Tag: Best Cookie

Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Put these Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies on your must-make baking list. Their flavor shines bright with Chambord black raspberry liqueur, along with orange zest, chocolate chunks, and fresh red raspberries.

Minnesotan Rachael Hood created the cookie for the Blue Ribbon Drop-Style Cookie Contest at the 2021 Minnesota State Fair (a Blue Ribbon Group sponsored contest). She won 1st place and $100 in King Arthur Baking Company gift cards.

I also arranged for Rachael to showcase her cookies on a TV spot with me on KARE 11 Saturday, the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis. Yay for hometown PR! We had an absolute blast.

Let’s get back to the cookie itself. If you are intrigued by this cookie, read on for some insights about it and how you can recreate the recipe.

Key Ingredients

With these Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies, the Chambord liqueur is key. It plays off the other ingredients so well, making for a terrific flavor combination that subtle, but not too subtle, and so well balanced with citrus and chocolate elements.

I especially love the cookie’s scent you take in with each bite and the delicious lingering aftertaste.

Chambord – if you aren’t familiar with it – is a liqueur that combines XO Cognac and French spirits with Madagascan vanilla, honey and Moroccan citrus peel, making it an ideal flavor enhancer for these cookies. It originated in France, the Loire Valley specifically, in the 1600’s. Back then, with the many King Louis of the time, it was popular to sip cognac or liqueurs at fancy French meals.

Fast forward to today, the Chambord brand is owned by the same folks who own Jack Daniels. I was surprised to learn that in addition to black raspberries, they infuse blackberries and blackcurrants into it. You can find it in a variety of sizes. Since I had to go to a couple of stores to find it,I recommend calling ahead, especially if you want a specific size.

Bake Like a Blue Ribbon Winner

As always, before I add a recipe to this Blue Ribbon Foodies blog, there’s a baking test run. Walk through the recipe with us here and then give it a go yourself. The cookies are delicious and highly recommended.

Here’s everything that goes into the cookies (minus the food color), including the liqueur, fresh Driscoll raspberries, orange zest, and all-purpose flour from King Arthur Baking Company.

You first sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Next you cream the butter and sugars before adding in the remaining wet ingredients and mixing until smooth. Sorry, no pic. I was too excited to get these into the oven! Finally, add the pre-mixed dry ingredients, and stir just until combined.

Then all that remains prep-wise is to chop the raspberries and gently mix everything together.

Put both the fruit and juice in the dough.

Your dough should come out a bit like this.

Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoons onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You’ll bake these 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees F.

To experiment and to use ingredients already on hand, I varied from Rachael’s recipe just a bit. I used all semi-sweet chocolate chunks instead a combo of dark and milk chocolate and did not chop them fine, opting for larger chocolate pieces. I also used a different red food coloring. Here’s how mine came out!

Rachael chopped her chocolate by hand and smaller. She also used McCormick’s red food coloring. Do both those things and you’ll match the color of Rachael’s cookie dough and end product.

What a delight these were to bake and eat. We invite you to bake and share these cookies, or anything from our recipe collection. If you do, be sure to post a pic on Instagram or Facebook. Be sure we can follow along, by tagging:

@blueribbonfoodies
@mnstatefair
#blueribbonbaking2021
#kingarthurbaking

Hey Hey! You never know when we might do a giveaway!

-Cyndi

Blue Ribbon Baking: Aspiring Bakers Make Creative Cakes, Cookies & More

Aspiring Bakers Win Accolades with Creative Cakes, Cookies, Breads & Pies

Minneapolis-St. Paul, August 26, 2021 – Baking competition winners fared well at the 2021 Minnesota State Fair with a variety of inspired recipes and perfectly prepared baked goods. The Blue Ribbon Group, the contest organizers behind this site and Blue Ribbon Foodies on Instagram and Facebook – sponsored a special baking contest series. They called for creative coconut cakes, drop-style cookies, banana breads, and fruit pies, and also arranged for $25 bonus prizes for select 1st place winners. This is blue ribbon baking, at its best.

