Thursday, August 13, 2015

2015 State Fair Round One Update - Cookies, Breads and Candy

The Fair is in full swing now and I have days where I can barely catch my breath, much less blog! However, since this is also my online diary, I know I will be glad I documented this next year. So, here it is...for me... and if you want to follow along, enjoy the ride.

Friday July 31th
All the candy, cookie, and bread items are due in by 4 pm on August 2nd. Turn in started today but I am not going to turn in any food items until Sunday. The Needle Art, Fine Art, and Photography Divisions just have turn in on Friday and Saturday and since I'm working tomorrow I went ahead and turned in my four crochet items - the baby afghan, infinity scarf, infant sweater, and child's dress that I had entered in the County Fair - and my two photographs, same ones from County, as well as G's three art entries.

Today was suppose to be candy day. I figured the baked goods won't be judged until Sunday night at the earliest or maybe on Monday so I didn't want to bake things too far ahead of time but candy will definitely stay good for much longer.

It was another hot and humid day. And then... our air conditioner died.

Making candy in the summertime is hard. Even harder when it's humid. Today was miserable. I started with English toffee. You have to cook it on the stovetop to 300 degrees. The first batch was a failure. I think I heated it up too quick and didn't stir enough. The butter and the sugar separated. I made it again and this time it didn't separate. I poured it out to set up and made my caramel corn.

This is my "go to" candy recipe. My co-workers call it crack corn. I should have been able to make it in my sleep. But... I overcooked the caramel and the first batch came out with the caramel tasting burnt... and it was sticky. With no air conditioning the whole house was humid. I have to cool the caramel corn out on my countertop. As soon as the caramel corn cooled, it started absorbing moisture and it felt sticky. Back to the drawing board. I made a second batch. This time, as soon as it was cool I put it all in airtight bags... and then I was DONE! I was hot and tired. I had a dehumidifier going in the kitchen that was generating even more heat as well as a fan. It was a PERFECT bread making environment. Unfortunately, I wasn't making bread that day.

Saturday August 1st
Got up at 6:30 am to start making my breads. I had three items on the agenda and I had to leave for work at 1:30 pm. I was giving myself around 2 hours for each bread with the rise times and all.

First up was Honey Oatmeal Bread. I wasn't going to do this again this year but then took a first with it last year so I entered again. Remember how hot it was yesterday? Well this morning it was cool. Too cool to proof bread in my SUV. Instead, my proofing oven today was my upstairs walk-in closet. Hottest place in the house right now.

Honey Oatmeal Bread went off without a hitch. I was actually really pleased with how pretty the loaf of bread came out. Probably the prettiest loaf I've made. Next up was Loaded Potato Rolls. My favorite bread recipe. I started them while the Honey Oatmeal Bread was on it's second rise. I then started the Pesto Bread while the Loaded Potato Rolls were on their second rise. The only hitch I ran into was that I had three trays of Loaded Potato Rolls. The rolls take 15 minutes to bake. I have enough oven space to bake all three trays at once but I didn't dare do it, because if there was some catastrophe, I'd ruin all the rolls at once and I really didn't have any time to spare. All the Loaded Potato Rolls came out beautifully.

So, rolls are done and I'm still waiting for my Pesto Bread to rise. I had two loaves and they were taking their own sweet time. I made the cookie dough for my Molasses Cookies and toasted the macadamia nuts for my Pineapple Iced Coconut Macadamia Cookies  while they were rising. I also cut the English toffee that was now set up. I'm not sure I'm happy with the toffee. It's a tad bit sticky. Finally, at 1 pm, I decided the Pesto Bread had to go in the oven or else I'd be late for work. I pulled them out at 1:30 and took off for work... first batch of caramel corn, extra English toffee and extra Loaded Potato Rolls in tow for my co-workers.

I got home at midnight. Then... I decided to try the English toffee AGAIN. It was cooler in the house now so I think my reasoning was that maybe it would turn out crisper. Problem was, I was tired and I was impatient. I couldn't wait for the mixture to reach 300 degrees. At 295 degrees I called it good, poured it, and went to bed.

Sunday August 2nd
Turn in day. Every year I tell myself I'm going to be organized and get everything done early so I can turn all my stuff in early in the day and go home and relax... and every year I end up feeling like I'm in some reality TV show, racing the clock to get my items done. This year was no exception.

First up was Honey Pecan Bars. I made sure the crust wasn't cracked this time before I poured the filling and everything looked good. I took the pan out, set it aside to cool, and made my peanut butter brownies.

Brownies used to be in the cookie category but this year they are their own category at the Fair. The section was subdivided into blondies, peanut butter, brownies with nuts, frosted brownies, unfrosted brownies, and caramel brownies and then there is a Best of Show award for the category. I settled on peanut butter brownies and wanted to make the ultimate peanut butter brownie. I had already practiced this recipe twice, tweaking it each time. My husband thought it needed a stronger peanut butter taste the first time so I used real fresh ground peanut butter the second time with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. This time around, I did the same but took out the chocolate chips and doubled the peanut butter chips. It also had chopped peanuts in it. I wanted this to be a very moist dense peanutty brownie so it's slightly on the underbaked side. Peanut butter brownies came out beautifully browned on top and I set them aside to cool and started in on my cookies.

