I would like to be on one of the Food Network recipe contest shows. Specifically, Ultimate Recipe Showdown, the one hosted by Guy Fieri. They typically have a mixed bag of contestants. There are talented home cooks with interesting techniques and recipes and there are truly awful recipes from some harebrained amateurs. I recently saw an episode where a contestant was pureeing sauteed chicken with hot sauce in a blender. For what purpose, I don't know. I had to click through and watch something less disturbing like "Jerseylicious."The most disturbing display of amateur cooking I've ever seen was on one of Gordon Ramsey's show. One of the contestants thought it was good idea to cook a whole chicken inside a pumpkin. Ramsey gags as he pulls the pale wet chicken from the belly of the pumpkin. The pumpkin had birthed the chicken - twisted. Regardless, I want to be on a show as a serious contestant. As important days go in my life, it would rank pretty high. Not before the day I married my husband or the day my son was born, but I think being the winner on a show would come in a solid 3rd.
I've tried to win cooking contests before, and I have never won. I recently lost in a bake-off at my office. I even submitted two recipes in the hope that would increase my odds. I actually intended to submit three, thank God I didn't. That would have been humiliating.
I made crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies and the recipe below -- sugar shuttles. I made the oatmeal cookies a few years back for another bake-off. I got a 3rd-place finish, which was fairly disappointed considering the top prize went to a Duncan Hines cake. The sugar shuttles didn't win either in last week's bake-off, but I guarantee they're worth making (and eating). They're soft and buttery and different, and they come from the same book I've been using a lot lately, The Gourmet Cookie Book. This was Gourmet magazine's best recipe from 1951. Enjoy.
Sugar Shuttles
1/4 cup of sugar
2 egg yolks, whites reserved
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix flour, sugar, butter, egg yolks, salt and vanilla in a bowl with a spoon or with your hands. It’s easier with your hands. Once a dough is formed, let rest covered in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Pre-heat oven to 350, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
While dough rests, beat the egg whites, and pour about ½ cup of sugar into another bowl.
Take dough out of refrigerator, and pinch off about 1 to 1 ½ teaspoon sized portions. Roll into log shape, about 1 ½ inches long. Dip in egg whites and roll in sugar.
Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes until barely brown on the edges.
Makes 18-24 cookies
1 comment:
Yummm. Yes, please. The reason you don't win bake offs is that the American palate has been corrupted and comprised. I would give you first place! Merry Christmas, friend!
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