Category: Contests
Finding My A Game… Wish Me Luck In An Amateur Sugar Cookie Competition
A month ago , feeling ambitious, I registered to compete in the The French Pastry School Sugar Cookie Competition. The event is today. The French Pastry School is a part of the City Colleges here in Chicago and is excellent. They attract such such world re known chefs like Pierre Herme for hard to get in workshops and master classes. The prices of classes are to rich for my blood, but would be a once in lifetime opportunity. And If I had the luxury to enroll , I would! Anyway the first 30 registrants will compete today at Whole Foods On Canal. The requirements are that we must use, but are not limited to Neilsen Massey Vanilla, Plugra Butter, King Arthur Flour, and Callebaut Chocolate. Each participant will win a Free French Patry Experience and Certificate of Participation. Third Prize is a Kitchen Aid Mixer, Second is a Kitchen Aid and Thermohauser French Pastry School Professional Tool Kit, and First is what I really want, a Kitchen Aid,French Pastry Enthusiast Course, French Pastry School Chef Jacket, and Thermohause French Pastry School Professional Kit.
I practiced early on getting my recipe together. I knew I wanted the element of hazelnut. The first cookies were bulky monsters of a hazelnut dough topped with caramel, then covered in chocolate. They were way to rich and bulky. Not bad, but not what I wanted. I got sidetracked, and got back to work. Last week made a swirl dough inspired by a cookie recipe I saw over at Linda’s.I still wanted the hazelnut element. The cookies again were to big, flat, and I had a kitchen disaster when they fell uncooked all over my over. The ones I could bake I swirled chocolate to follow the marble pattern. Again not my best work. But I knew the dough was getting there. So this week I procrastinated. Last night I assembled my 2 doughs. The light dough was harder and dryer, and the dark was mushier. I had been chilling them 2 hours! I had changed the sugar type a bit, so I wondered if this played into it. Anyway it wasn’t going to plan. Instead of swirls I got marble. Frustrated but encouraged by Certain Someone, I just went with it. I didn’t fight the dough. My mother used to have a saying. ‘Let Go And Let God’. I followed her advice. So I woke at 6 am and got to work. I used a 2 inch flower cutter and sliced the dough and started shaping and forming. I got over 70 cookies. The competition requires 50 to judge and 10 for show. No oven misshapes and 2 hours later I am typing this.
Hazelnut Sugar Swirls by “Glamah”
A 3-sugar cookie divided into two dough’s to create a swirl effect. Chocolate is used as decoration to outline the swirl.
Hazelnut Dough
½ lb Plugras Butter room temperature
2 eggs
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup cane sugar
1 tsp Nielson Massey Vanilla
1/4 tsb cardamom
1 tsp orange zest or orange icing sugar (an orange flavoring gel used in cakes and icings).
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup Hazelnut Flour
2 cups King Arthur Organic All Purpose Flour
¼ tsp sea salt
Brown food coloring optional
Light Dough
1 ¼ cup confectioners sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup Plugras butter room temperature
2 ½ cup King Arthur Organic All Purpose Flour
1 egg white + 1 tbsp water
Chocolate Swirl
Callebaut Chocolate
Preparation of Hazelnut dough:
In a bowl or stand mixer cream your eggs, brown sugar, cane sugar, cardamom. orange zest, Vanilla, and butter until incorporated. Do not over blend as to get to much air into the mixture. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, hazelnut flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet as the mixer turns. Once all ingredients are combined stop mixing. At this point, you may add brown food coloring to deepen the color. Shape into a log (close to diameter of cookie shape) on wax paper, and chill for at least 1 hour.
Preparation of Light Dough:
Mix confectioners sugar, butter, and egg yolk in your mixer bowl until combined. Gradually add in flour and knead until dough is firm and incorporated. Chill for a minimum of 1 hour.
Assembly:
Roll out both dough’s on sheets of wax paper. Brush hazelnut dough with egg white mixture. Top with rolled out Light dough. From the long end, roll both dough’s together to form a long slim log. If the log is to thick use both hands to extend it and shape into desired width. Cut log into three parts. Slice lenght wise and lay over each other in opposite directions to mold into another log. The purpose of this is to mix up the doughs tho create the marbeled effect. Just be sure there is a contrast between both doughs. Shape the dough into a log again, wrap, and chill until firm for an at least one hour or over night… When dough is sliced and shaped, it should have a marbled effect.
Bake:
Preheat oven to 350. Place slices of cookie dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool on rack.