My filled cookies were going to be a chocolate thumbprint cookie with a maraschino cherry in the middle sitting in a fudge sauce. The last time I had made these was during my Emergency Medicine residency in Michigan, so we're talking nearly 20 years ago. The recipe was from another friend who had come over one night to make cookies with me around Christmas time. I recalled that they were WONDERFUL! She had given me the recipe but then I misplaced that scrap of paper. I only rediscovered it this Spring while I was organizing my bookcase and was very excited I had found it again. So, long story short, it wasn't a new recipe but I hadn't made it in awhile.

Remember that saying "Don't try anything new on race day"? That goes for competition day too. These cookies did not turn out as expected. They spread like crazy, loosing the thumbprint that the cherry and fudge sat in. Crap. Now what. Think, think. OK, let's just put it in a mini-muffin pan to control the spread and try again. I tested a couple cookies. They stuck to the pan a bit but worked OK, however I knew then that this was not a competition quality cookie. I needed to move on. I shoved the whole mess in the refrigerator and made my molasses cookies.

Molasses cookies went off without a hitch. I only needed one tray of cookies to get the six I needed to turn in so I put the rest of the cookie dough back in the refrigerator and moved on to the coconut macadamia cookies. While the cookies were baking, I also started cutting the Honey Pecan Bars and Peanut Butter brownies to plate. Honey Pecan Bars came out OK. Peanut butter brownies were not cooked. OMG! Do I have time to remake these?  Do I just give up and work on this recipe for next year? No! I don't want to. Oh crap, I don't have any more peanut butter either.

I think the fresh peanut butter was runnier than the regular peanut butter. Plus, adding the peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts made the dough really heavy and, thus, probably needed a longer baking time. My husband was out running errands. I called and asked him to bring home a jar of chunky peanut butter. I told myself that if he was back by 1 pm, I'd try again.

Pineapple iced macadamia cookies turned out as expected. Now back to the chocolate maraschino cookie mess. I put the rest of the dough in the mini muffin pans and made then like that. They came out more the consistency of a brownie but, oh well...

I cut the English toffee I had made at midnight too. It was even chewier than the batch I'd made earlier on Friday so I decided to keep the first batch to turn in and put this batch in the "take to work with me" pile.

My husband showed up at exactly 1 pm. I remade the brownies using the jarred chunky peanut butter, eliminated the extra chopped peanuts, and cut back on the peanut butter chips. Go go go! Focus focus focus! They got in the oven at 1:25. Baked for 35 minutes. My original plan had been to leave the house by 2 pm at the latest. It usually takes me at least 45 minutes to get to the fairgrounds and then you have to park and there is usually a line with people trying to turn things in at the last minute.

Brownies were done at 2 pm but they were still warm. I threw them in the freezer to cool. Pulled them out 15 minutes later, cut and plated them, then loaded the car to go.

Ten items, ready to go.
Brownies were still warm so I didn't cover them until after I got to the fairgrounds.
 
 
Made it to the fairgrounds at 3:15 pm. Surprisingly, there was no line.
 
 
Thursday August 6th
The State Fair Open House was tonight. On the night before Opening Day the exhibitors get to take a sneak peek inside the Home and Family Arts building to see how they did. I really wanted a Sweepstakes/Best of Show Ribbon but I kept telling myself not to be disappointed if I didn't get one. I felt really good about my Loaded Potato Rolls, Honey Oatmeal Bread, and, surprisingly, the last minute Peanut Butter Brownies but the rest of my items just didn't feel great to me. So here's how I did...
 
Molasses Cookies - Fourth
 
Honey Pecan Bars - Third
 
Chocolate Maraschino Cookies - no placing
 
Pineapple Iced Coconut Macadamia - First
 
Peanut Butter Brownies - Third
 
Caramel Corn - First
 
English Toffee - no placing
 
Honey Oatmeal Bread - no placing
 
Pesto Bread - Second
 
Loaded Potato Rolls - First
Best of Show Yeast Rolls
 
 
Phew! Got at least one Best of Show this year so the monkey is off my back again. I have no idea why the Honey Oatmeal Bread didn't place. There must have been something really wrong with it. I'll have to wait and see the judging sheet. I noted that the peanut butter brownies that beat me were both chocolate brownies with peanut butter swirled in. Also noted that the bread that beat the Pesto Bread in the Herb Bread class took Best of Show for Yeast Breads so I guess getting beat by the best overall bread isn't bad. Winning Caramel Corn was a pleasant surprise. I was worried it was too sticky. And... I really do think I'm going to retire the Honey Oatmeal Bread and Honey Pecan Bars from competition this year and look for some new recipes in those categories.
 
 
Now it's time to move on to the Gold Medal Cookie Contest. More to come!
 
 



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