Recipe Contest Winner Announced

Congratulations to Wolfgang Hanau whose winning recipe New York Style Rice Pudding was absolutely delicious. You're probably thinking, "What? Anyone can make rice pudding!" and we're here to tell you otherwise. The pudding was made with Jasmine rice and real vanilla beans — seeds and all — and after a long simmer, the result was creamy, smooth, delicious, authentic rice pudding and that's why it won our recipe contest.

The recipe was a breeze to make as is. If you want a non-dairy version, substitute Rice Milk for the Soy Dream and Soy Cream. Try making it with Erythritol; it's not quite as sweet as Xylitol, but this recipe doesn't need to be that sweet. These replacements will reduce the caloric, sugar and carbohydrate load of the recipe. Conversely, if you prefer dairy, then use heavy cream and milk in place of non-dairy liquids and pow! your rice pudding will be super-duper creamier than ever.

We enjoyed every recipe our fans sent in. Thank you to everyone. Each could have been a winner. In the end we narrowed it down, prepared the finalist's recipes and did a taste test with the office staff. We did consider nutritional profile, originality, ease of preparation and appearance — however, we ultimately chose Mr. Hanau's recipe because it was delicious and satisfied something in each of us.

What better way to start the day and get veggies into kid's tummies than with second place winner Barbara Wheeler's Carrot Zucchini Muffins. These muffins melt in your mouth and you'll want more. I followed this recipe to the letter and it was perfect. I would, however, sub in erythritol in place of xylitol — my preference, maybe yours?

Please watch for our next contest and submit your original creation using Emerald Forest Xylitol or Erythritol . . . and send us your results. Recipe submission automatically confers EFS the right to post recipes to our Web site.

Taste — Feel free to send us some goodies with your recipe submission!
Nutritional profile — Is it low cal? low carb? Does it use natural ingredients?
Originality of recipe — Recipe submission must be previously unpublished.
Ease of preparation — We know good food takes time to prepare, but two hours is too long!
Appearance of finished product — Send the real deal or a picture or trust us to visualize the end result!