Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook: Recipes from America's Favorite Cooking Contest [Hardcover]

Pillsbury Editors (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2008

"The newest $1 million Pillsbury Bake-Off? winner is..."

With that dramatic announcement, another talented amateur cook earns a place of honor in America's most prestigious culinary competition. Now, with Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off?Cookbook, you can discover for yourself just what it takes to be a Bake-Off? champion.

Inside, you'll find more than 400 Bake-Off? recipes that wowed the judges--and exemplify the nation's best, most creative home cooking over the last six decades. From 1951's French Silk Chocolate Pie to 2006's Baked Chicken and Spinach Stuffing, you get lots of great ideas for easy, crowd-pleasing family desserts and dinners. You may even discover the inspiration you need for your own $1 million Bake-Off? recipe!

For more great ideas visit pillsbury.com

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 53-year old Pillsbury Bake-Off competition is still America's most well-known and popular cooking contest. This newly revised volume sums up the accomplishments of talented amateurs, with nearly 400 recipes from past competitions, including recent prize-winning dishes. Lavishly illustrated with mouthwatering photographs, the volume shares a short history and general cooking tips, then delves into the recipes, themselves a portrait of American cooking over the past five decades. There's the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, which won the 1966 prize and put the Bundt cake pan into the home cook's kitchen; as well as Golden Sesame Loaves, a 1988 winner that reflects "the growing interest in more nutritious yeast breads in the 1980s." Covering all the usual recipe categories, from Main Dishes to the newly introduced Quick and Easy Main Meals, the book is especially strong in the baking arena, probably because in the contest's early years, the only qualifying ingredient was half a cup of flour. Now the list of possible qualifying products has lengthened considerably, allowing contestants to give full range to their imaginations. With small descriptions (including nutritional information) of each dish and many helpful hints and tips, the book is a useful general cookbook for any bookshelf-and of special appeal to chefs aspiring to the Bake-Off Crown.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Forty years of fiercely competitive cooking have made the Pillsbury Bake-Off the country's leading amateur cooking contest. Cooks eagerly train and try to impress judges and earn both fortune and fame. Purists complain that the Bake-Off too often promotes use of the sponsor's manufactured products, but a glance at the winning recipes shows a balanced selection of recipes. Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook brings together recipes from the contest's origins through 2002. Following the winning recipes from year to year shows how Italian and Mexican dishes have become utterly mainstream in American cooking. Cilantro, mango, white chocolate, oat bran--ingredients unheard of when the contest began--are now de rigueur in contemporary home recipes. And every one of the book's recipes now includes a rudimentary nutritional guide. One constant remains: America still has an insatiable sweet tooth, and the Tunnel of Fudge Cake that once took the country by storm continues to be an American favorite. Even youngsters enjoy perusing winning recipes to inspire their own contest entries. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (September 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470194421
• ISBN-13: 978-0470194423
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have!, November 21, 2004

By 

my2blues "Kim" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook: Recipes from America's Favorite Cooking Contest: Updated Edition with a New Quick & Easy Main Meals Chapter! (Random House Large Print) (Hardcover)

For any busy mom who likes to cook or bake this is a fantastic addition to your cookbook collection. From very simple and tasty recipes the kids will enjoy to luscious fun-to-make desserts that will become favorites. This cookbook is easy to read and has wonderful pictures as well. I love it!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bake with the Best!, June 4, 2006

By 

L Smith "acozylover" (Macomb, MI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook: Recipes from America's Favorite Cooking Contest (with a Quick & Easy Main Meals Chapter!) (Hardcover)

Paging through this cookbook is always a bit of an adventure and promises to yield a delicious dish for just about every occasion. Whether you are looking for a dessert (some of the best recipes in this book are for desserts) or for a main dish, there is something for everyone in this book.

Some of my family's favorites include Creamy Broccoli and Rice Soup, Savory Crescent Chicken Squares, and Ramen Vegetable Beef Stir-Fry. Our favorite goodies include Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies, Pecan Pie Surprise Bars, Raspberry Filled White Chocolate Bars, Caramel Apple Cake, Peanut Butter Crunch Cake, and Cookie Cheesecake Squares.

I have used this cookbook on many occasions and although I love the recipes, I wish that the book was in a binder instead of a hardcover book. Also, I tend to like cookbooks with more pictures, but I felt that the stories that were included about many of the winners was an excellent addition to this book. Overall, I highly enjoy trying many of these recipes and I feel it is an excellent addition to any cookbook collection.

Enjoy!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite cookbook, May 15, 2007

By 

L. Watson (TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook: Recipes from America's Favorite Cooking Contest (with a Quick & Easy Main Meals Chapter!) (Hardcover)

Our family likes to try new recipes often and this cookbook is my favorite for several reasons. There are lots of color pictures throughout the book. Every recipe I've tried has clear instructions and the food turned out the way it was suppose to each time. And the introduction explains that all the recipes in this book have all been tested in the pillsbury test kitchens and were good enough to compete in the Bake-off contest which gives me some confidence to spend the money on ingredients and try them out. Some of my family's favorites so far are Thai Curry Chicken and Vegetables, Sherried Mushroom Bisque, Chicken-Chile Stromboli, Cheddar Thyme Casserole Bread (Don't over heat the buttermilk), Smoked Turkey Quesadillas, and White Chocolate Raspberry Torte.