Tag: best bread

Blue Ribbon Beer Bread

Say hello to this award winning Blue Ribbon Beer Bread. The recipe features the pilsner Wonderstuff, from Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis, along with cheddar cheese, rosemary, and honey. A thick slice of this bread solo or with a swipe of butter is pure bliss. It’s tender but hearty, and has a beautiful golden brown exterior.

The recipe comes from Cortney Carlson who won “best beer bread” with it at the 2021 Minnesota State Fair.

This was her first blue ribbon win ever! In fact, she had only competed one other time, in 2019 for a special sugar cookie competition. Cortney shared, “Nothing came of the submission, but it ignited my interest in competing.”

Her recipe is easy to follow and replicate. It also great starting point for variations. After tasting and loving Cortney’s Blue Ribbon Beer Bread, we tried a cheddar, chive, and jalapeño version. It was really good also.

Winner Q&A

We caught up with Cortney for a Q&A recently. Read on to learn about her backstory.

BRG: What can you tell us about your Blue Ribbon Beer Bread recipe and why you chose it?

Cortney: While you’d think most people just KNOW they are submitting their (insert favorite recipe here… sugar cookies, sourdough, etc.), I actually stumbled across mine. When the categories for baking categories were released, I scanned the list for something to jump out at me. I like to try new recipes, new areas of baking, new techniques… so I didn’t go into this with a plan or recipe.

Immediately beer bread jumped out at me. My experience with bread was virtually nonexistent, but all the breweries around town, especially coming from Northeast Minneapolis? Not so much a mystery to me (hehehe).

Knowing little about bread, I looked at dozens of different recipes. I looked for types of beer bread, what types of things people added to them, and then just dove in. I liked the idea of adding an herb…I tried different cheeses, different styles of beers, and went back to the drawing board the more I tried things (that’s a MN nice way of saying the first attempts were gross). Once I started researching the right things, things started clicking and here we are. I landed on the attached final recipe.

BRG: What do you think your secret to winning was?

Cortney: The only thing larger than the amount of foods on a stick at the Minnesota State Fair is the Minnesota pride that you can feel in the air the entire twelve days of the fair. My recipe included ingredients made or headquartered in Minnesota. From local beer, honey, and cheese, to Pillsbury flour and rosemary grown at home… every part of that bread was a nod to people (myself) who say “ope” several times a day.

BRG: What is the worst disaster you’ve had in the kitchen and how did you deal with it?

Cortney: I’ve experienced the most average disasters – burning things, undercooking things, messing up a recipe, missing key ingredients, etc. The thing I’ve learned about kitchen disasters is that while it’s so disappointing and frustrating that day, the greatest lessons I’ve learned in the kitchen have come from the time I did it wrong.

BRG: What advice would you give young people wanting to cook/bake more?

Cortney: Learn your staple dinners/desserts/contributions to potlucks, but don’t stay there. Try new areas of cooking. You like pie but have never made one? Try it. And know that you may not knock it out of the park the first try, but the more you try the more you will learn and can apply to the next recipe.

Great advice Cortney! Now everyone, get ready, set, and bake this bread!

-Cyndi

p.s. If you’re into breads, be sure to bake this blueberry winning recipe and this whole wheat winner.

Blue Ribbon Baking: Aspiring Bakers Make Creative Cakes, Cookies & More

Aspiring Bakers Win Accolades with Creative Cakes, Cookies, Breads & Pies

Minneapolis-St. Paul, August 26, 2021 – Baking competition winners fared well at the 2021 Minnesota State Fair with a variety of inspired recipes and perfectly prepared baked goods. The Blue Ribbon Group, the contest organizers behind this site and Blue Ribbon Foodies on Instagram and Facebook – sponsored a special baking contest series. They called for creative coconut cakes, drop-style cookies, banana breads, and fruit pies, and also arranged for $25 bonus prizes for select 1st place winners. This is blue ribbon baking, at its best.

This coconut cake with garam masala and tumeric was among the first place winners (pictured above). One winning cookie featured Chambourd liqueur and another had ginger, molasses and 100% pure cricket powder in it. Yes, cricket powder. A perfectly-baked pie combining strawberries and rhubarb won top honors also. Another stand-out was this Elvis-inspired Peanut Butter Bacon Banana Bread.

Here’s a list of all first, second, and third place winners in all four Blue Ribbon Baking contests. For a complete list of winners across all Creative Activities general baking classes and categories, click here. Also, stay tuned as we’ll share a sampling of winning recipes and how-to stories in the coming weeks. You can follow along by liking Blue Ribbon Foodies on Instagram and Facebook.

