The Facts About the Oldest Recipe Contest in the Nation

If you like to cook or bake and think that passion can maybe earn you some money, then the infamous Pillsbury Bake-Off is for you. It is one of the oldest cooking competitions and is currently hosting it's 44th annual contest. Originally it started out to promote the Pillsbury name and to see what item you could bake using a Pillsbury food product. Now it has grown into a huge competition that is known to novice cooks to chefs all over the world. There are many great stories of those who have entered this great contest like a Brevard County dessert distributor named Betty. She entered the contest along with other Brevard County dessert distributors that she worked with to come up with a winning pie recipe. After Betty entered her pie recipe that did not win, she continued to enter year after to year and loved the atmosphere of the baking competition.

The 44 year old Pillsbury Bake-Off contest has gotten so big that the winner of the Best Overall Recipe will win over one million dollars in cash and prizes. If you are one of the lucky 100 finalists to be chosen to compete in the final competition, the contest will provide you with the free trip to Orlando, Florida to do just that. Today the contest does not require you to use only a Pillsbury product but several other food labels and products are included as well. Things like Jif peanut butter, Eggland's best eggs or Green Giant vegetables are just some of the products that may have to be included in your original recipe. As long as you include two or more of the products in your recipe, then you are qualified to enter your recipe to the contest. There are four different categories that will be judged for the competition. The first is called Breakfast and Brunches and the second is called Entertaining Appetizers. The next category for recipes is called Dinner made Easy which is obviously different dinner entrees. And the last category in the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest is the dessert category and the most popular one is titled Sweet treats.

One past winner's recipe in the Bake-Off contest entered a recipe in the Appetizer category last year. She chose to use three of the required products to create Crescent Thumbprints. It was created by using crescent dough and putting them into a small muffin pan and filling it with gorgonzola cheese, chopped pecans, onion, apricot preserves, cream cheese and thyme. After baking these, the judges felt that this was an award winning recipe that should win for the appetizer category. Not only does the winner get a trip to compete in the final contest, but they win over a million dollars in prizes and also has their recipe published too. These are all things that continue to have the largest number of entries in any other cooking competition in the world. It is also the oldest running one having had its first one in 1949.