This coconut cake with garam masala and tumeric was among the first place winners (pictured above). One winning cookie featured Chambourd liqueur and another had ginger, molasses and 100% pure cricket powder in it. Yes, cricket powder. A perfectly-baked pie combining strawberries and rhubarb won top honors also. Another stand-out was this Elvis-inspired Peanut Butter Bacon Banana Bread.

Here’s a list of all first, second, and third place winners in all four Blue Ribbon Baking contests. For a complete list of winners across all Creative Activities general baking classes and categories, click here. Also, stay tuned as we’ll share a sampling of winning recipes and how-to stories in the coming weeks. You can follow along by liking Blue Ribbon Foodies on Instagram and Facebook.

Best Coconut Cake Winners:

1^st Place: Maggie MacIntosh of Minneapolis for Coconut Curry Cake with Mango Filling

2^nd Place: Renee Janas-Johnson of Brooklyn Park for Coconut Orange Cake

3^rd Place: Mallory Leitinger of Aitkin for Coconut Raspberry Zinger Cake

Best Drop-Style Cookie:

1^st Place: Rachael Hood of St. Louis Park for Rachie’s Razzies (Chewy Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies)

2^nd Place: Kurt Zinda of Braham for Dark Smoked Candied Pecan Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies

3^rd Place: Gwen Benson of Minnetonka for Susan McNamara’s Sugar Cashew Cookies

Best Banana Bread Winners:

1^st Place: Karen Cope of Minneapolis for Elvis on a Stick (Peanut Butter Bacon Banana Bread)

2^nd Place: Catherine Young of Minnetonka for Peanut Butter & Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread

3^rd Place: Kent Kaiser of St. Paul for Alpha Sigma Banana Bread

Best Fruit Pie Winners:

1^st Place: Kathleen McCarron of Roseville for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2^nd Place: Fay Peterson of Apple Valley for A Fruit Special Pie (Blueberry Rhubarb Strawberry Pie)

3^rd Place: Randy Ferguson of Minneapolis for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

A special thank you to our Prize Partner, King Arthur Baking Company:

Citrus Swirl Cookies

These colorful and fragrant Citrus Swirl Cookies taste as great as they look. They’re buttery and tender, yet firm, and so flavorful too. Their scent is illuminating. They are an epic icebox cookie. They are the bomb. That’s our take and we’re sticking to it. And seriously, just wait until you catch their lovely aroma!

Recipe credit goes to Karen Cope, a long-time blue ribbon winning baker at the Minnesota State Fair, which is where she won “best cookie” with this recipe in 2016.

The kaleidoscope-like look of these Citrus Swirl Cookies is eye-catching. The technique of twisting colorful dough together may remind you of tie dye clothing. That method makes the recipe more involved than your average cookie, but it’s worth the effort. And once you have that part down though, you’re golden. Bake like a blue ribbon winner and make these!

Secret Ingredient?

Ask any blue ribbon baker their tips for baking winning entries in competitions and most often you’ll hear “great ingredients.” That applies to this winning cookie as well. Karen speculates that using Fiori Di Sicilia made her cookie stand out for its distinct and delicious aroma. Fiori Di Sicilia (flower of Sicily) is a combo of vanilla and citrus. Our friends at King Arthur Baking Company sell a delightful version, plus they give great tips about using and storing it here.

Baking Tips

Some helpful points about Karen’s recipe:

If using Fiori di Sicilia is not an option for you, Karen suggests replacing it with a teaspoon of vanilla and a half teaspoon each of lemon and orange extracts
This recipe makes about 6 dozen cookies. If you don’t want to bake them right away or all at once, freeze the dough or portions of it (prior to slicing).
If you freeze any portion, simply thaw in the refrigerator the night before you what to bake them.
Be careful not to overbake these cookies. You want them tender and not dry.

By the way, we had a fun time brainstorming alternative names for this cookie, just for fun. A couple favorites were: Karen Cope’s Kaleidoscope Cookies and Tie-Dye-For Sweet Treats. Ultimately we stayed with the original/best title.

