Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook

by Pillsbury

For over 50 years, people have looked to one contest for the most delicious, the most exciting and the most uniquely American recipes this country's home cooks have to offer. The Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest presents the very best of what people today are cooking for their families and friends. Now, nearly 400 prizewinning recipes from this famed event are gathered in one book, complete with gorgeous color photographs and personal profiles highlighting the people who created the recipes.

The first Bake-Off® Contest, in 1949, celebrated the culinary trends of the times—recipes were made from scratch, the ingredient lists and steps were lengthy and breads and desserts comprised the bulk of the entries. Today's Bake-Off® entries mirror the changing trends in home cooking with recipes that are quicker and easier to prepare. The use of convenience products has increased and flavors from around the world are featured, as reflected in a brand-new Quick & Easy Main Meals. Chicken Florentine Panini, the 2002 Grand Prize winner, is an Italian sandwich that gets its fresh-baked goodness from refrigerated pizza-crust dough. Bow-Thai Chicken takes a frozen stir=fry meal starter and combines it with the wonderful flavors of a Thai peanut sauce.

Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook illustrates how home cooks have captured their ethnic heritages in dishes adapted from their grandparents' countries to modern kitchens and busier times. The stories are as inspiring as the recipes themselves, from 1996's Grand Prize winner, Kurt Wait, a single parent who developed his $1,000,000-winning recipe, Macadamia Fudge Torte, with the help of his son, to a 2002 winner for her Gnocchi Alfredo Casserole, Kelly Lynne Baxter, who remembers learning to cook alongside her mom and aunts.

All the recipes are organized by easy-to-use Soups, Sandwiches and Snacks; Main Dishes; Side Dishes and Salads; Breads; Sweet Rolls and Coffee Cakes; Cookies and Bars; Cakes and Tortes; Pies and Tarts; and Other Desserts; as well as the new chapter, Quick & Easy Main Meals. Each chapter is filled with wonderful and often humorous behind-the-scenes stories from the Bake-Off® Contest events.

The recipes are sensational; the storeis are uplifting. Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook invites you into the kitchens and lives of the many people who have made the Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest the most loved and respected showplace for everyone to share their creative cooking talents.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

608 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1996

About the author

Pillsbury is a brand name used by Minneapolis-based General Mills and Orrville, Ohio-based J.M. Smucker Company. Historically, the Pillsbury Company, also based in Minneapolis, was a rival company to General Mills and was one of the world's largest producers of grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought out by General Mills in 2001. Antitrust law required General Mills to sell off some of the products. General Mills kept the rights to refrigerated and frozen Pillsbury products, while dry baking products and frosting are now sold by Smucker under license.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pillsbury Bake Off is not just an icon of food culture but of American culture. Started in 1949, it was the first nationwide food contest and the first contest that elevated the contributions and creativity of home cooks into the public realm. This cookbook contains all the winners up until publication (2004) along with many of the most requested recipes from finalists (top 8 but didn't win grand prize). I'm so happy I found this for a $1 at my local library book sale.
The first thing that strikes me about this one is how many recipes I'd made in previous years not realizing the were Bake-Off recipes. I counted 11 that I'd made, many we love like the Rosemary Brie En Croute or the Carmelitas or the Peanut Blossoms (not a winner but one of the most requested recipes from the contest), from handmade church or civic cookbooks, further evidence of how ingrained these recipes are into our everyday lives. It should be noted that information on the history of the contest, vignettes featuring some memorable contestants, and additional information about some of the recipes are also included. Recipe photography is all color but only about 1/3 of recipes have a photo.
Since I already knew 11 of the recipes are good, I tried to focus on recipes I'd never made for purposes of this review. I didn't make a bad one. While a few were better or worse depending on our personal taste, all came out excellent. Our personal grand prize winner was the Chocolate Cherry Bars (more like a 9x13 cake) - a grand prize winner from 1974. It was so good and ridiculously simple. Our most surprising winner was the Potato Corn Bake - a weird combination of potato flakes, creamed corn, and bell pepper among other ingredients that was absolutely delicious. I made more desserts than savory dishes, primarily because there are more dessert recipes. The only recipe we agreed wasn't our favorite - definitely not bad but not for us - was the Spicy Banana Bars, sort of like banana bread with a lemon frosting but in brownie form. Good, but we'd rather just have banana bread minus the glaze.
A few other observations: Several of the recipes have been edited to accommodate ingredients that no longer exist or are updated for newer kitchen tools. Several of the recipes have notes to that fact, but I'm not sure if that is all inclusive. I personally found that some of the cook times are a bit too long on many of the earlier recipes, probably due to more efficient modern ovens. I recommend starting your cook timers a few minutes below the lowest time in the range and checking from there. i.e. If the recipe says 15 - 20 minutes for cook time, set it for 12. This only seemed to be an issue for recipes prior to 1960's. Many of the more complicated braiding, twisting, rolling bread based recipes don't have photos which are truly needed to help with correct prep. I found most by googling the recipe.
This was a fun cookbook to feature and review. We really enjoyed it. I haven't come close to making all that I eventually hope to make from this one. I look forward to using this keeper for years to come.

[Feliz · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS THE BEST COOKBOOK EVER! I have yet to make a bad recipe from it - every person who eats anything from this cookbook raves about it and asks for the recipe!! If you want a cookbook that WILL NOT let you down or make so-so recipes - this is the one for you! You will DEF "wow" your guests!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might never cook almost anything in this book, but it's excellent as a historical snap-shot of American cooking culture.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to love, but didn’t.

[Monika Gordon]

has some really good and inexpensive winning recipes with tips and terms and a measuring chart

[Dorena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great recipes! YUM!

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the recipes look awesome. I will check this out again when it gets closer to the holiday baking season!

[Mariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yum.

[Jason Pfleegor · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some mighty fine desserts in this cookbook

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

From soups to breads to entrees to desserts. Mostly interested in some of the desserts.

[Matthew Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a baking fan I love this book.

[Kirsten Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good cook book

[Trena]

Wonderful pictures, wonderful recipes, and wonderful stories about the contest and contestants.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pretty good collection of recipes, especially desserts.