Sunday, July 21, 2013

Frosted Peanut Butter Cookies and 1st day of the fair results


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I ended up placing in 1 of the 2 competitions I entered on the first day of fair.  I entered the Best Cookie in the County contest with these Frosted Peanut Butter Cookies.  They were absolutely YUMMY.


This is how the judging goes.  There are 25 entries into this contest.  You have to submit your entry into the fair office and the first 25 entries get to compete.  The cookies are cut up into bite size pieces except for 1 is left whole.  The pieces and the one whole cookie are placed on a plate and put up on stage with a number assigned to each plate.  The judges will taste each cookie and they select their top 5 numbers.  Any cookie that did not get a top 5 vote from a judge is removed off the stage.  Then comes round 2 where each judge again selects their top 5 cookies.  For round 3 the judges then sit at a table and they are presented with the cookies that have received a number 1 vote from any judge.  From these number ones they will put them in order of their winners from 1st to 5th place.  As in yesterdays competition there were 4 number ones taken to round 3 so the judges decided places 1 thru 4 from these cookies.  Then for 5th place all the cookies who received a 2nd place from any judge were taken to the table and the 5th place winner was chosen from these.

As you can see in the picture above we sit in the audience and we can see the judging going on.  Cally and I find it really nerve wracking to sit and watch but we would not want to be any other place. Cally and I both have placed several times in this contest.  In this contest if you win any place 1st thru 3rd there is a pay out and half of your winnings gets donated to the charity of your choice.  It makes a win for everybody!  The winning cookie was a Peanut Butter Sandwich cookie.  I will make it and post it in the future for you all to see.


The Rib Cook off was my second entry yesterday.  I did pretty good on them.  I place 4th in the Rib Cook Off.  


Cally also entered the Rib Cook Off with me.  Here she is sitting at the judging table.


For this competition we had to take a complete table setting and sit at the table with our ribs.

Today we will be back out at the fair for the Cheese competition.  Cally is making Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese and I will be entering Charleston Cheese Dip.  These are both Trisha Yearwood's recipes.

Frosted Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
3 1/4 cups cake flour
1- 10 oz bag Reese’s Peanut Butter chips
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Cream together butter, sugars, salt, baking soda and powder.  Add vanilla and eggs. Mix well. Add flour and peanut butter chips. Mix just until flour and chips are blended together. Scoop into 2 inch balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet about 4 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
milk (to thin to proper consistency, I used about 3 Tablespoons)
Cream together room-temperature butter and powdered sugar. Add peanut butter and beat until smooth. Add milk a tablespoon at time, just until frosting is smooth and creamy. Set aside.
Chocolate Frosting
1 cup butter
5 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 to 1/3 cup milk
Cream butter and 5 cups powdered sugar. Add cocoa and vanilla. Add milk a tablespoon at a time until frosting is smooth. If needed, add more powdered sugar.
After cookies are cooled, frost with peanut butter frosting. Then frost on top of the peanut butter frosting with the chocolate frosting. When spreading the chocolate frosting on top of the peanut butter frosting, be very gentle and leave a small space between the edge of the peanut butter frosting and the chocolate frosting for a layered frosting look.