Enjoy-

Cyndi

p.s. If you’re into cookies that are awesome and artistic (aka “require a bit more work”), be sure to also try the copycat Girl Scout cookies we previously shared.

Strawberries & Cream Cookies

These Strawberries & Cream Cookies are a best cookie recipe winner from the Delta Fair in Tennessee. They feature instant oatmeal in the cookie itself and strawberry jam with cream cheese and whipping cream in the oh so delicious filling. They are amazing to taste when you first make them, then phenomenal when they sit and soften a bit.

Now THIS is a jazzed up oatmeal cookie. Epic! For this winning recipe, start with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda and strawberries and cream instant oatmeal, like Quaker.

Once you have baked and cooled the cookies, make a filling out of cream cheese, sugar, strawberry preserves, and heavy cream. Sandwich them together with the filling inside.

Strawberries & Cream Cookies: Blue Ribbon Winner

This winning recipe comes from the Delta Fair in Memphis. Cindy Dunn won a blue ribbon with it in 2016. It has become an all-time favorite around here. (Right up there with these boozy sandwich cookies.)

It is decadent and so delicious! And one of the cool things about it is, that after it sits, the texture completely changes, drawing on the moisture of the filling. It bursts with flavor and literally melts in your mouth when you eat it. Tasty! Try your hand at these today!

Happy Baking!

Cyndi

Toasted S’more Cookies

These Toasted S’more Cookies are a delightful twist on the ever-popular and tasty campfire treat. In fact, some say it elevates the s’more into something that belongs in a fancy patisserie. At the same time, these blue ribbon winning cookies are easy to make.

The cookie dough has finely ground graham crackers, of course. The other dough ingredients are classic: butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, and salt. Once baked, you top the cookies with a rich marshmallow meringue and a small bar of chocolate. You dot the top of the cookie with the meringue first, to hold the chocolate bar/block in place.

Then pipe on the top portion. The key ingredients in the meringue are egg whites (at room temperature), marshmallows, sugar, vanilla, corn syrup, and cream of tartar. To finish off the cookies, you use a kitchen torch for the toasted marshmallow look. You’ll feel like a culinary pro. By the way, we have a Jo Chef brand torch and love it.

Recipe credit goes to Terri Treft. She won 1^st place with this Toasted S’more Cookies recipe at the Iowa State Fair back in 2016. Her win is quite an accomplishment given one of the Iowa State Fair’s claims to fame. They have the largest competitive food division in the country. They host more individual baking contests than any other fair in the country. So, nice work Terri!

Pro Tips

You can opt to a make the cookies and frosting ahead of time, then assemble just before serving. The frosting will keep about 2-3 days in the fridge.
Another tip: we made our cookies small so it made a good size batch: 42 cookies. If you prefer a larger cookie (and therefore, less assembly time), go ahead and bake them bigger. Just adjust the baking time a tish longer and the amount of chocolate you put on each.

Blue Ribbon Foodies! This is a fun recipe you are going to want to make again and again.

And if you’re really into s’more themed treats, be sure to try these double chocolate cookies and these favorite no-bake treats.

Enjoy!

-Cyndi

Bake Your Best for the 2021 Minnesota State Fair

Calling all Blue Ribbon Foodies & Minnesota State Fair Lovers!!

Hit the kitchen and let’s bake together for the Great Minnesota Get-Back-Together! To celebrate the official return of our hometown Minnesota State Fair in 2021, the Blue Ribbon Group is sponsoring four special baking contests at the Minnesota State Fair including:

Best Banana Bread
Best Fruit Pie
Best Drop Cookie
Best Coconut Cake

Cash Prizes & Kudos

For this “Blue Ribbon Baking Day” at the fair, we’ve organized $175 in prizes for each competition, plus there will be special recognition for blue ribbon winners across several broader baking categories: Cookies, Cakes, Pies, and Breads. Don’t miss this treasured tradition that hundreds of Minnesotans take part in every year. You’ll rub elbows with like-minded home cooks and hobby bakers on “baking drop-off day” and once the fair opens see what wins in display cases throughout the Creative Activities Building. The experience is also a wonderful warm-up for the upcoming holiday baking season.

