Fair bake sale

By Kimberly Pistone

For the Sidney Daily News

SIDNEY – The Shelby County Fair Baked Goods Auction was held on Sunday, July 23. Each item auctioned was entered in the culinary contest at the fair and placed first in their category. At the auction, winners keep 95% of the bids, with 5% going to support the fair. The best 40 entries — ranging from traditional zucchini bread and traditional apple pie to homemade candies — were auctioned with bids beginning at $100.

Shelby County Commissioners Bob Guillozet, Tony Bornhorst and Julie Ehemann, along with Treasurer John Coffield, bought the grand champion cookies, rhubarb and pumpkin pies, and a lemon pound cake. Guillozet said they like to support the fair and joked, “It’s a good thing we aren’t paying for these by the calorie.”

This year’s grand champion was Sandy Pence in the ginger cookies category with her chewy ginger cookies with white chocolate drizzle. Other champion recipes included strawberry/rhubarb crumb pie by Joyce Russell, lemon blueberry streusel muffins by Teresa Esser, noodles by Tina Ike, caramels by Connie Snapp, and two recipes by Laura Schulze: apple pecan cinnamon rolls and butter pecan caramel filled chocolate cake.

This was the 49th year that auctioneer Dick Barhorst has participated in the Shelby County Fair Baked Goods Auction.

Additional winners include: Jana Bolton for coffee cake and creative choice peanut butter fudge; Maggie Burch for peanut butter fudge, creative choice chocolate fudge, traditional biscuits, and creative biscuits; Cole Carity for butterscotch-potato chip cookies; Ruth All Carity for creative apple pie; Darlene Clayton for one dozen buckeyes, Lynn Cook for one pound of peanut brittle; Tina Ike for creative berry pie; Vicki Kipker for oatmeal cookies; Jennifer Knouff for lemon cookies; Kelly Michael for traditional chocolate fudge; Kenzie Notestine for cinnamon cookies and white cake with specialty filling, with frosting choice; Sandy Pence for sugar cookies, pound cake; chiffon- sponge cake with choice of frosting; Joyce Russell with loaf of bread – traditional – whole wheat, traditional corn bread, creative muffins; Laura Schulze with peach pie and tea ring or six yeast rolls; Jill Smith for bar cookies; Connie Snapp for open top pecan pie, coconut cake with white frosting, nut cake with choice of frosting, traditional pumpkin pie, and one pound of hard tack; Ashley Wismar with traditional zucchini bread.

In the youth categories, Cole Carity and Connor Geise both won in the 5-12-year-old category; Kale Wiley and Riley Barhorst both won in the 13-17-year-old category.

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Chewy Ginger Cookies with White Chocolate Drizzle

Category: ginger cookies

Sandy Pence, champion

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup lightly packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup molasses

1 large egg, at room temperature

For rolling:

½ cup granulated sugar

For top:

6 ounces white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt and beat until combined.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about two to three minutes. Add the molasses and egg and beat until combined. Slowly beat in the flour mixture.

Place the remaining ½ cup sugar in a shallow dish. Using a spring loaded scoop, divide the dough into 1 ½ tablespoon sized balls and roll in the sugar before placing on the baking sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the tops are crackled.

Let cool on the baking sheets for five minutes before removing to cooling racks to cool completely. In a small microwavable bowl, melt chopped white chocolate and oil uncovered in 30-second increments, stirring until smooth. Be careful to not overheat. Drizzle each cooled cookie into melted chocolate. Place back on parchment until chocolate is set.

Apple Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

Category: Tea Ring or 6 yeast rolls

Laura Schulze, champion

Dough

¾ cup milk (warm)

1/3 cup better

1/3 cup oil

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

½ cup warm water

1 tablespoon yeast

4 cups flour

Mix yeast with warm water, set aside.

Combine rest of ingredients, then add yeast and enough flour to make soft dough. Let rise. Roll out and spread with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut up apple (2 cups) and sprinkle on top of dough, then sprinkle ½ cup pecans over apples. Roll up and slice dough, place in baking dish. Let rise until double in size, then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Icing

3 cups powdered sugar

½ cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Milk

Combinr ingredients using enough milk to make icing. Beat well, spread on rolls, then garnish with ¼ cup pecans.

Makes 8 – 12 rolls.

Strawberry/Rhubarb Crumb Pie

Category: strawberry rhubarb pie

Joyce Russell, champion

1 egg

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups rhubarb

2 cups strawberries

1 9-inch pie shell

Topping:

¾ cup flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup oats

½ cup cold butter, cubed

Pie crust:

4 cups plus 3 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 ½ cups shortening

½ cup cold water, add 1 tablespoon at a time.

Mix with fork, roll between wax paper.

Directions: Beat egg and mix sugar, flour and vanilla until well blended. Gently stir in rhubarb and strawberries. Pour into pie shell. For topping, in small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and oats; but in butter until crumble. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake 35 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on wire rack.

Butter pecan caramel filled chocolate cake

Laura Schulze, champion

Category: Chocolate cake with specialty filling with frosting choice

Cake:

3 cups sugar

2 ¾ cups flour

2 ¼ teaspoons soda

2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 ½ cups milk

¾ cup oil

3 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups boiling water

Combine dry ingredients. Add oil, milk, eggs and beat two minutes. Carefully add water and vanilla, stir. Fill 3 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until done. Cool completely.

Filling:

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup butter

¼ cup corn syrup

1 cup whipping cream

1 cup toasted pecans

½ teaspoon vanilla

Cook butter over medium heat until golden brown. Stir in sugar and corn syrup. Cook 2 minutes. Gradually stir in cream. Bring to boil, cook until thick. Add vanilla. Cool. Spread between layers of cake. Garnish top of cake.

Frosting:

2 sticks butter

1 1/3 cups cocoa

6 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt butter, add cocoa and stir. Add powdered sugar alternately with milk until desired spreading consistency. Place very thin layer of frosting between layers of cake, then add filling on top. Assemble cake and front with remaining frosting. Garnish with nuts.

Lemon Blueberry Streusel muffins

Teresa Esser, champion

Category: blueberry muffins

Muffins:

2 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup lemon yogurt

1 teaspoon lemon zest

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon soda

2 large eggs – lightly beaten

½ cup oil

1 cup fresh blueberries

Streusel topping:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup flour

2 tablespoons butter/margarine

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt. In separate bowl, combine eggs, yogurt, oil and lemon zest and mix well. Stir wet mixture into dry ingredients until moistened. Fold blueberries into batter. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups ¾ full.

For streusel, combine sugar and flour. Cut butter into mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon over each muffin.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to wire rack.

Noodles

Tina Ike, champion

Category: Noodles (1 quart bag)

3 eggs

½ – ¾ cup flour per egg

Pinch salt

Mix together till firm

Knead lightly

Roll out by hand or on pasta machine

Let dry until not sticky

Cut in strips

Dry overnight.

Caramels

Connie Snapp, champion

Category: caramels- one dozen

Melt 2 sticks of margarine. Add 2 ¼ cups packed brown sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt in heavy sauce pan. Stir until combined, then add 1 cup light corn syrup. Mix well, add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, stirring constantly. Continue cooking and stirring until 245 degrees on candy thermometer. Remove from heat and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix well and pour into 9-inch buttered pan. Let cool. Cut and wrap in waxed paper. Optional, roll caramel in pecans.