We have a winner!

Last week I blogged about our annual Mother’s Day cookoff. 

Ed baked the cookies from the recipe in that post. And everyone else (except me) made their own versions, including some that had to be prepared the night before so the dough could “firm up” in the fridge.

The kitchen smelled so good on Sunday during the baking that no one wanted to go out even though it was such a beautiful day here in Connecticut. (But we did).

After dinner we judged The Contest! That was dessert.

You can see that this is a Grand Event, meant to be Earnest and Solemn. Take a look at the form Jesse made as a judging tool (except that my grandson Zev used his own method, as you can see from the yellow pad in his hands at The Contest).

I am the serious looking woman in the Wonder Woman apron (a really cool Mother’s Day gift!).

We cut up each of the four different kinds of cookies into halves and ate them in the same order. Nibbling, tasting, cooing, humming and making all the other noises people make when they are eating something delicious.

And then of course (because the Event was so Serious) we all had to eat more and even a bit more, just to make sure we had the tastes and textures right and we had made up our minds what we liked (or didn’t) about each cookie.

And then we scored the cookies.

And all and all, Jesse’s Chocolate Chippers with All Sorts of Other Stuff got the most points.

And he was very modest about it. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of him dancing around the kitchen.

Actually we all had different favorites. For different reasons. Which is one of the reasons we all love our annual cookoffs. They are very unserious and so much fun and we can all appreciate each others’ efforts and creativity and every year all of us eat everything.

But Jesse did get the most points and so here is his smashing and wonderful recipe, based on an original formula for Compost Cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar.

Jesse’s Chocolate Chippers with All Sorts of Other Stuff

• 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup tightly packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup large Ghirardelli chocolate chips, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped Fairway chocolate covered sea salt caramels
• 2 whole Graham crackers, broken into pieces
• 1/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2-1/2 teaspoons ground coffee (not instant)
• 2 cups Cape Cod potato chips, slightly broken
• 1 cup broken pretzels
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup corn flakes

Combine the butter, sugars and corn syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer (use paddle attachment or regular beaters if you don’t have one) and beat the ingredients on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat for 7-8 minutes at medium speed. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat at low speed just until a dough forms. Add the chocolate chips, caramels, graham crackers, oats and coffee and mix on low speed until the ingredients are incorporated. Add the potato chips, pretzels, coconut and corn flakes and mix at low speed until just incorporated. Place mounds of dough (about 1/3 cup) onto parchment-lined cookie sheets, leaving plenty of room for the cookies to spread. Pat the tops of the mounds slightly. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (up to 1 week). Be sure to bake the cookies when they are cold, not room temperature. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°. Bake the cookies for about 18 minutes, or until browned at the edges and beige-yellow in the center. Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet. Makes about 20-24 cookies

Time to brag.

My daughter Gillian won a pie baking contest yesterday. And it was the first pie she ever made too. And all for a good cause — raising money for P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill, in Brooklyn.

She doesn’t even own a rolling pin, so the dough got flattened using a seltzer bottle wrapped in plastic wrap.

The recipe was a takeoff on one that I posted, but she used cashews instead of hazelnuts, and a 10-inch tart pan rather than pie pan, so it looked more glamorous and the consistency was somewhat firmer. She also baked it for a shorter period of time than a deeper, standard 9-inch pie.

She won two cookbooks. You can see her holding one of the books in the photo; she’s next to judge Gail Simmons (special projects director at Food and Wine and also a judge on Top Chef and the host of Top Chef Desserts).

I never won a cooking contest but I remember entering one once many many years ago. My entry was for Chicken in Champagne Sauce, which my husband and I loved and I had just learned to cook. Everyone thought the dish was a winner, so why not enter it into a cooking contest.

First prize went to Beef Stew. Which I like. But didn’t think, at the time, that plain old beef stew should be a contest winner.

I was wrong about that.

But not wrong about this: Gillian’s Cashew Pie is really delicious. A winner, for real.

Congrats Gill!

Gillian’s Honey Cashew Pie 

2/3 cup honey

1/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 cup chopped dried apricots

1 unbaked 10-inch tart crust

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the honey, sugar, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract in a bowl and blend them thoroughly with a whisk. Stir in the flour, salt, cashews and apricots. Pour the mixture into the tart crust. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crusty. Makes one tart serving 8 people

Yesterday I told you about my big mistake ordering only two chocolate hamantashen for Purim. I blame it on being old fashioned in a way. Although I am constantly experimenting and making up new recipes and cook modern food and am the author of the cookbook Hip Kosher, which features contemporary, not-necessarily-traditional-Jewish but kosher recipes, when it comes to hamantashen I want prune. Okay, maybe also apricot. Because those are what I always ate as a kid and all through my life (never liked the even more traditional poppy seed). 

But my family likes the chocolate filling.

And, come to think of it, you could use any kind of filling you like. I mean, why do we have to stick with prune and apricot? Let’s see, maybe lemon hamantashen? Strawberry-rhubarb? Candied kumquat? Spiced pumpkin?

Which is exactly what Jayne Cohen, cookbook author and blogger for Jewish Woman Magazine thought. So the magazine has decided to hold a recipe contest for — guess what? Hamantashen filling.

Here’s where to go: http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=2730 Invent away! I think any filling would work with hamantashen dough (there’s a recipe for the dough on the site). And you could win Jayne’s book, Jewish Holiday Cooking, if yours is the winning filling!