Special Thanks to our prize partner, King Arthur Baking Company.

Blue Ribbon Baking Contest Series: Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 9:30am – 1pm (Competitors: Sign Up by Aug 10, 4:30pm)

All registration goes through the Minnesota State Fair competition department. Registration is free! There’s also no obligation if you later can’t participate. Go to the Competitions/Creative Activities/Baked Products section at MNStateFair.org to sign up (under the Participants tab). Three quick-start tips:

Create your online account here
For step-by-step guidance, go here.
Sign up for the Competition Department email list here and be sure to choose “Creative Activities” as your email list.

Sign Up! *Registration is Closed; Stay Tuned for Follow-Up Posts ******************

Registration is open now. It closes August 10 at 4:30pm. No late registrations are allowed so don’t miss the deadline
Registration is FREE
You drop off your entry the Saturday before the fair opens, so it’s easy in, easy out. Drop off is 9:30am to 1pm on Saturday, August 21. You can even have a friend drop it off if you can’t make it
Open to Minnesota residents only

If you are on social media, be sure to follow BLUE RIBBBON FOODIES on Instagram or Facebook (or both =). Help us grow. Like and comment on what you see there. Save and share your favorite posts. Also, stay tuned here for inspiration and award-winning recipes from Minnesota and across the country.

Want to see all the official rules? Download them here.

Good luck. We’ll be cheering for you all!

Cyndi & Crystal (aka The Blue Ribbon Group & Blue Ribbon Foodies)

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies

These loaded Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies are packed with deliciousness. They have Oreos and Golden Grahams cereal, both finely chopped, granulated in fact, in a food processor. They also have sea salt which makes each bite pop with tastiness. While we need no excuse to bake, THIS weekend is THE ideal weekend to make these. Not only is Saturday is National Oreo Cookie Day (March 6), but Sunday is also National Cereal Day (March 7). These cookies are super easy to bake also, as in, a prep time of 15 minutes. And you’re going to love their taste and texture.

Marvelous Mix Ins

In addition to Oreos and Golden Grahams, they have chopped caramels, toffee bits, and two different sized chocolate chips. And they are another blue ribbon winning recipe. I’ve had a lot of fun experimenting with these cookies. I’ve skipped the caramel and upped the toffee bits. I’ve also done the reverse, skipping the toffee and increasing the caramel. I’ve also done versions with chocolate chunks instead of chips. All of them, completely delicious.

Blue Ribbon Bragging Rights

Recipe credit for these Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies goes to Michelle Pontbriant. She won her blue ribbon and bragging rights at the Big E Fair in Springfield, Massachusetts. She won a Gold Medal Flour cookie contest with this creation back in 2016. I recall her being a runner and having an “aha moment” when on a run one day, to puree the cookies and cereal together. They give the cookie a terrific tasting texture. You get a bit of caramel, toffee, and chocolate in every bite.

These are such a tasty twist on the traditional chocolate chip cookie. Bake these soon my fellow blue ribbon foodies!

Cyndi

p.s. If you’re a fan of Golden Grahams, you should also try these Peanut Butter S’more No-Bake Cookies. They have the same cereal in them.

Pistachio Lemon Butter Cookies

These Pistachio Lemon Butter Cookies bring three things together I adore: citrus, butter and my favorite nut, the pistachio.

With a triple threat of fresh lemon juice, lemon zest and lemon extract, these cookies burst with citrus flavor. Using all three of those ingredients together is the ticket. Put that in a rich butter cookie and I’m in love at first bite. A schmear of white chocolate lemon frosting on top adds another delightful dimension. You finish them with a sprinkling of extra pistachios. That texture contrast is a joyful experience. To be honest though, I have skipped the frosting before as they are delicious enough to stand alone. Unfrosted, they also stack well for transporting and storage.

