Battle 12 - Semolina Flour and Pomegranate

We lost one competitor this week because of a conflict, but that’s okay. She was great and emailed us to let us know.

Other than that though the dishes all look great!

The Bake-Off Flunkie: Italian Pomegranate-Lime and Cheese Sweet Bread

Felice in the Kitchen: Pomegranate Semoule

NomNomNom Blog: Chocolate Semolina Cake with Pomegranate Vanilla Bean Sauce

Om-nom-nomnivore (Lazy Sumo): Harvest Tartlettes

Tasteful Tart: Yogurt Cake with Pomegranate Syrup

The judges for this battle are the winner from last battle, Ron from Chili Cheese Fries and the always snarky Michelle from Thursday Night Smackdown!

Be sure to check out all the posts and use the poll below to vote for your favorite! Check back on Thursday for the winner and results. Also, if you have the itch, sign up for battle 13 which will be announced next Wednesday!

Results

Ok! The results are in on Battle Semolina Flour and Pomegranate. This was our first all dessert battle so that’s kind of cool. On with the results!

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Michelle from Thursday Night Smackdown

MY WINNER: Tasteful Tart (+300), for managing to beautifully merge two things: a delicious looking baked-good, and an uncomfortably erotic description of pomegranates – which I don’t even like – that actually made me a little squirmy. I also really appreciated how the pomegranate was the star of the syrup, and the truly gorgeous photography; I also thought yogurt would bring a lovely tenderness to the gluten-ful semolina, and I love a simple but wonderful cake. But truly, I must doff my cap to one who can make me so acutely comfortable talking about fruit. Job well done!

That’s not to say that it was easy to pick – it wasn’t.

RUNNER UP: The Bake-Off Flunkie (+100): This entry was the most like a cheese danish. I love cheese danish. Therefore, hooray for this entry. If it were any other fruit, cheese danish would be enough to sway me utterly…but it was pomegranate, and the only thing I find creepier than pomegranate and pomegranate juice is pomegranate jelly. So it was an unfortunate act of ingredient that kept her from the victory; for that I apologize, but must remain steadfast in my decision.

And now the world knows my secret. Want something from me? Bring me a cheese danish.

Felice in the Kitchen: This semoule with pomi wine went down for its usage of the semolina flour. Even though I know a semoule is pudding-like, a creamy semolina-based dish makes me think of farina (look, I never said this made any sense), which makes me think of being forced to eat farina as a child, which makes me think of crying when I wasn’t allowed to leave the table without eating the farina, and recalling traumatic childhood moments does not a winner make. If you want a real reason, I enjoyed that the winner really stuck to the essence of the pomegranate without pairing it with another flavor or ingredient. Why ruin a good bottle of wine?

NomNomNom Blog: This was another close call, because even though the blogger didn’t try to awaken my dark passions with the description of pomegranate, there was cake, and it was chocolate and it looked moist and fudgy and like a thing I’d want to be eating right now. Again, I ultimately decided in favor of the pomegranate purist rather than the vanilla-pomegranate syrup used here. The syrup in this case also seemed like more of an afterthought, although I suppose that makes me look like a hypocrite. I’ll just say that the winning cake looked like it needed something, whereas these could be happy little stand-alones, unmarred by the wretched pomegranate.

Om-nom-nomnivore: You were funny. You were winning me over. You had little baked pockets of loveliness, which disguised the pomegranate to a far enough degree that I might have consumed them. There was frosting. And then you used the words “ta-tas,” “fun bags” and “boobs.” All words I hate, possibly more than the word “moist,” which I hate a LOT.

Maybe I’m a bad judge because I didn’t judge strictly on food criteria. Okay, I’m a bad judge. But you know what, I’m fine with that. Congrats, Tasteful Tart!

Ron from Chili Cheese Fries

If competing in foodie fights was difficult due to the level of competition, judging approaches upon the impossible for the same reason.

Since we can’t obviously taste the dishes I thought I would employ a rating system and rate each on the following: Quality of Post, Quality and Use of Pictures, Overall Eatablity (my new word!), Creativeness, and Use of the Key Ingredients. Guess what happened, a three way tie. Just great.

With all the said my winner is…

The Bake-Off Flunkie: Italian Pomegranate-Lime and Cheese Sweet Bread. (+300)

When it came down to it, these looked so delicious to me I wanted to bite my computer screen. I also really liked the post quality and the step-by-step approach that is oh so helpful when demonstrating anything to do with baking. The use of the key ingredients, in my opinion, was executed well. Specifically the cleaver creation of the Pomegranate-Lime Jelly. Congratulations on a job well done.

For my runner up…

Om-nom-nomnivore (Lazy Sumo): Harvest Tartlettes. (+100)

I found these tartlettes thingies very intriguing. A great application for the semolina and the filling looks fantastic. I mostly liked the uniqueness of the recipe and might have given this the win if topped with something a little more inventive than the frosting, even though I love cream cheese icing.

But they are all winners to me. Excellent post and recipes abound this week indeed. Tasteful Tart’s photography was nothing short of stunning. If you are not a professional photography, you should be. NomNomNom Blog’s chocolate cake looked so yummy and I applaud the use of agave to add a mild sweetness. And finally Felice in the Kitchen’s drink recipe looked very refreshing. Whew, judging such quality is exhausting. I need a drink.

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Final Results

Winner: : The Bake-Off Flunkie: Italian Pomegranate-Lime and Cheese Sweet Bread (300+100+31=431)

Runner Up: Tasteful Tart: Yogurt Cake with Pomegranate Syrup (300+12 = 312)

Om-nom-nomnivore (Lazy Sumo): Harvest Tartlettes (100+14 = 114)

Felice in the Kitchen: Pomegranate Semoule (48)

NomNomNom Blog: Chocolate Semolina Cake with Pomegranate Vanilla Bean Sauce (40)

Seriously these are some awesome desserts! Nice work everyone. Remember to sign up for the next battle if you think you can take the heat! The Hall of Fame wont be updated till this afternoon cause I’m a busy guy!