As a relatively new development in my life, I want things. Lots of expensive things - like granite counter tops, an organic mattress, and twelve children. Since I can’t have most of those things on a teacher’s salary I have decided to supplement my income… by winning recipe contests. This all started when I found out about the Pillsbury Bake Off in which the winner gets one million dollars just for creating delicious things to eat using Pillsbury products.
I did some research, made a chart of all the competitions, organized it by deadline, and made a shopping list.
The sad part is, that’s about the end of it. Most of these cooking competitions are sponsored by a company and therefore, part of the challenge is that you must use their product in your recipe. The Al Fresco Chicken Sausage Competition is a no go because the Al Fresco Chicken Sausage keeps getting scratched from the orders of all the Krogers in town. Lucky Leaf Pie Filling is not available within 100 miles of Louisville and Doctor Grandma’s Products are only sold in stores in Utah and Idaho.
So I compromised and bought a can of Kroger brand blueberry pie filling. I figured I could pretend it was Lucky Leaf and submit the recipe I invented anyway. Since it was pre-made pie filling (which I’m really not a fan of. Why wouldn’t you just make your own?) I was predisposed to ready-made ideas so I went for a can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. For attempt number one, I spread some brown sugar on the crescent roll dough, covered it in pie filling, and baked it. I also tried variations of this with the crescent roll rolled up, folded over, or squished, but no matter the shape, they were less than exciting. As I’d hoped, the brown sugar caramelized but I’m not a big fan of crescent rolls so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that putting together two things I don’t really like, even with a little brown sugar, does not produce a contest winning treat. It is probably for the best that I did not think to take any pictures of this first attempt.
The picture above is from my second attempt. I used pre-made pie crust instead of crescent rolls and added some chopped pecans to the filling for a little crunch. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream and two forks. This version was much better, though I have to say, I just don’t like canned pie filling. Next time I’m trying this with fresh blueberries and some maple syrup. It won’t qualify for this competition but I think it sounds delicious.
Pumpkin pancakes
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
¼ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ tsp of cloves
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1¾ cups milk
1 teaspoon of good vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
Use a measuring cup to pour the batter onto a hot skillet with a little butter.
I make my pancakes with about 1/4 of a cup of batter each. That gives you pancakes that are about 3-4 inches in diameter.
This recipe made me 27 pancakes. Next time I’ll only make half the recipe.
