Chewy lemon bars earn Prospect Heights mom top baking honors

Lemon squares routinely rank as a baking sale favorite, and a Prospect Heights mom's coconutty take on this tart treat earned her Best of Show honors at the Daily Herald's Home Baking Challenge.

A panel of four judges, who tasted 40 entries in the competition held Nov. 6 at Novak & Parker in Mount Prospect, gave Laura Hill's lemon squares the highest score of the night. The judges - Baking Secrets columnist Annie Overboe, Gail Eisenberg of Gail's Brownies, Cindy Adams of Nothing Bundt cakes and myself - noted the sweet-tart balance, the well-baked crust and the unique texture of Hill's Lemon Shortbread Squared with Coconut. Lemon squares turned out to be the darling of the evening; rasberry-studded lemon bars submitted by Lisa Collin of Gurnee also landed in the top three of the evening.

In its second year, the Home Baking Challenge invites amateur bakers to submit recipes in 10 categories as determined by organizers of America's Baking and Sweet Show. The top baker in each category advances to judging at the national show that runs Friday to Sunday, Nov. 14 to 16, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg.

The other winners were: blueberry muffins, Susan Karoll of Oswego; biscotti, Lynda Macri of Streamwood; biscuits, Louis Margiotta of Streamwood; butterscotch brownies, Mary Kay Albamonte of Elgin; carrot cake, Nancy Nowaczek of Grayslake; coffee cake, Barbara Hallock of Elgin; oatmeal raisin cookies, Peggy Schwerman of Roselle; pumpkin pie, Nancy Heggem of Palatine; and sandwich cookies, Penny Simpson of Elmhurst.

Each of the 20 bakers invited to the competition received $30 in Wilton baking products; the winner of each category received a mini Bundt cake and newly released baking cookbook. For winning Best of Show, Hill also received a full-sized cake from Nothing Bundt cakes, a tin of Gail's Brownies and $100 worth of Wilton baking items.