Cool Whip Gift Basket Winner Revealed!

After a long, drawn-out process, we finally have a winner for the free Cool Whip gift basket. I whittled down the entries to five contenders, made four, and offered up three to a judging panel of eight people. Together we all sampled the goods, and after some discussion and debate, we decided upon one pie to rule them all. Results after the jump…

Here are some of the tasters, including Phamtastic (formerly known simply as Jenny). On photo duty was IndianJones. I’ll let his work speak for itself…

Here I am preparing the pie samples. As a reminder, we have Daner’s Turtle Pie, LynnB’s Chocolate Amaretto Crunch Pie, and Penny’s Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie.

Here’s the Amaretto pie, served with now-deflated whipped cream. Just because it was a little runny didn’t mean it tasted any less delicious.

IndianJones goes for the macro shot.

The Turtle Pie lies in wait.

I manage to utterly mangle the slice of apple pie. Not a great presentation.

Tasting the pie. So far so good.

I attack the Amaretto pie while Phamtastic has a love affair with the Turtle.

Ashton struggles to penetrate the pie crust.

As usual, I have stuffed my face.

Debate ensues.

Ashton appears to be bored.

I scrape some pieces off an empty plate. Soon, we have a winner.

The pies were all widely enjoyed by the group, but choosing the best one was a bit tricky. Some people knew right away which pies were their favorites. Others, like me, needed to ruminate. However, after much discussion and a round of voting, one humble, unexpected pie took the victory. And the winner is…

Wait for it…

WAIT FOR IT…

TURTLE!

SURPRIIIIISE!!!

Who would have thought Daner’s simple, unassuming Turtle would steal the victory? It was a close race for sure. Turtle had three votes, Amaretto had two, and Apple had one. There was one abstention, and the last vote was mine. I was 100% torn because I loved the flavors of the Amaretto and the sweetness of the Apple, but in the end, there was something just right about the Turtle. Plus, not only did it taste the best, but it was the simplest to make and had the least amount of butter.

As for the other two pies, I would recommend them both highly. Even though the Crunchy Caramel Apple came in third place vote-wise, I actually think it won the silver for me. The Amaretto was done in by the thick crust sadly, and if that truly is because I used a pie dish instead of a tart pan, then clearly therein lies the problem: it’s actually a tart, not a pie. Dunh dunh DUNH!

Either way, thank you all for your submissions. Daner, Penny, and LynnB: please email me at bsideblog at gmail dotcom. Daner gets the big prize but maybe I can wrangle some consolation items from Cool Whip too.

Here’s the winning recipe (followed by the runners up):

Chocolate Turtle Pie

3 eggs, beaten
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
3/4 cup milk chocolate morsels or semi-sweet chocolate morsels
Graham Pie Crust
Caramel ice cream topping

Directions

1. In medium bowl stir together eggs, sweetened condensed milk, margarine or butter and vanilla. Stir in pecans and chocolate morsels.

2. Place crust on baking sheet. Pour pecan mixture into crust. Bake on baking sheet at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 1 hour.

3. Drizzle with ice cream topping. Store in refrigerator.

Click here for the Chocolate Amaretto Crunch Pie

Click here for the Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie