Bragging Rights Earned in 2016 Cookie/Candy Contest!

Adding candy to the 2016 Great Cookie and Candy Contest was a brilliant idea.   Thanks to Heidi White and Toni Brown for the suggestion!  This year's entries were top notch, but out of the pool of amazing competitors rose some clear winners.

This year, our judges were Annie Gill, Tom Jaynes, Mark Hand and Rhea Deroian.

The 2016 Contestants

Cookies

Candy

Brittney Vorndick's Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies Brittney Vorndick's Almond Joy Cookies Erin Popov's Oatmeal Cranberry Lemon with White Chocolate Chip Cookies Erin Popov's 3 Ingredient Lemon Cookies JaNel Moore's Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies Kathy Lanio's Almond Vanilla Butter Cookies Kerry Cantwell's Blueberry Cream Cheese Cookies with Lemon Glaze Lance Lee's Peppermint Macarons Mary Kennery's Busy Week Cake Mix Cookies (four varieties) White Chocolate Nutella Chocolate Chips Peppermint Nathan Hardin's Almost Double Chocolate Chip Cookies Toni Brown's Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Cookies

Kathy Rexrode's Toffee Bars Meredith Lewis's Coffee Marshmallows Meredith Lewis' Soft Caramels Stesha Little's White Chocolate Toffee

Fabulous prizes were awarded to the winners!  Let's begin with the cookie winners.

And the winners are:

Best Texture / Most Fluffy: 
Erin Popov's 3 Ingredient Lemon Cookies

Erin took home a new Durham Tech keychain.

Best Cookie to Eat Fireside with Girl Scouts:
Toni Brown's Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Cookies

Toni took home a new scented candle.

Third Place:

Brittney Vorndick's Almond Joy Cookies

Brittney won a new Post-It note dispenser.  Good job, Brittney!

Second Place:

Lance Lee's Peppermint Macarons

The Winner of the
6th Annual Great Cookie Contest:

JaNel Moore's
Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies

And now for the candy winners!  JaNel took home the prized Wooden Baby Deer Spoon.

Most Creative / Innovative:
Meredith Lewis's Coffee Marshmallows

 

Meredith took home a new Burt's Bees lip balm.

Second Place:
Kathy Rexrode's Toffee Bars

Kathy won a new box of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer bandages.

The Winner of the 

FIRST Great Candy Contest:

Stesha Little's White Chocolate Toffee!

Stesha also won a prized Wooden Baby Deer Spoon.

Please congratulate our winners when you see them on campus!

Here are a few recipes for you to try at home!

---

Meredith Lewis's award-winning Coffee Marshmallows

Adapted from thekitchn.com

Ingredients:

For the gelatin bloom:

3 packets unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon instant espresso

For the marshmallows:

3/4 cup water

1-1/2 cup granulated sugar

1-1/4 cup corn syrup

Pinch kosher salt

For the coating:

1-1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 tablespoon instant espresso

Directions:

---

JaNel Moore's award-winning Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon rum extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

2 cups shredded carrots

3/4 cup raisins

FILLING:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1-1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

2 tablespoons crushed pineapple

Additional confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a large electric mixing bowl with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs and extracts.  
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, ginger and nutmeg.  Gradually add to flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well.  Stir in walnuts, carrots, and raisins.
4. Refrigerate batter for 1 hour.
5. Scoop rounded teaspoons of dough and roll in granulated sugar. 
6. Place balls 2 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Flatten slightly with a glass.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 9 - 12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
8. In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Stir in walnuts and pineapple.  
9. Spread over the flat bottoms of half of the cookies; top with remaining half of the cookies.  Sprinkle both sides with additional confectioners' sugar for decoration.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

---

Kerry Cantwell's Blueberry Cream Cheese Cookies with Lemon Glaze 
Find the recipe here at therecipecritic.com

2015 Annual Great Cookie Contest and Swap Is a Hit with the People

There were more than a dozen entries in the Fifth Annual Great Cookie Contest and Swap trying to earn the title of Durham Tech's Best Cookie.  Our judges this year, Susan Paris and Laura Rogers, sampled each of the entries beside a virtual yule log in the TLC.

Susan Paris and Laura Rogers testing the entries.

The competition was stiff, but there were clear winners:

1. Julie Humphrey's Coconut Macaroons  

   

   Julie Humphrey's Award-Winning Coconut Macaroons!

   
   
2. Karin Abell's Nanaimo Cookie Bars

   

   Karin Abell's Canadian Nanaimo Cookie Bars

   
   
   
   
3. Lance Lee's Christmas Toffee Cookies (no photo--they went too fast) and Mary Kennery's Lemon Lavender Cookies (tie)

   

   Mary Kennery's Lemon Lavender Cookies

Other amazing entries this year included:

• Heidi White's Seven-Layer Cookies
• Heidi White's Fudgie Cookies (OK, fine.  It was just fudge.  Peanut butter fudge and chocolate fudge.)
• Mary Moore's Haystack Cookies
• Gina Perryman's Cherry Kiss Cookies
• Mary Moore's Meringue Cookies
• Kerry Cantwell's Spicy Mexican Chocolate Cookies 
• "Spacy" Tracy Mancini's Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies with Oats, Raisins, and Chocolate Chips (recipe below)
• Rolo Turtle Cookies
• Pecan Pie Bars

Below are two of the recipes for this year's contestants:

Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies with Oats, Raisins, and Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:

1 box chocolate cake mix

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup long cooking oats

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs beaten

1. Mix all ingredients in large bowl.
2. Spoon onto greased baking sheet about two-inches apart.
3. Bake 7 to 9 minutes at 350 degrees.

Makes 5 dozen cookies.

Spicy Mexican Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter

2.7 ounces good quality sweetened chocolate with guajillo chili powder, coarsely chopped

1 cup packed turbinado sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup self-rising flour

3/4 cup unsweetened coca powder

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, melt the butter and chopped chocolate together, whisking until glossy and smooth.  Cool the chocolate mixture to room temperature.
3. In a bowl, beat the brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs on low speed until well-combined.  Pour in the cooled chocolate and continue to mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
4. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, chili powder, baking powder, salt, and cayenne pepper.  Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate batter and mix on low speed until just combined and no visible flour remains.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.  
5. Working in two batches, scoop balls of fough, about 1 1/2 tablespoon size, onto a parchment-lined baking pan, leaving at least 1 1/2 inches between each cookie.  Bake the cookies, one pan at a time, for approximately 14 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking time.  The cookies should be puffy and still fairly soft when removed from the oven.
6. Immediately, slide the cookies, still on the parchment paper, onto a wire cooling rack.  Cool just a bit before serving, about 5-10 minutes.  Cookies can be stored in airtight container for up to three days.  
7. Spend those three days cleaning the kitchen.  You just made a colossal mess.