Cherry-Cream Cheese Crumb Cake Bombs

The Pillsbury Bake-Off is a cooking contest first held in 1949 as the "Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest." It was hosted in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Before contestants could prepare their recipes, electricians installed 100 oven stations in a Waldorf-Astoria ballroom (below). In order to power all those ovens, the hotel actually had to tap into the electrical supply for the New York City subway system!

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 for their signature cookbook with winning recipes. These two books pictured are from 1970-1971. At one point in time I owned both of these bools. Now they are collectors items found on E-Bay 

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." In 1969, Edna Walker from Minnesota won the grand prize for her Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puffs. The recipe was especially momentous because it was the first winning Bake-Off recipe to use a refrigerated dough product. Following the contest, so many people flocked to their grocery stores to buy Pillsbury crescent rolls that stores actually ran out!

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 own 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 20198 the winning recipes were published and I just had to try this one. 

Cherry Cream Cheese Crumb Cake Bombs

Winning recipe in the cozy Weekend Breakfast Category by Lauren Katz Ashburn, VA 

Cook's Notes: This recipe gets my vote for most creative use of ingredients and the cake bombs were certainly delicious but my, oh my, there were a lot of steps. 
Ingredients:
2 oz (from 8-oz package) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 can (12.4 oz) Pillsbury™ refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing (8 rolls)
3 tablespoons cherry preserves or jam
1 large egg
1 teaspoon water 

Directions:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees and spray 8 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray or use cupcake liners.
• In small bowl, stir cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. If needed add a drizzle of milk and set mixture aside.
• Separate dough into 8 rolls. Place remaining 1 tablespoon flour off to the side, on work surface. Dip cinnamon-coated side of each roll into flour; shake off excess. With cinnamon side up, press each roll into 3 1/2-inch round.

• Spoon 1 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture in center of each roll; top with 1 rounded teaspoon of the preserves. Bring edges of each roll up over filling; pinch edges tightly to seal. Place rolls, pinched side down, in muffin cups. Cooking tip: I rolled them into a ball and put in muffin tin. 

• In small bowl, beat egg and water with fork. Brush egg mixture over top of each roll.
• In another small bowl, using fork or pastry blender, mix melted butter, 4 tablespoons of the flour and the granulated sugar until mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

• Sprinkle 1 rounded tablespoon of the crumb topping on each roll; slightly press into dough.

• Bake 16 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove cake bombs from pan; place on cooling rack.
• Place icing from can into 1-quart resealable food-storage plastic bag; cut small hole in bottom corner of bag. Squeeze bag to drizzle icing over cake bombs. Let stand 5 minutes. Serve warm. Cooking tip: heat in microwave icing container and pour over cake bombs.