Contest cooks and competitive home bakers got some good news yesterday. Pillsbury announced that their "Bake Off" is coming back! This is the original cooking competition, started in 1949 where hopefuls would MAIL in their entries. The original prize was $50,000, until the contest began to grow in 1996 and the prize grew to $1 MILLION!
Needless to say, bakers were truly saddened when the contest went from an annual event, to a bi-annual event, and then mysteriously disappeared in 2015 and 2016. But just yesterday, Pillsbury put out Facebook post saying that the Bake-Off was BACK, and that details would be coming out soon!
So, in light of this celebratory news, here's one of my for favorite "dough boy rejects." It wasn't good enough for Pillsbury, but my family and I sure thought it was fun and yummy!
Crescent Wrapped Margherita Egg Bake
Prep Time: 15 minutes / Cook Time: 20 minutes / Serving: 8 tomatoes
Ingredients:
1 pkg Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls (8 ct)
1 tablespoon butter (melted) or olive oil
8 medium vine ripened tomatoes
8 small eggs
1/2 cup(s) finely chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup(s) shredded mozzarella cheese
2 teaspoon(s) Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
Steps:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cut off the top 1/8 of the tomato and hollow out the interior using a melon baller or spoon. Discard the top, center and seeds. Pat the inside dry with a paper towel.
Crack and place 1 egg into the center of each of the tomatoes. You may need to spoon out just a bit of the egg whites if the tomato isn't big enough to hold the entire egg.
Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the eggs. Reserve about 2 tbsp. for garnish at the end.
Sprinkle basil evenly over the cheese on each of the stuffed tomatoes.
Lightly season each with 1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Unroll the crescent dough and place on a flat sheet. Separate each of the triangles.
Set one of the tomatoes on top of each of the triangles. Stretch the three ends of the crescent triangle out so they meet at the top of the tomato and twist around the center. Lay the twist on top of the tomato. Place all the wrapped tomatoes onto a non-stick cookie sheet.
Brush each of the wrapped tomatoes with the melted butter or olive oil, coating the tops and sides of the crescent dough.
Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the wrapped tomatoes.
Place in the oven on the center rack and bake at 350 degrees until the eggs are soft set and crescent dough is cooked through, about 20-25 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before serving.