Chocolate Swirl:
Melt Callebaut Chocolate in a double boiler. Once cooled down, pour into a piping bag. Cut off a tiny tip pf the bag and swirl the chocolate over the marbled edges of the cookies.
If chocolate decoration does not solidify immediately, place cookie in the refrigerator for a few minutes to harden.
MARX FOODS IS HAVING ANOTHER CONTEST!
MarxFoods.com is calling all Chanterelle Mushroom Recipes!
To Enter: Submit your best original chanterelle recipe to MarxFoods.com
Prize: 2 Pounds of fresh chanterelle mushrooms
Contest Dates: September 2nd – Friday, September 19th
You can check out all the recipes that have been entered at our blog.
A Question, A Visual Meme,and A Contest You May Like.
I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend so far. I’m resting a lot. Just tired and stressed. Last night we went to an old friends wedding on the Fourth of July. It was a fitting theme for all they had been through over the past decade. Good Luck you two. It was Certain Someones first American wedding and we traded notes on the differences and what we would have, if that day came.
Anyway I woke late and checked on my hot mail account for this blog. It seems I may have crossed some lines with a fellow blogger. I know there is lot of discussion and debate about protected material and such. We all work hard on our blogs for simple enjoyment. Well anyway I have a new feature that has been up for a month or so on the side bar. Rather than a traditional link list, it shows the most recent 25 posts from my reader. I have received a few comments about this being fascinating, and have noticed it on some other blogs as well. This fellow blogger who I love to read would rather not have me show their content in the snippet or link to their blog . Its OK If I’m referring to a post of theirs, or an event, but not in this form.I never intended to use someone else’s content(It is not like I am passing off their content as mine or profiting in anyway). The feature from Blogger just shows whats in my personal reader with snippets and you can choose to go to that persons blog and read on. I think its way more interesting than a link.Something may catch your eye that you haven’t noticed before. Anyway all this to say if I have offended anyone else I am sorry. Do you think I should take this off and would you too rather not have your link in it? If that’s the case I will remove the feature. This is a whole new world to me and I don’t want to offend anyone .
Marx Foods is having another contest! I need to get going on this as the deadline is July 18. Its for your best burger recipe.
Enter your best Burger Recipe for a chance to WIN 10 POUNDS OF YOUR PICK OF BURGERS & Palm Leaf Plates to serve your burgers on in the MarxFoods.com “Build the Best Burger” Recipe Contest
Burger choices include Kobe beef, Grass-fed beef, Ostrich, Bison & more
Recipe Deadline: Friday, July 18
Summer is officially upon us which means a lot of delicious burger consumption. We want to collect a massive compilation of inspirational, new and exciting burger recipes that will last us through the summer!
Enter your best burger recipe by July 18 at MarxFoods.com. The prize? Ten pounds of your choice of the burger options at MarxFoods.com, including Kobe and wild game burgers! No matter what the winning recipe, the prize can be catered toward your taste.
We’re seeking out the best burger—any kind of burger—regardless of it is made from seafood, veggies, black beans, chicken, lamb, grass-fed beef or sandwiched between a bun, mini-buns, tortilla, or ciabatta bread. The creative possibilities are endless. And don’t get us wrong, we do like beef!
Burgers available from MarxFoods.com include:
Kobe Yak Elk
Eaton Grass-Fed Beef Llama Venison
Antelope Ostrich Kangaroo
Mixed Sampler Box Bison Wild Boar
And if those don’t appeal to you because you’re vegetarian (or for other reasons) we’ll give you a $100 gift certificate to MarxFoods.com.
The winning burger recipe will be judged by the MarxFoods.com staff on deliciousness and originality. Please only enter a recipe that can be created in a home (vs. professional) kitchen or grill, is original and from scratch. Each contestant is limited to entering one recipe.
We’ll also send the winner biodegradable, compostable and very chic looking Palm Leaf Plates to make your next burger cookout that much more convenient.
A winner will be announced on Wednesday, July 23.
TO ENTER:
Submit your recipe, with a title in the form at MarxFoods.com or in the comment section below. Stories are welcome and if you have an accompanying photo (sometimes pictures tell the best story) please send it to us and we’ll add it to your post. Feel free to include recipes for side dishes that pair well with your burger.
Contest Rules and Regulations
And finally, Paz tagged me for this visual meme. If you don’t know Paz, check her out. I love her varied posts from good food to daily shots of life in New York City. I feel a trip coming on soon.Post you 10 best food shots and tag others to participate. My type of Meme. Now I am not a photographer by any means. But I have come a long way since my first photos . Thanks to stealing Certain Someones camera and learning from you all.
