Don’t miss your chance to submit a recipe to the Tribune’s Holiday Cookie Contest
What’s better than the smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through your kitchen?
The bragging rights you’ll earn after winning the Tribune’s 37th annual Holiday Cookie Contest for impressing a few of Chicago’s best bakers. But don’t wait: Recipe submissions close Sunday at 11:59 p.m.
Noteworthy this year, we’re asking guest judges to help pick our winning recipes. Martin Sorge, Nirali Chauhan and Sarah Chang, Chicagoans who competed in “The Great American Baking Show,” are going to sample the 12 finalists in our test kitchen and narrow down the winning three.
If you’re lacking one of Grandma’s old recipes to dust off, that’s OK. We’re seeking dynamic and interesting sweets; biscotti, fudges, brownies and bars included. Roll up your sleeves and get creative in the kitchen!
Don’t forget to tell us a compelling story in the essay. We want to know the heart and soul behind your baking creation. Is it to commemorate a departed loved one? To share a part of your culture with friends and neighbors? Maybe, like 2012 contest winner Victoria Weisenberg, it’s how you wooed a potential beau.
Voting for the 12 finalists will begin Oct. 16, and readers can vote online at chicagotribune.com at chicagotribune.com/cookies2023 once a day for the recipes they want to compete for cash prizes for first, second and third place. After voting ends, the top 12 recipes (with an option to turn it into a baker’s dozen of finalists, should our team feel one recipe merits the addition) will be baked by Tribune staff for judging.
You can also find more sweet inspiration in our “Holiday Cookies” cookbook, which features winning cookie contest recipes of decades past, plus a few extras, here.
We’ll announce the winners online and in print after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Here’s how to enter:
To enter the Tribune’s 37th annual Holiday Cookie Contest, submit the cookie recipe — describing why it is special and how you developed the recipe — and a photo of the cookies below. Please limit descriptions to a maximum of 200 words or less.
Bakers can enter their recipes for consideration until 11:59 p.m. Oct. 15. Afterward, readers will vote on their favorites and narrow it down to 12 finalists. Tribune journalists will bake the finalists’ recipes and our judges will pick three winners. First place wins $250 ; second place, $150; third place, $50.
Find the recipes for last year’s cookie contest winners here.
(If you don’t see the entry form below, try refreshing the page or click here.)
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