Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens.
You’ll need to practice your best cookie recipe before you enter it in the Akron Beacon Journal’s holiday cookie recipe contest.
The contest kicks off today and we want your best recipes.
For the past few years, the Beacon Journal has been featuring a special section of holiday cookie recipes each December. This year’s section will print on Dec. 5, and we’re hoping to fill it with plenty of your family favorites.
Unlike a previous contest, when readers were asked to submit actual cookies for judging, this year all you need to do is to submit your favorite recipe.
We’ll whittle the entries down to a selection of semifinalists. Then we’ll turn those recipes over to chef Andy Mikuszewski and his hospitality management students at the University of Akron’s Summit College, who will bake them for our panel of judges to taste-test. The number of semifinalists will depend on the number of recipes entered.
When submitting a recipe, make sure you tell us a little bit about it. We want to know where the recipe came from, how long it’s been in your family and whether it has any special significance for your holiday celebrations.
Make sure that your recipe is well-written, too. You may have just a list of ingredients handwritten by Grandma, and you’ve made the cookie so many times you know just what to do. However, we’ll be looking for recipes that offer detailed instructions so anyone could pick them up and know how to proceed with baking.
Submit any kind of cookie you like — bar cookies, drop cookies, cutouts, no-bakes. Entries are limited to no more than three per person.
There will be small prizes for the winners, but mostly your reward will be the fame of having your cookie featured in our annual section. All winners will have their pictures included with their winning recipes, so don’t be camera shy.
You can email entries to labraham@thebeaconjournal.com with Cookie Contest in the subject line; mail entries to Cookie Contest, care of Lisa Abraham, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640; or drop them off at the front desk of the Beacon Journal office building at 44 E. Exchange St. in Akron.
No submissions will be accepted by phone.
Make sure to include your name, address and daytime phone number along with the recipe, if we need to contact you with a question. Recipes submitted without the proper contact information may not be considered.
Recipes will not be returned, so make sure you send us a copy, not your heirlooms.
All entries must be received by no later than noon Oct. 3.
Good luck!
Lisa Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or at labraham@thebeaconjournal.com. Find me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @akronfoodie or visit my blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/lisa.
