I had a lot of fun reading about everyone's favorite dessert. Your responses were incredibly detailed. Some of you also made nice comments about my blog and Ultimate Recipe Showdown. Very, very nice stuff that made me teary. Let's do another giveaway sometime; this was fun.

Your popular desserts included cheesecake, key lime pie, ice cream, chocolate cake, brownies and chocolate chip cookies.

Some of you had some more interesting choices.. How about Grandma's Lique?
Guinness Brownies with Chantilly Cream and Almonds.
Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake.
Better Than Sex Cake. What is better than sex cake? Oh, it's this. Sounds good to me. Except I don't see why you couldn't bake the cake from scratch and use real whipped cream. But that's me being a food snob.
Don't give me that look! I ate Bagel Bites last night, for pete's sake.

This comment reallllly got to me:

"My favorite dessert is a fresh from the oven GIANT cinnamon roll, with bold cinnamon sugar flavor and a doughy, chewy bread with a not too sweet cream cheese glaze."

Uhhhh, yeah.

As good as that sounds, I think my favorite dessert would be chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and vanilla ice cream. Something classic like that. But I really do enjoy all desserts.

So let's get to the winner already - sorry for dragging this out.

The winner of the cookie giveaway, randomly chosen, is... Commenter #21!
MEGAN! Congrats! Megan's favorite dessert is Key Lime Pie with Raspberry Sauce.

Wow, Megan, that sounds delicious. I've emailed you about getting your address so I can stalk you.. er, send you your prize.

That was a joke, of course. Today's cookie is a chocolate chip cookie with chocolate chip cookie dough bites mixed into the batter. Have you seen Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites before? They sell them at Wal-Mart and grocery stores, but you may have also seen them at the concession stand at the movie theater. No longer do you need gummi worms and popcorn for your movie. Why eat those items when you could eat mounds of cookie dough?

These are killer. Need I say more?

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to eat a leftover ham sandwich and screw around on Facebook for an hour. Then get caught up on reading blogs.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe by Me)
Printable Recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (4-ounce) package chocolate chip cookie dough candy

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; grease cookie sheets.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, sugar and brown sugar until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture until combined; beat in chocolate chips and cookie dough candy until combined. Chill dough for 30 minutes in the freezer.

Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto prepared cookie sheets; bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Reese's Peanut Butter Egg Cookies

Well hello there. Where have you been all my life?

No, I'm not talking about these cookies. I'm talking about you, stranger! It's nice to hear from you.

I'm loving all these comments on the cookie giveaway post. It's fun reading about everyone's favorite desserts. If you haven't entered the giveaway yet, please do so. You can win Mrs. Field's Cookies!

After you've entered the giveaway, maybe you'll need a little entertainment. If so, check out the video I'm in. It's a video of the Quaker Oats Viewer Quickfire Challenge. You get to watch me lose, as well as make a lot of facial expressions.

After you watch the video, maybe you'll be hungry for a snack. A cookie? A Reeses's Peanut Butter Egg Cookie?

I can remember many Easters hunting down peanut butter eggs in the living room. Yes, always in the living room (the Easter bunny didn't like hiding eggs in the yard for some reason.); on the banister, around the fireplace, tucked behind pillows. That Easter bunny was very sneaky. It would take my sisters and me a couple of days to find all of the candy.

img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3375/3428791428_54a50da37e.jpg?v=0"/>

Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs are the BEST Easter candy. Don't you agree?
Peeps, Cadbury eggs and jelly beans don't compare.



I thought, hmmm... how do you we take this amazing Easter candy to a new level? By wrapping cookie dough around it and making the most delicious cookies in the world. These are great if you have leftover peanut butter eggs. Or you could go to the store and buy up the peanut butter eggs on sale to make these.

Now let me introduce you to The Reeses's Peanut Butter Egg Cookie! As created by me.

Happy Easter.

Reese's Peanut Butter Egg Cookies (Recipe by Me)
Printable Recipe

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
20 Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, chilled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat cookie sheets with cooking spray.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy, about 1-2 minutes; beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture until just combined. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Take a heaping tablespoon of dough into palm of hand and flatten to about 1/8-inch thick; place peanut butter egg into the center, wrap dough around egg and smooth out the surface. Place on cookie sheets and repeat process. Space the cookies about 1 1/2-inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Makes 20 big cookies.

I'm giving away cookies!

But we'll get to that later. First we have a few things to discuss.

Today I'm being featured in an interview on A Merrier Word's Edible Lives series, by the lovely and talented Kate. I think Kate put together a great interview about Sugar Plum, so please check it out! You get to learn stuff about me you didn't already know.. and that's something. And see who I picked for Kate to interview next! Thanks, Kate, for the interview, and also thank you to Aimée for picking me!

A very nice lady from KaTom Restaurant Supply contacted me and wanted to know if I'd like to try one of their products. She gave me a list of choices and I selected the Flex-it Prep Bowl Set with Lids. I picked the bowls because I thought they would be perfect for baking, and they are; they're flexible and you can form a spout anywhere along the rim for pouring into measuring cups and mixing bowls. They're also good for food storage, and did you know they're heat resistant up to 490 degrees F and are dishwasher and microwave safe? I just figured that out on their website. I had some fun browsing around, looking at all of their products. I want this soft serve ice cream machine.



If you want to know more about KaTom, click here to read about their interesting history and story. They've been in business for 22 years and are 100% woman owned! All right! That's what I'm talking about.


Look at how pretty they are...

Now it's time for a giveaway! I wanted to do something fun for all my readers, to thank you for all of your support... especially in the Quaker Oats contest. I thought about giving away a cookbook, but decided on cookies, because who doesn't love cookies?? I'm giving away Mrs. Field's Cookies! Hooray!

All you have to do is leave a comment on THIS POST telling me what your favorite dessert is, and you'll be entered to win a Mrs. Field's cookie tin full of cookies and brownies. Mmmm. Anyone can enter; you don't have to have a blog - just be sure to leave your name and a way to contact you.
But listen, listen, I want details! Don't just say, "Pie" - tell me more than that. Tell me, "Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie" - like, be specific. Also, you can only comment once. The giveaway starts today and ends on Sunday, April 12th at 11:59 PM (CST).
I'll pick a winner using a random number generator and post the result on Monday's blog. Good luck! Come back this Friday for my Easter cookies that'll make you swoon.