What if I told you that baking cookies would bring you a million dollars? You probably wouldn't believe me, but it's true. This past weekend 100 finalists — all amateur bakers — competed in the 43rd Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off. And Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg, MD brought home a million bucks for her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. The cookies are essentially peanut butter cookies with a bit of creamy peanut butter filling in the middle. They sound pretty fantastic and look simple to make. Carolyn created hers by using the Pillsbury peanut butter cookie dough, but you could follow her idea with your fave pb cookie recipe instead.
Also, I have to tell you, I think she's absolutely adorable and am thrilled she won. I managed to get a video clip of her when she was declared winner by Food Network's Sandra Lee, and her excitement is infectious.
To get the recipe and see the cute video clip, read more.
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From Carolyn Gurtz, winner of the 43rd Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off
Ingredients
1/4 cup Fisher Dry Roasted Peanuts, finely chopped
1/4 cup Domino or C&H Granulated Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup JIF Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Domino or C&H Confectioners Powdered Sugar
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury Create ‘n Bake refrigerated peanut butter cookies, well chilled
Directions
- Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix chopped peanuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
- In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.
- Cut roll of cookie dough into 12 slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise to make 24 pieces; flatten slightly. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls.
- Roll each covered ball in peanut mixture; gently pat mixture completely onto balls. On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Spray bottom of drinking glass with Crisco Original No-Stick Cooking Spray; press into remaining peanut mixture. Flatten each ball to 1/4-inch thickness with bottom of glass. Sprinkle any remaining peanut mixture evenly on tops of cookies; gently press into dough.
- Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.
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Hot Diamonds
WOW, she won a million dollars with refrigerated cookie dough? that's crazy!!
1I read this last night on Serious Eats and I was appalled that her recipe won. Yes it's very easy but those refrigerated cookie doughs are hideous. Then all she did was mix up peanut butter, peanuts and sugar and mush it on top of the cookies. Yuck!
For pete sake from the money she spent on the cough dough and the Jif peanut butter she could have made delicious from scratch PB cookies that taste worlds better and have less synthetic chemicals.
2wack - i think you have to use something pillsbury though.
3yeah, it's the pillsbury bake-off. i'm sure one of the requirements was that you use their dough!
4My sister calls Sandra Lee a fake chef...even though actually some of the people on the Food network make it clear they're cooks not chefs. This 70% store bought thing seems silly to me though. I guess it's good for someone who might not have enough time, but I would actually want to do more work making something a little less processed and it's no fun if you barely do anything when you're making something. It's like taking pictures with a digital camera where you barely do anything compared to when you have to develop the film when you use a real camera. When you actually do something as opposed to barely doing anything, you get more satisfaction out of it. Sorry but I'm getting off topic.
5The cook off requires that you use at least one General Mills product and that your recipe be original. It doesn't require that you only use GM products or that every ingredient by a GM product. This woman went to an extreme - no thought or real effort required. This is like recipes I was given in Kindergarten to make a snack without parental supervision because you're just opening a package of something.
The previous winners have been far more clever. Perhaps the other entries went too far out.
She could have made really delicious PB cookies from scratch using JIF and won.
6The sad part is that this recipe isn't very original at all - this recipe is almost the same as a the "peanut butter munchies" recipe from Better Homes and Gardens, except that she uses pre-made peanut butter cookie dough instead of chocolate cookie dough from scratch. Ugh, for a million dollars? What a joke!
http://www.bhg.com/recipes/recipedetail.jsp?recipeId=R047565
7It's not cool that you can win a million dollars using store bought cookie dough. I know it's the point but still. She seems like she will put it to good use though that makes it a little easier.
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9Oh, well do I hear a sound of bitterness. She won! Let's celebrate the winner. Obviously it's what the cookies taste like. Making it from scratch don't mean it is going to taste good even if it makes you feel proud and proper. Go Carolyn! You had the touch.
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