Pillsbury: Best of the Bake-off Cookbook: 350 Recipes from America’s Favorite Cooking Contest Ex Libris

But the Bake-Off(r) Contest is about more than just baking. . . certainly dessert time has never been the same since the introduction of Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puffs, Chocolate Silk Pecan Pie and the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, which became a household name in 1966. The Bake-Off(r) is also about wonderful savory dishes, such as Cowboy Steak ‘n Veggie Soup, Grilled Chicken and Mango Corn Salad, Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie and the now-famous California Casserole, which captured the Grand Prize in 1956 and won its creator, Margaret Hatheway, a cook’s tour abroad, where she introduced this most American of dishes to chefs all across Europe.

Best of the Bake-Off(r) Cookbook is a sweet and savory record of how American cooking has evolved over the years, illustrating how home cooks have captured their ethnic heritages in dishes adapted from their grandparents’ countries to modern kitchens and busier times. The stories are as inspiring as the recipes themselves, from 1955 winner Rosemary Sport’s prize-a new pink range-which provided her family with the motivation to become proud new homeowners to 1996’s Grand Prize-winner, Kurt Wait, a single parent, who with the help of his son developed his $1 million-winning recipe Macadamia Fudge Torte.

Hundreds of the very best recipes are accompanied by enticing color photographs and organized by category: Soups, Sandwiches and Snacks; Main Dishes; Side Dishes and Salads; Breads; Sweet Rolls and Coffee Cakes; Cookies and Bars; Cakes and Tortes; Pies and Tarts; and Other Desserts. Each chapter is filled with personal profiles highlighting the people who created the recipes plus the wonderful and oftentimes humorous behind-the-scenes stories from the Bake-Off(r) Contest events: One contestant accidentally sat on her cake entry; another was notified that she was a lucky contestant via a citizens-band message broadcast by her town’s postmistress.

The recipes are sensational, the stories are uplifting. Best of the Bake-Off(r) Cookbook invites you into the kitchens and lives of the many people who over the years have made the Pillsbury Bake-Off(r) Contest the most loved, most respected showplace for this country’s home cooks.