Schuler’s employees pick county’s top cookie

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

By Nicole Patch

•1/2 cup of soft butter

•1/2 cup of peanut butter

•1/2 cup of sugar

•1/2 cup of brown sugar

•1 tsp. vanilla

•1 cup quick cooking oats

•1 egg

•3/4 cup flour

•1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

Filling

• 3 tbs. soft butter

• 1 cup of powdered sugar

• 1/2 cup of peanut butter

•2 1/2 tbs. whipping cream

In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, sugars and vanilla. Add the egg and beat well. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Add oatmeal and mix until incporporated. Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, press each down with fork. Bake 6-8 minutes.

To make filling: cream the filling ingredients until well-blended. Spread on to half of cooled cookies, then top with other half to for sandwhiches.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

The 23rd annual “best cookie in the county” contest was held at the Clark County Fair in the Arts in Crafts Building on Saturday afternoon.

Ed Kranz, who is in charge of the cookie contest and a former member of the Clark County Fair Board, has five unofficial judges taste the cookies each year.

But this year was different because employees of Schuler’s Bakery stepped in to judge.

“It gave me a chance to have an opening from judges who know nothing to judges who know something,” said Kranz.

“It was fantastic,” said Mike Peters, president of Schuler’s Bakery.

Schuler’s has sponsored the cookie contest for two years.

“We sell about 80,000 cookies per month and thought we should probably sponsor this,” said Peters.

Judges from Schuler’s are employees who have been working with the company for 31 years to employees who have been there for two years. Each sharing their expertise in baked goods to decide which cookie is the “best cookie in Clark County.”

This year, there were 25 cookie entries — some years have had as many as 43 — but only five would win.

The competing cookies ranged from bacon to chocolate chip.

The contest has three rounds. The first round has all 25 cookies. Then any cookie that has an “x” marked by the judges goes to round 2. The final round judges the remainder of the cookies until, finally, the judges make their decision.

This year, the winner was Nicole Patch for her peanut butter sandwich cookies, followed by:

Each winner received a plaque and a cash prize. The winner keeps half of the money and must choose a charity to receive the other half.

At the end of the judging all of the contestants can taste each other’s cookies and the public can taste them, too.

Kranz got the idea for the cookie contest when he was a member of the fair board and attending a fair convention when trying to come up with ideas.

“It’s just fun to talk to the people every year and it’s fun to see the winners,” said Kranz.