44th Pillsbury Bake-Off

I love to bake and try new recipes. I have tried entering the Southern Living Cook-off the last few years but I guess my recipes were not that great. That's okay. I've learned that you can't make everyone happy :)

But this does not prevent me from trying. I watched the Pillsbury Bake-Off on Food Network last year and so I couldn't wait for Pillsbury to start accepting new recipes. From what I've gathered, they do a Bake-Off every other year and accept new recipes to determine a winner during the off year. A peanut butter cookie won the 43rd Pillsbury Bake-Off. A peanut butter cookie! Here I've been brainstorming for something extraordinary and a peanut butter cookie take the $1 mil! I read some tips on winning. They suggest reviewing older recipes that can be updated with a twist. So I came up with a few and had my parents over to do some taste testing. I made something for 3 category: Appetizers, sweets and pizza. While they liked everything, we decided one of the cookie recipes would be good to enter. I can't post the recipe now because of the rules on Pillsbury, but I'll post it after the contest. It's super easy and yummy! The pizza was a take on Classic Cuban Sandwich. I called it Cubana Pizza. Here's how it went:

Cubana Pizza

• 1 roll Pillsbury pizza dough
• 1/4 cup honey mustard
• 1 cup of pre-cooked Roast Pork Au Jus, shredded (I used Hormel brand 17 oz pkg)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp fresh cilantro, chopped + extra for garnishing
• 1/4 lb deli ham thinly sliced
• 2 cups Swiss cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup dill pickle slices

Preheat oven to 400. Unroll pizza dough and stretch and shape to 11x14 size on cookie sheet. Spread honey mustard over dough to within 1" of all edges. In mixing bowl, add shredded pork, lime juice, red pepper flakes, cumin and cilantro; toss well and spread evenly over mustard. Layer ham over shredded pork in a single layer. Sprinkle cheese over entire pizza, covering ham completely (important or ham will burn during baking). Bake for 14-16 minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with pickles on the side.

It's pretty good but you have to like a Cuban sandwich.

Enjoy!