Nothing says summer like Papaya/Coconut Ice Cream!
A Daring Bakers Perfect Party Cake.
Chicken I never blogged about. It looked better before cooking than cooked in a slow cooker.
A lovely flan. I’m starting to learn about natural light.
I loved the frost chilled effect of my homemade rum raisin ice cream.
I still get a lot of Taste Spotting hits on this Shrimp and long bean dish.
Finally a decent looking roast picture!
Fruits and vanilla bean for preserves.
Not a great picture but it managed to scare the crap out of a lot people. My Aunt jumped from her seat by the computer. I was proud of my Marzipan rabbit in my Buche de Noel. I guess from a certain angle it looks trapped under a log. I cant help it if it looked a little to real for people. Call me the twisted baker.It’s the Scorpian in me I guess.
A refreshing cream limoncello. I could go for some now!
I won’t tag anyone else because so many of you have been or don’t want to be. Feel free to play along!I hope you do!Its fun to see how far you have come in photography.
Mauby Kick!!!!
Not much cooking this week. However my prizes I have won are starting to roll in and Ive been busy exploring. Bren
sent me my prize based on some questions I answered on Trinidad Tobago. I got some Mauby,Geera,curry, and Amchar Masala.Bren has a terrific recipe on her blog featuring curried plantains in coconut milk. I want to try that sometime soon.Shes awesome and spicy like the spices she sent! In the meanwhile I was curious about Mauby. The pack was a spice pack of Mauby bark, anise seeds, cinnamon, etc. I researched on the web and saw varying recipes. I wanted something more than just boil with water , add sugar. So I emailed Cynthia, the Queen Bee of Caribbean cooking and asked for her recipe.Its a family recipe that goes way back. I didn’t have the whole nutmeg but followed her recipe in principle and theory in regards to brewing and fermenting. I had my first taste this morning as its a 48 hour process. On first sip its sweet, almost tea like.Then a slightly bitter after taste. It grows on you and you find yourself sipping more. Very refreshing. The jury is out on its health benefits. Some say it lowers high blood pressure .And some wild theories are that causes impotence!A study showed blood pressure reduced if mixed with coconut water.Each island had there own version and the recipe gets tweaked to ones preference.Some people even add vanilla or mix with alcohol.The sugar content can be adjusted to your tastes. All I know is I like it and want to get some more Mauby bark and play.It is an acquired taste and I urge you to try it if you ever have an opportunity!
I also cooled off with the coffee I won from Marye recently. If you haven’t had a chance to check out her numerous blogs on , do so. She’s an amazing woman who can do just about anything in my opinion and never lets much shake her faith. We can all learn from someone like that. My first brew was a chilled ice coffee drink with a splash of Chambord. Delish!So you see not a lot of cooking this week, just brewing and sipping!
And on a final note, Mary from Shazam In The Kitchen sent me this lovely prize. She says I’m glamorous and exciting. If she only knew things aren’t always how they seem but it is an interesting and blessed life! I feel you are all creative and fascinating or else I wouldn’t spend much of my down time following you. So consider this passed on to all of you.
Sweden…Land Of The Midnight Sun
These are some photos from prior trips taken in Gothenburg and Stockholm.
Well folks I’m off to Sweden, the land of the Midnight Sun. I will try to post via the Go.Blogger and Blackberry route(nix that, way to expensive with international roaming charges) or my friends computer.If not I will have a full recap of my adventures when I return. I plan to meet up with two fellow Daring Bakers in Stockholm and look forward to getting to know them. The rest of the week will be occupied with moving into Certain Someones summer house and a wedding.See ya when I get back.
PS:
We all love contests and chances to win free stuff!How apropos Sweden,Salmon,Salmon,Sweden….. Check this out:
WIN A SUMMER OF WILD SALMON CONTEST
Please submit your best salmon recipe to MarxFoods.com by Friday, June 20, 2008. Salmon should be the star of the dish, but the recipe can incorporate any variety of salmon—fresh, frozen, smoked, canned, pickled, etc.
The creator of the winning recipe will receive three separate 5 lb. shipments of wild salmon fillets (15 lbs. total); one in July, August, and September, 2008, on the date of the winner’s choosing. Each shipment will contain a different type of wild salmon, varying by species and river origin.
The winning recipe will be judged by the MarxFoods.com staff on deliciousness and originality. Please only enter a recipe that can be created in a home (vs. professional) kitchen.
Results will be announced on Wednesday, June 25.
I submitted mine! Good Luck and see/read you when I get back.
Glamah