Holiday Cookie Contest winner experiments with flavors with great success
One might be tempted to attribute Joan Giesfeldt’s winning this year’s Holiday Cookie Contest at least in part to beginner’s luck but for one fact: She also took second place.
The Campbellsport resident clearly knows how to bake an exceptional cookie.
One bite of her winning Pecan PralineThumbprints, and the judging room was a chorus of “Mmms.” That impression held up in the final judging.
The buttery cookie, with ground pecans in the dough and a creamy-rich pecan praline filling, was adapted from a recipe in "Cookie Love" by Mindy Segal.
Meet the 2016 Holiday Cookie Contest winners
The cookie includes two kinds of salt, and both play a role.
“The kosher salt gives it a nice salt taste, not a heavy one, but with the sea salt you have a little extra note at the end,” she said. “And you should have that in a pecan praline.”
Giesfeldt’s second-place cookie, winner of the Bar None category — the deliciously layered Peanut Buttercup Bars — is prepared in a round tart pan. Once chilled, it’s cut into 24 slim wedges.
Rectangular bars are fine, she said, but for special occasions this makes for an attractive presentation. That recipe combined parts of recipes from Land O'Lakes and another source.
“I think this is a real simple recipe almost everyone can do,” she said. “If you just follow the directions step by step and keep refrigerating as you go, you will end up with a really nice tart. I can eat like a half a one.”
For her first- and second-place wins, Giesfeldt receives $200 and tickets to next year's Savor Milwaukee.
This may have been the first time Giesfeldt entered our contest, but she’s no stranger to recipe competitions. She’s been entering the Wisconsin State Fair for decades. In 2014, her toasted pecan shortbread sandwich cookie won the Gold Medal Flour competition here and then later at the national level.
She said she taught herself to bake.
“I watched a lot on TV when I was younger,” she said. “Martha Stewart, America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country. Anything that has to do with baking.
“Now, I’m trying to take recipes to the next level. I’m always trying to improve recipes. I enjoy trying to match and marry them to make cake or brownies or whatever better. I could do that all day.”
Lately, she’s begun experimenting, a la Medrich, with various flavored flours.
The former advertising account executive and assistant to suburban school superintendents works part time now as a bingo admissions clerk at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. She and her husband have a small “farmette” where they care for three llamas, which they shear to make various products: scarves, hats, gloves, afghans, etc.
Her busy life doesn’t leave her much time to bake. “I wish I could bake more than I do. When I do bake, I love it, I’m in my own world.”
Besides cookies and sometimes brownies, she also loves making poundcake. But when it comes to Christmas cookies, she typically makes just two or three kinds.
“My sister likes to bake a lot of cookies,” Giesfeldt said, “so I let her have the show.”
Her advice for fellow cookie bakers?
“Always use the best ingredients you can. I always have fresh flour, all fresh ingredients. Try to get the best chocolate, the best vanilla.
“And I think not overhandling your dough is important, too. You’ll see a nice difference in your cookie flavor.”
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