Whoopie Pies, Macarons, Alfajores And Sandwich Cookies! Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker Seeks $25,000-Worthy Recipe For The Chocolate Adventure Contest 2012--Sandwich Cookie Edition

HERSHEY, Pa., Oct. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker and TuttiFoodie.com announce The Chocolate Adventure Contest 2012—Sandwich Cookie Edition, challenging bakers of all skill levels to create an original sandwich cookie recipe made with at least one Scharffen Berger® chocolate product and at least one of twelve Adventure Ingredients. Entries are accepted from October 1, 2012 through January 2, 2013.

"The Chocolate Adventure Contest is a real reflection of our chocolate makers' passion for traveling the world in search of the best cacao beans," said John Scharffenberger, co-founder of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker. "Chocolate lovers have the chance to embody this spirit of 'cacao hunting' adventure and create recipes using a unique set of ingredients that complement Scharffen Berger artisan chocolate."

The 2012 Adventure Ingredients, chosen to highlight the depths of flavors in Scharffen Berger extra-rich milk to extra-dark chocolate products and encourage sandwich cookie ingenuity, are as follows:

Banana
Cacao nibs
Coconut milk or coconut cream
Chili pepper (any type: fresh, whole-dried or ground)
Corn meal
Fresh ginger
Pine nut
Sumatra coffee
Sweet potato
Tapioca or tapioca flour
Tequila
Yerba mate tea

Entries will be judged based on creativity, taste, ease of preparation and whether the recipe reflects a spirit of adventure. The star-studded judging panel includes some of the country's foremost baking and chocolate experts: John Scharffenberger; Elizabeth Falkner, runner-up of the fourth season of The Next Iron Chef ; Alice Medrich, award-winning cookbook author and chocolate expert; Matt Armendariz, food photographer and owner of MattBites blog; and Angie Dudley, owner of Bakerella blog and creator and author of Cake Pops.

"Just a touch of originality can transform a traditional sandwich cookie into something really special," said Alice Medrich, who published the best-selling cookbook Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies. "There are infinite ways to recreate both the cookies and the fillings. A classic pairing of Chocolate Cookies with Butter Cream filling, for example, can turn into Cacao Nib Wafers stuffed with a Chili Pepper-infused Chocolate Ganache. This year's contest submissions should be exciting!" 

The Grand Prize-winning recipe will receive $25,000, and ten Culinary Honorees will take home a special Scharffen Berger chocolate engraved iPad. Prize recipients will also enjoy a custom selection of Scharffen Berger chocolate and signed copies of Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies and John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg's The Essence of Chocolate, signed by John Scharffenberger. The Grand Prize recipe will be featured on ChocolateAdventureContest.com, ScharffenBerger.com and TuttiFoodie.com. Winners will be announced in March 2013.

For additional information about The Chocolate Adventure Contest 2012—Sandwich Cookie Edition, please visit www.ChocolateAdventureContest.com.

Learn more about Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker at www.ScharffenBerger.com, and engage with an active community of bakers and chocolate enthusiasts on the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker page on Facebook or by following @ScharffenBerger on Twitter.

About Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker
Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker was established in 1997 in San Francisco, California, and first earned national recognition for its artisan-quality chocolate in 1998.  Producing bean to bar premium chocolates, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker is one of the world's finest chocolate makers.  All Scharffen Berger chocolate is composed of proprietary bean blends from up to nine different cacao-growing regions throughout the world.  Scharffen Berger chocolate has received recognition throughout the U.S. for its high quality chocolate. Scharffen Berger products are sold by retailers nationwide, at Scharffen Berger chocolate's own retail location in San Francisco and through its website www.ScharffenBerger.com.  Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker is part of the Artisan Confections Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hershey Company.  For more information, please visit www.ScharffenBerger.com.

About TuttiFoodie
TuttiFoodie is the guide for adventurous food and drink lovers nationwide who care about a sustainable world.  Each week, the site emails a brief, informative and witty tribute to an off-the-beaten-path food, drink, food-related book or blog, or culinary travel adventure. TuttiFoodie has been featured on NPR's Splendid Table, on popular foodie sites such as epicurious.com, chow.com, yumsugar and elsewhere.  The blogosphere tipped its hat to the site early on, with one San Francisco food blogger naming TuttiFoodie, "the Daily Candy of food."  For more information please visit www.TuttiFoodie.com.

SOURCE Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker