Major changes at Pillsbury Bake-Off

Is simpler better? That's the goal for recipes in this year's Pillsbury Bake-Off, which has launched major changes, not the least of which is the timing for entries. If this is your kind of competitive event, however, you will need a virtual spreadsheet to keep track of the rules (the need to "simplify" doesn't extend to the guidelines).

Regardless of the structure of the contest, the grand prize remains the same: $1 million (plus $10,000 in G.E. appliances).

It's worth noting that some of the classic winners of past Bake-Offs — Peanut Blossoms, among them — could never have been entered in this year's contest (see inside).

The changes in this year's contest:

• Three categories only: Amazing Doable Dinners, Simple Sweets and Starters, and Quick Rise and Shine Breakfast.

• Each category has a different entry period. The first — for the dinners category — has a deadline of Feb. 7; the sweets and starters runs from April 4 to May 9, and the breakfast category is July 4 to Aug. 8. (Among the changes, apparently, is less advance notification to the media.)

• For the first time, the public determines who the 100 finalists will be, based on entries narrowed down to 60 per category. Think of this as the "American Idol" of cooking contests. The public — that would be you — can vote on the recipes during a two-week period (for the first category, voting is open March 14-28). For more info, check out www.bakeoff.com, where you can also find all the rules. Voters will choose 33 finalists from the dinners and breakfast categories, and 34 from the sweets/starters category. The final judging will be by a panel of food experts.

• Each entry has to include two different ingredients from two provided lists (List A, Pillsbury products; List B, those of associated sponsors). Even more complicated, at least one item has to be from List A and the other from either List A or List B, and there is a designated amount of product that must be used in a recipe entry. (There goes that spreadsheet!) The Peanut Blossom — the winning cookie recipe from 1957 that has made it onto most holiday cookie platters — couldn't compete in this contest what with its nine significant original ingredients (2 tablespoons milk appear in the recipe these days, though not in the original form as it appears in "Pillsbury BEST 1000 Recipes," based on a 1959 cookbook).

• The event is held in the fall (Nov. 10-12) — unlike the longtime pattern of late winter, early spring competitions — and it's held only one year and seven-plus months after the last Bake-Off, changing the usual two-year cycle of the contest. Also new: the destination for the event is Las Vegas. In this case, what happens in Vegas will not stay there, as the recipes are intended to blanket U.S. kitchens.

Find out more details at www.bakeoff.com.