Posted by The Daily Record, MA on December 20, 2009 at 10:19:52:
Deel's 'O My Ganache' Cherry Macaroon Torte a contest finalist
By LYDIA GEHRING
WOOSTER -- Recipe contests have kind of become Dennis Deel's specialty.
The "White Whisker Cook," as Deel is otherwise known, has participated in quite a few cooking competitions, most notably a top 10 finish in the 2005 National Cornbread Cook-Off and a spot earlier this year on the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown.
But now Deel has come to one of his biggest challenges to date -- competing as one of the top 100 finalists in the one, the only, nationally-known Pillsbury Bake-Off, to take place in Orlando, Fla., April 11-12.
The grand prize winner of the contest will win $1,000,000, in addition to loads of specialty equipment from GE along with many other prizes.
Deel's recipe for "O My Ganache" Cherry Macaroon Torte was chosen from hundreds of submissions broken down into four categories -- Breakfast & Brunches; Entertaining Appetizers; Dinner Made Easy; and Sweet Treets, which is the class Deel's creation was put into. A winner will be chosen in each category and then the grand prize winner will be chosen from those category winners.
Of his recipe, which he came up with from scratch, Deel said he edited it down and cut out some of the steps before he submitted the final version to the Bake-Off. As to how he chose the recipe's name, he said he got the idea from a column he reads in USA Today.
"There's a column called OMG so that's where the 'O My Ganache' came from," Deel explained. "I entered this contest in April and I got called in September. Most contests take awhile, but this one takes especially longer."
Deel's recipe will not be made public until January, but he is permitted to give the four main ingredients -- Fisher Almonds, Pillsbury Refrigerated Sugar Cookie Dough, Hershey's Special Dark Mildly Sweet Chocolate Chips, and a local favorite, Smucker's Cherry Preserves.
"I've been telling my friends that it's an omen that the next Bake-Off winner would be from the home county of Smucker's," Deel said. "Smucker's owns the product line but General Mills still runs the Bake-Off."
During the four-hour contest on April 12, Deel will have to prepare his recipe in a kitchen where everything is provided for him, down to runners taking his dirty dishes away. When he submitted his recipe, he wasn't certain it would get chosen as a finalist but he was "really confidant it would get a second look."
"It cuts down on a torte recipe that would normally take about four hours to make," he said. "And for a home cook they (judges) wanted something less involved. I wanted to sort of make it a little bit easier to do."
One of the ingredients in the recipe, which Deel is not permitted to reveal at this time, is one that "some people really like and others don't like it at all," he said.
"But my knack is that I can balance flavors out really well."
To prepare for the Bake-Off, Deel said he's been practicing about once every week and a half. He said he's nervous about baking his creation in a room with 100 other people and what it's going to be like to not cook in his own kitchen.
"I'm going to take my earplugs and shut everything out," he said. "From what I understand, you walk onto the contest floor, go to your little spot and you start cooking."
If Deel is not chosen as a category winner, he will qualify for the GE Imagination At Work Award, given to the recipe judges choose as the most innovative. According to the Bake-Off Web site, whoever receives the award will receive a GE Profile Induction Free-Standing Range, plus $1,700 in additional GE Profile kitchen appliances, valued at about $5,000.
Living editor Lydia Gehring can be reached at 330-287-1655 or e-mail living@the-daily-record.com.
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