In a twist on the reality series “Top Chef” on Bravo, the Cookie Monster and Elmo were treated to cookies on the Feb. 16 episode. Determined to seek out culinary talent in Saratoga, I devised my own challenge by asking three students to create baked goods of their choice.
Meet the competitors
The first contestant junior Megan Yen began cooking when she was around 7 as she helped her mother by doing basic activities like washing and chopping vegetables and beating eggs.
As she grew older, her mother trusted her with more work around the kitchen.
“In fourth grade, I got really interested in cooking when I started watching Food Network,” said Yen. “That’s where I started to explore cooking different things.”
Yen is currently the president of the school’s Culinary Club, which allows students to come together at ‘cooking nights’ to share ingredients and cook.
Second contestant sophomore Caroline Chou began cooking at 6 also by helping her mother. She enjoys using spices and herbs to make soups and cakes.
“I love experimenting with foods and finding combinations that go well together,” Chou said.
Third contestant senior Carolyne Kobara began cooking when she was 8 because she did not like the way her father cooked eggs.
Kobara works with her cooking partner, senior Benjamin Hoeber. “I invited him over to dinner a few times, and we both expressed an interest in cooking with each other,” Kobara said. “Then after a few tries, we decided it was a win arrangement.”
The Competition
One weekend, Yen, Chou and Kobara got together to have a friendly and competitive cook-off. Yen decided to make mini apple pies and asked her friends junior Jocelyn Takahashi and freshman Casey Takahashi to help her.
“It look a really long time,” Yen said. “For each of the [pies] we had to roll out individual circles.”
Chou wanted to use this challenge to allow herself to experiment with more food. She first baked a beet chocolate cake.
“I thought it tasted funny when it first came out, but I had it [one] morning for breakfast, and it wasn’t that bad,” she said.
Chou then decided to make a second dish—peanut butter banana bread.
“I wanted to mash something, and so I mashed bananas,” she explained.
She realized that she did not have butter left but found applesauce and peanut butter. Then she added some chopped chocolate to personalize her creation.
Kobara and Hoeber teamed up to bake a pumpkin cheesecake, a recipe for which they tried for the first time. Kobara, who has a gluten intolerance, used gluten-free gingersnaps and flour to match her needs.
“We were in the mood for cheesecake, and it is very visually appealing,” she said.
Judgment Time
Instead of judging myself, I employed the help of two fellow Falcon staff members, sophomores Jackie Gu and Ashwini Velchamy, in hopes of reaching an absolutely unbiased decision.
Both tried all three foods and ultimately ruled that they liked Kobara’s pumpkin cheesecake the best.
“The cheesecake part was soft and creamy, and the crust was delicious,” Gu said. “Overall it tasted like heaven, and I would eat the entire pie if I could.”
She added, however, that more pumpkin flavor would have been nice. The two offered critiques for each product. They thought that the mini apple pies looked appealing but tasted slightly bland. For the peanut butter banana bread, Velchamy enjoyed the strong flavor.
“It was a really nice blend of so many tastes,” she said.
Gu found the bread a little too sweet and advised that the banana and chocolate chunks be more uniformly distributed.
Overall, we all enjoyed having a quality mid-morning snack, and I realized it’s probably time for me to learn how to bake well.
____________________
Winning recipe: Pumpkin Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Crust:
2 cups finely crushed gluten-free gingersnaps
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Filling:
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 tablespoon gluten-free flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground gloves
24 oz softened cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Line bottom and sides of a 9″x13″ baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil, leaving an overhand on all sides. Set aside.
3. Crust: Blend cookies, sugar and cinnamon finely in a food processor; add pecans and butter and combine. Transfer crumb mixture into a prepared pan and press gently into bottom. Bake 12-15 minutes until fragrant and slightly firm.
4. Pumpkin batter: In a medium bowl, stir together the pumpkin, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until combined. Set aside.
5. Cream cheese batter: In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating at low speed after each addition just until combined.
6. Stir 1/3 of the cream cheese batter (about 1.5 cups) into the pumpkin batter until smooth. Pour remaining cream cheese batter over crust.
7.Place large spoonfuls of the pumpkin batter randomly over the cream cheese batter. Using the tip of a table knife or a thin metal spatula, gently swirl the two batters together. This should have a marbled look.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until center is just set.
9. Cool completely in a pan on a wire rack. Cover and chill for 4 to 24 hrs before lifting out of the pan and cutting into squares or bars. Store any uneaten bars in the fridge.
