A Pillsbury Bake Off Recipe

The Pillsbury Bake-Off is a cooking contest and the first one was held in 1949 as the Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest. It was hosted in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Until 1994, the grand prize was $50,000 but since 1996, the grand prize has been $1,000,000. 
I got caught up in the Bake-Off in the 70's as I eagerly awaited each year their signature cookbook with winning recipes. The two books pictured above are from 1970-1971. At one point in time I owned both. 

As a result of the Bake-Off winning recipes, crescent rolls became a star. Surely you must have gotten swept up in what I term the crescent craze. Remember there were recipes in every category imaginable using the crescent roll. In the 70's and 80's and into the early 90's the crescent roll was often the star recipe at gatherings as we exchanged our innovative ways to use the crescent roll. I made rings, twists, rolls, bundles, braids, roll ups and the list goes on and on. 
The only required ingredient in the early contests was Pillsbury's BEST Flour. But as time passed over the decades my interest waned in the Bake-Off cookbooks. For me the winning recipes became too product specific, fewer ingredients and overall seemed lacking in creativity and flavor. 
Fast forward to 2015. When I'm thinking comfort food recipes I still rely on some good stand by ones from the early Bake-Off cookbooks.  Sour Cream Coffee Cake is one of those no fail trusty recipes. 

Cook's Notes: Recipe can be baked in a 13 x 9 pan or a 10 inch tube pan. Serves 14-16.
Coffee Cake:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. each baking powder and baking soda
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 cup lite sour cream 

Filling and Topping

• 1-1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped walnuts 
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 TB. melted butter
• 2 heaping tablespoons flour

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 pan of tube pan.
• In a large bowl beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
• Add vanilla and eggs mix well. 
• In a bowl sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately to sugar mixture beginning and ending with flour. 
• In a small bowl combine filling/topping ingredients. Mix well.
• Spread half of the batter in pan. Sprinkle batter with half of the filling/topping ingredients.  Repeat with batter and brown sugar mixture. 
• Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool upright pan on a wire rack.