Recipe credit goes to Denise Sokolowski who won a best cookie contest with it at the Wisconsin State Fair (2016). She came in second place, just behind those great Guinness Chocolate Cookies we previously shared.

These Pistachio Lemon Butter Cookies are perfect for celebrating National Pistachio Day – February 26, but you don’t need any excuse. Bake them any day of the year. The batch is pretty big. It made 60 cookies. What’s great about that is you can freeze the rolled balls of dough, in a single layer so they don’t stick together. Just bring them to room temperature before putting them in the oven. I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do.

Cheers-

Cyndi

Guinness Chocolate Cookies

These Guinness Chocolate Cookies feature the notorious dark beer from Ireland and four different types of chocolate: cocoa powder, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

They are super easy to make, a bit like our spicy snickerdoodles, which I also love. The hardest part about making these Guinness Chocolate Cookies is waiting for the dough to chill two hours. The chocolate intensity of these cookies make them a treat to eat. Every time I make these I think, why don’t I make these more often!

Recipe credit goes to Lora Pelzek who won at the Wisconsin State Fair, in a Gold Medal Flour cookie contest (2016).

Bake these for any chocolate lovers in your life, or for yourself.

Cyndi

Chocolate Orange Coffee Crinkles

These Chocolate Orange Coffee Crinkles have both cocoa powder and dark baking chocolate in them. Their fudge-like flavor will satisfy all those choco-holics out there. Chocolate crinkle cookies are classic, but this recipe reinvents them into something unforgettable. With the surprise additions of orange juice, orange zest, and instant espresso powder, this cookie turns into a multi-dimensional, complex, and completely scrumptious sweet treat. They are an utter delight to eat.

Since you roll the balls of dough in powdered and granulated sugar, they “crack” open as they bake to show off the chocolate inside. This crinkle effect also gives them a distinctly festive and fun appearance. You are going to want to bake these winning cookies again and again, for the holidays or ANY time of year. They pair great with coffee, so wow your friends next time you invite them over for a cup of java.

Betty Crocker and blue ribbon recipes from our archives were the inspiration for these Chocolate Orange Coffee Crinkles. We started with Betty’s Chocolate Crinkle recipe, added butter, upped the chocolate ingredients, changed from white to brown sugar, and made a few other modifications. We also looked closely at some orange chai crinkles that won at 2013 Washington State Fair. Since we’re huge citrus fans, we decided to showcase the orange flavor with the zest of an orange, plus its fresh-squeezed juice. Wow! After some test runs and tweaks, this has become a huge favorite. You can easily change up the flavors by changing the extracts. A raspberry version was popular around here also. We simply left out the orange elements, and used a raspberry extract and extra vanilla.

Top tip with these chocolate orange coffee crinkles: Be careful not to over bake. They should be moist and fudgy. No one likes a dry cookie that’s supposed to be rich and tender. Also, for an intense chocolate flavor, be sure to use a 70% cacao dark baking chocolate. We used Ghirardelli and loved the chocolatey taste it gave the cookie.

If you want more holiday themed recipes, check out this shortbread and this pound cake.

Enjoy!

-Cyndi

Key Ingredients

Bake Like a Blue Ribbon Winner

Aspiring Bakers Win Accolades with Creative Cakes, Cookies, Breads & Pies

Best Coconut Cake Winners:

Best Drop-Style Cookie:

Best Banana Bread Winners:

Best Fruit Pie Winners:

Secret Ingredient?

Baking Tips

Strawberries & Cream Cookies: Blue Ribbon Winner

Pro Tips

Calling all Blue Ribbon Foodies & Minnesota State Fair Lovers!!

Cash Prizes & Kudos

Special Thanks to our prize partner, King Arthur Baking Company.

Blue Ribbon Baking Contest Series: Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 9:30am – 1pm (Competitors: Sign Up by Aug 10, 4:30pm)

Sign Up! *********************Registration is Closed; Stay Tuned for Follow-Up Posts **************************************

Marvelous Mix Ins

Blue Ribbon Bragging Rights

Sign Up! *Registration is Closed; Stay Tuned for Follow-Up Posts ******************