Three Penn College Students Selected for Final Raisin Bread Bake-Off

Three Pennsylvania College of Technology students are among nine college students from across the nation who were selected to compete in the final bake-off of the third annual America's Best Raisin Bread Contest.

Terri A. Smith, a baking and pastry arts student from Hatfield, created a recipe called Spiced Raisin Naan that was accepted for production in the Student Artisan category.

Kacy L. Charlesworth, a baking and pastry arts student from Mar Lin, will bake her Thanksgiving Raisin Bread recipe in the Student Commercial category.

Katrina M. Snelgrove, a baking and pastry arts student from Winchester, Va., will bake her Coconut Rum Raisin Bread in the Student Breakfast category.

Each of the finalists will receive an expenses-paid trip to the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kan., where they will bake their formulas in front of a panel of judges from the baking industry. Twenty-nine professional bakers will compete against each other in professional artisan, commercial and breakfast categories during the Oct. 14-16 event.

To qualify, entrants submitted formulas for raisin bakery products, along with color photographs of their finished loaves. Raisin breads were required to include a ratio of at least 50 percent raisin content to dry flour, while other raisin bakery products were required to include a minimum of 25 percent.

Following the bake-off, 12 winners from all six professional and student categories (three winners from each of the three professional categories and one from each of the student categories) will be selected based on their formulas' taste, appearance, originality and value.

Winners will receive a five-day California vacation with visits to the Culinary Institute of America, Yosemite National Park and the San Joaquin Valley the home of California raisins.

The America's Best Raisin Bread Contest is sponsored by the California Raisin Marketing Board, which represents nearly 3,000 growers of California raisins.

Penn College students were encouraged to enter recipes into the national competition after the California Raisin Marketing Board visited the campus last year with master baker Dominique Homo, who led students in a hands-on workshop and judged a raisin-bread recipe contest among the students.

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