Best Coconut Cake Winners:

1^st Place: Maggie MacIntosh of Minneapolis for Coconut Curry Cake with Mango Filling

2^nd Place: Renee Janas-Johnson of Brooklyn Park for Coconut Orange Cake

3^rd Place: Mallory Leitinger of Aitkin for Coconut Raspberry Zinger Cake

Best Drop-Style Cookie:

1^st Place: Rachael Hood of St. Louis Park for Rachie’s Razzies (Chewy Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies)

2^nd Place: Kurt Zinda of Braham for Dark Smoked Candied Pecan Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies

3^rd Place: Gwen Benson of Minnetonka for Susan McNamara’s Sugar Cashew Cookies

Best Banana Bread Winners:

1^st Place: Karen Cope of Minneapolis for Elvis on a Stick (Peanut Butter Bacon Banana Bread)

2^nd Place: Catherine Young of Minnetonka for Peanut Butter & Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread

3^rd Place: Kent Kaiser of St. Paul for Alpha Sigma Banana Bread

Best Fruit Pie Winners:

1^st Place: Kathleen McCarron of Roseville for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2^nd Place: Fay Peterson of Apple Valley for A Fruit Special Pie (Blueberry Rhubarb Strawberry Pie)

3^rd Place: Randy Ferguson of Minneapolis for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

A special thank you to our Prize Partner, King Arthur Baking Company:

Sourdough Polish Rye Bread

This Sourdough Polish Rye Bread won first place at the Minnesota State Fair back in 2016. That tells you how delicious it was. We’re still thinking about it after all these years =) Caraway seeds and molasses flavor this rye bread to perfection.

Loving to Bake

Randy Bush created this best-ever bread recipe. His father was a baker, so naturally, Randy picked up his mad baking skills and carried on his love of bread. Randy was inspired to develop this particular bread when a friend – who was originally from Poland – said he missed the breads from home. He perfected the recipe. The response was so positive, he had to see how it would stack up against others who also baked as a hobby.

Bound for Blue Ribbon Glory

Randy entered his Sourdough Polish Rye Bread in the Minnesota State Fair ‘s annual baking competition, sometimes referred to as the unofficial baking Olympics of Minnesota. Well, Randy nailed it like an Olympic gymnast because the judges voted it #1. They noted how enticing the aroma was and how truly perfect the texture was. In other words, Randy’s home-baked bread was a home run.

Pro Tip

Plan accordingly if you’re going to replicate this award-winning recipe. Randy makes his mature rye starter over the course of a few weeks, by combining a tablespoon each of rye flour and water, and adding the same to that each day for at least two weeks. You will have enough to use, plus extra to keep maturing if needed.

Do you love bread baking? Do you want to further develop those baking skills honed during the pandemic? Give Randy’s Sourdough Polish Rye Bread recipe a go. One taste and you’ll know why its worth the time and effort. And if you’re looking for more blue ribbon breads, try these biscuits or this olive nut bread.

Enjoy,

Cyndi

Bake Your Best for the 2021 Minnesota State Fair

Calling all Blue Ribbon Foodies & Minnesota State Fair Lovers!!

Hit the kitchen and let’s bake together for the Great Minnesota Get-Back-Together! To celebrate the official return of our hometown Minnesota State Fair in 2021, the Blue Ribbon Group is sponsoring four special baking contests at the Minnesota State Fair including:

Best Banana Bread
Best Fruit Pie
Best Drop Cookie
Best Coconut Cake

Cash Prizes & Kudos

For this “Blue Ribbon Baking Day” at the fair, we’ve organized $175 in prizes for each competition, plus there will be special recognition for blue ribbon winners across several broader baking categories: Cookies, Cakes, Pies, and Breads. Don’t miss this treasured tradition that hundreds of Minnesotans take part in every year. You’ll rub elbows with like-minded home cooks and hobby bakers on “baking drop-off day” and once the fair opens see what wins in display cases throughout the Creative Activities Building. The experience is also a wonderful warm-up for the upcoming holiday baking season.

Special Thanks to our prize partner, King Arthur Baking Company.

Blue Ribbon Baking Contest Series: Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 9:30am – 1pm (Competitors: Sign Up by Aug 10, 4:30pm)

All registration goes through the Minnesota State Fair competition department. Registration is free! There’s also no obligation if you later can’t participate. Go to the Competitions/Creative Activities/Baked Products section at MNStateFair.org to sign up (under the Participants tab). Three quick-start tips:

Create your online account here
For step-by-step guidance, go here.
Sign up for the Competition Department email list here and be sure to choose “Creative Activities” as your email list.

Sign Up! *Registration is Closed; Stay Tuned for Follow-Up Posts ******************

Registration is open now. It closes August 10 at 4:30pm. No late registrations are allowed so don’t miss the deadline
Registration is FREE
You drop off your entry the Saturday before the fair opens, so it’s easy in, easy out. Drop off is 9:30am to 1pm on Saturday, August 21. You can even have a friend drop it off if you can’t make it
Open to Minnesota residents only

If you are on social media, be sure to follow BLUE RIBBBON FOODIES on Instagram or Facebook (or both =). Help us grow. Like and comment on what you see there. Save and share your favorite posts. Also, stay tuned here for inspiration and award-winning recipes from Minnesota and across the country.

Want to see all the official rules? Download them here.

Good luck. We’ll be cheering for you all!

Cyndi & Crystal (aka The Blue Ribbon Group & Blue Ribbon Foodies)