Cheesecake bars sweep cookie contest

They came in one by one Monday morning, cookies on trays, paper plates, a velvet box with a large gold bow. Cookies at 8:30 a.m., more at 9, 9:30, sometimes two batches at a time.

The annual Southeast Missourian Holiday Best cookie contest culminated Dec. 1 as the 11 finalists brought in their contestant and the five judges went to cookie town.

The cookie connoisseurs gathered at a conference table Monday to determine the best tasting cookie -- one they couldn't do without if they were stranded on a desert isle. This year's lucky judges were Susan McClanahan, Melissa and son Nolan McGuire, Joe Sullivan and Kit Doyle.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars won the vote this year, though the Lemon Basil Snaps and the Butterscrunch Shortbread were close second and third places. The cheesecake bars wowed judges. Topped with pecans, their shiny glaze dazzled at least one judge, while another's general remark on appearance was "staggering."

Winner Nancy Norlin, a newcomer to Cape Girardeau, said she clipped the recipe from The Oregonian, a Portland, Ore., newspaper she read when she lived there.

MELISSA McGUIREOften experiments with the oven.NOLAN McGUIREWill eat anything sweet.

"I'm a diabetic, but I love to bake," she said.

She's been baking Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars for about 15 years. Norlin said she collects recipes all the time.

"You should see my recipe file," she said.

What ultimately made this recipe a keeper was her son's reaction.

"He was about 13 when I first baked them. At that age they can be so finicky," Norlin said. He doesn't like pumpkin or pumpkin pie, but he loved the Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars.

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.comMelissa and Nolan McGuire

"The recipe attracted me because a lot of people don't like pumpkin pie but most people, when you mention cheesecake, start salivating," she said.

Judges seemed to like the cookie for the right amount of sweetness and the varying texture of creaminess and crumb topped with a whole pecan, which gets tossed in dark corn syrup for added shine.

Turn the page for the first-place Pumpkin Cheesecake Bar recipe, second-place Lemon Basil Snaps and third-place Butterscrunch Shortbread. The other finalist recipes follow in the section. All the submitted recipes can be found online at semissourian.com.