Bakin' for bucks: 100 home cooks compete for $1 million in Pillsbury Bake-off

After the excitement of competing in the Pillsbury Bake-off, 100 home cooks will probably never look at a tube of Poppin' Fresh dough in quite the same way.

Last week, Oprah Winfrey declared Sue Compton of Delanco, N.J., the grand-prize winner of the bake-off, held in Orlando, Fla., on April 12.

Compton won $1 million for her original recipe, Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups.

It sounds astounding: a million dollars for a simple recipe using ready-made cookie dough. But the country's most prestigious recipe contest isn't really about the most fancy recipe or culinary prowess. It's about creative ways to use General Mills and other sponsor products.

Although the two contestants from Utah didn't advance past the finals, both described it as an "unforgettable" experience.

Emily Harper of Orem said she had a surreal "Pride and Prejudice" moment when she walked onto the huge contest floor at 8 a.m. and saw the 100 mini-kitchens.

"I felt like Elizabeth Bennett when she sees Pemberly Manor; I was thinking am I really here?" said the 27-year-old college adviser and yoga teacher.

But by 10:45 a.m., Harper had already made three batches of her Pizza Pretzels, and onlookers eagerly lined up to taste them.

"My recipe is pretty fool-proof, so it went really fast," she said. "I got really great feedback on them."

Harper is an adviser in BYU's Bachelor of General Studies program, and she teaches yoga at Utah Valley University.

Harper said her husband, Hylan, suggested the recipe idea.

"I tried making it for dinner to see how to make it work. I made some minor adjustments the second time and called it good."

Harper's recipe was selected in an online challenge, where two recipes were paired up against each other. The visitor vote determined which recipe would end up in the finals.

Harper said she loves experimenting in the kitchen.

"Right now I'm very busy, so I'm more attracted to simple and easy," she said. "But when I have more time, I'm into doing things from scratch, such as baking my own bread and making pasta sauce."

Her advice for anyone who might enter the bake-off in the future is to check the websites (either Bakeoff.com or Pillsbury.com) to get an idea of what recipes the contest seeks and how the recipes are written.