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43rd Annual Pillsbury Bake Off Winners!

Million dollar winner, Carolyn Gurtz

After a fun day at the 43rd Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off, I couldn’t wait until I got to the awards ceremony this morning to see who had won. Fortunately, the ceremony started at 7:30 am central time and I didn’t have to wait for long until the master of ceremonies (and semi-homemade cooking) Sandra Lee took the stage and started to read the winners.

Prizes were announced for each of the five categories: Breakfast & Brunches, Pizza Creations, Entertaining Appetizers, Old El Paso Mexican Favorites and Sweet Treats. The grand prize winner was selected from the category winners, each of whom also won $5,000.

I’m not going to keep anyone in suspense here. The winner of the $1 million dollard grand prize was Carolyn Gurtz (pictured above) with her Sweet Treats recipe for Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. The cookies use refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough and shape it around a ball of what is essentially peanut butter candy. The overall effect is a good one, although I admit that I would try the filling with one of my regular peanut butter cookie dough recipes, refrigerating the dough and using it in place of a store-bought version.  (Update: I made a homemade version of the winning recipe!) Carolyn also won the sponsor award for best use of Jif Peanut Butter, bringing her total prize money to $1,010,000!


The other winners were:

One final prize was for “America’s Favorite Recipe,” an award that was based on the recipe that received the greatest number of votes on the Pillsbury bake-off website once the recipe was put online. Another $5,000 prize, that one went to Gwen Beauchamp’s recipe for Toffee Banana Brownies. I tried this recipe and the result was actually quite tasty, as the brownies have toffee bits, chopped bananas and macadamia nuts mixed in and are topped with caramel. Of course, like the peanut butter cookies, I’d try it with a from-scratch brownie recipe instead of a mix, but the idea of using all those flavors is a good one that works out well.

Bake-Off finalists

Overall, I had a great time at the Bake Off and while tasting dishes was fun, nothing was as fun as meeting all the wonderful people there. Thanks for making the 2008 Bake-Off a great one and – since I know that several of the contestants are readers of mine – a special thanks to everyone who tracked me down to say hi over the course of the event!

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6 Comments
  • Rhea
    April 15, 2008

    Gosh, until today, I didn’t know they still had the Pillsbury Bake-off.

  • Sally
    April 15, 2008

    Wow, I’m a little disappointed with the winning recipe. Is that cookie really worth a million dollars? I bet they would taste way better with your cookie dough any day. Hmm, maybe I should give this contest a try next year. I would have a hard time with the required ingredients though. Thanks for reporting all about the contest, it has been a good read.

  • Nicole
    April 15, 2008

    Thanks, Sally. I’m going to give the winning recipe a try two ways: as written and with homemade dough. Maybe one will really taste like a million dollars – we’ll see!

  • Roberta (Birdy)
    January 16, 2009

    I have done most of what I have wanted to do in life sence the diagnosis of Breast Cancer. I just have two things left on my
    list to do.Go to the Ellen show and dance with her and enter this contest. I have become quite the cook lets mix it up and look for me at 44th, Pillsbury Bake Off.(Ha) Thats the power of positive thinking, Ill be the happy Red-head who does nothing but smile, what can I say “life is good”.
    Sincerely;Birdy

    that cant stop smiling

  • pillsbury bake off
    April 22, 2008

    […] 43rd Annual Pillsbury Bake Off Winners! […]

  • […] 43rd Annual Pillsbury Bake Off Winners!After a fun day at the 43rd Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off, I couldn’t wait until I got to the awards ceremony this morning to see who had won. Fortunately, the ceremony started at 7:30 am central time and I didn’t have to wait for long … – […]

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