Janet's Jaunts

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." —Marcel Proust

and the winner is…

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Carolyn Gurtz of Gaitherburg, Md. is the newest Pillsbury Bakeoff millioniare. Her Her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies are brilliantly simple..they build upon a roll of Pillsbury Create ‘n Bake refrigerated peanut butter cookies, adding Jif peanut butter and chopped dry roasted peanuts. Wednesday’s Food section will have the recipe.

Her win proves that tasting is believing. In doing my homework for this trip to the Pillsbury Bake-Off, I carefully looked through all the recipes and tried to guess which ones would be judged as tops. When I looked at the ingredients in Carolyn’s cookies I dismissed them, thinking they’d be way too peanut buttery tasting, perhaps even gritty.

But that just goes to show that the proof is in the tasting. They are delicious…sort of like snickerdoodles in the way they hold together.. a little like the pleasant texture of a molasses cookie. I’m no baker, so the chemistry of the taste and texture eludes me, but I am guessing it has something to do with Carolyn’s use of both confectioners sugar and granulated sugar. Tasting these babies made me a believer. You’ll love them!

2 Responses

  1. Karen says:
    April 16, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Janet –

    Thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs from Dallas — felt like I was part of the festivities! Thanks for doing such a great job!

    karen s.

  2. lindab says:
    April 16, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    Janet,

    Thanks so much for writing about me in your blog and it was SO nice to actually meet you while we were in Dallas.

    The Pillsbury Bake-off was an amazing experience! I made so many new friends and learned so much, as this was my first actual bake-off/cook-off experience. The positive energy that ran throughout the whole contest was very contagious and everyone there was genuinely happy and thrilled for the winners when they were announced – at least I was!

    My only complaint is that it was too short – there just was not enough time to meet the people you wanted to meet and actually have a real conversation with them. It seemed that we were always running off for some scheduled event or orientation of some kind.

    I will treasure this experience forever! AND……..I have to confess that while walking back to our room after the awards ceremony, do you know what thoughts were going through my mind? What recipes can I come up with for the 2010 contest!!! LOL

    At least I will always have my recipe on the cover of the cookbook! That, along with many happy memories, new friends and the thrill of actually making it as one of the finalists!!

    Take care,

    Linda Bibbo