Arts & Entertainment

Sweet! Morton Grove Cook In Pillsbury Bake-Off

Arlene Erlbach is a semi-finalist in the Breakfast category in the Pillsbury Bake-Off; she was a finalist in 2012. We've got her recipe--and she needs your vote!


By Pam DeFiglio

Arlene Erlbach is no novice to the Pillsbury Bake-Off. She made it to the finalist round in 2012, baking her creation at a swanky Florida hotel where the national baking contest finals were being held.

So this year, she knew what to aim for: something easy to make, which uses non-exotic ingredients easily found in any grocery store. The ingredients can't be expensive, and the recipe has to use equipment most people already have.

"They grade them on taste, looks, creativity and consumer appeal," Erlbach said. "Consumer appeal means people will make this over and over."

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She entered 30 to 40 recipes in the three categories--entrees, breakfasts and the "desserts and appetizers" category. 

Pillsbury winnows down the tens of thousands of recipes they receive to 1,000, then test-bakes those to make sure the directions work, and selects about 100 semi-finalists.

That's where Erlbach's entry in the breakfast category, "Cranberry Orange Dark Chocolate Flatbread," stands. 

Now, this Morton Grove Library volunteer and retired elementary school teacher needs your vote. The deadline is Sept. 26 at 11:59 a.m. Central time. 

Click here to see Arlene's recipe for Cranberry Orange Dark Chocolate Flatbread. 

Click here to vote for Arlene's recipe in the Bake-Off.  IMPORTANT TIP: This reporter registered as a Pillsbury user and tried to vote using the Chrome browser. That didn't work, but using Mozilla Firefox worked perfectly.  If you use Internet Explorer,  Arlene's husband Herbert, a computer technology director, suggests the following: Select Tools, Internet Options, Delete, (Temporary Internet files, Cookies and Website data, history and download history).

Oh, did we mention the prize? It's a cool $1,000,000, with a second prize of $10,000 and a third prize of $5,000. 

"I'd give some to charity, and travel with my family," Arlene said. 

And probably buy a lot of Pillsbury products in the Morton Grove area.




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