You may know Pillsbury for their giggly mascot, fun-to-break crescent cans, or highly necessary DIY cronut recipe. But for the past 65 years, the Doughboy has kept busy with yet another passion project: the million dollar Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest.
This year's contest is defined by entrants submitting original recipes with seven ingredients or less, with 100 finalists moving on to, well, the finals, this November in Nashville, Tenn. Oh yeah, and the winning recipe will win $1 million dollars. That's right, $1 million dollars with SIX zeroes.
We decided to round up our favorite Bake-Off Contest recipes from over the years, including -- brace yourselves -- strawberry and chocolate sugar cookie crepes, glazed bacon rollups and bacon egg breakfast bites. Best part? Yes, you can totally D them Y.
It's in the name: bacon and egg and breakfast. That alone should be enough to wake you up, but these darlings also feature whole crescent rounds nestled around slices of bacon and egg-washed tater tots. Ahem.
Warm dollops of a creamy cheese and spinach mixture top off these mini meat pies. Pro-tip: toss some spicy sausage or chorizo in there for a neat little kick.
It was in 1968 that Pillsbury first introduced its refrigerated fresh dough. It was also the year this recipe, named after the Doughboy AKA "Poppin' Fresh," came out. This recipe is simple, but classic: ground beef, barbecue and flaky biscuits topped with cheese. Try using mac & cheese over shredded beef for an instant upgrade to 2014.
Dare to dream. This recipe from Illinois swaps out your regular flour tortilla with a flattened out Pillsbury Grands! Homestyle Biscuit for quite possibly the flakiest, butteriest soft taco you ever did see.
It's almost summer, which means infinite barbecues, and endless opportunities to convince your guests to go back for seconds or thirds. And is there any better way than with potatoes and bacon? Didn't think so... and neither did the Bake-Off Judges, who crowned this recipe the $1 million grand prize winner at last year's contest.
The maple bacon combo is nothing new, but this recipe ups the ante as it's practically a maple bacon sweet roll, so, yes please. Surprise ingredients like Dijon mustard and sliced green onions provide an extra textured tang that sounds just crazy enough to work.
Part quesadilla, part empanada, this almost mash-up uses a refrigerated pie crust to house spicy chorizo chili, corn, chopped onions and pepper jack cheese. Party hearty.
More fun with fusion! Refrigerated pizza crusts wrap around panko or breaded shrimp dressed in hot pepper jelly, Sriracha and orange marmalade. Just call it a bougie pizza pocket.
Coffee is crack. Bacon is crack. Chocolate hazelnut spread is crack. A semifinalist in last year's contest, this mocha latte bacon Danish features all three. Strangely it didn't advance to the final round. No, we don't understand why either.
Mole? Ole! The homemade mole sauce adds a spicy punch to these burritos. Wrap it all in a flour tortilla for a Mexican inspired "concoction."
Damn Pillsbury, is there any bread you don't make? Featuring their refrigerated French crusty loaf, these mole pulled pork sandwiches use Jif Chocolate Flavored Hazelnut spread for the chocolate. Top the whole thing off with blue cheese cole slaw for a (nearly) instant bistro style lunch.
Waffle tacos are great and all, but for the little more health-conscious, consider trading out your maple syrup and egg product for feta cheese and kale. And made with flattened Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls, this is a total rethinking of the waffle sandwich. I'd drizzle some pesto all over this thing...
Do you prefer your sandwiches with bread buns or hash brown buns? If you answered the former, allow this recipe to prove to you why you're so, so wrong. The secret is in the bread crumb topping, which provides a crispy, dry surface to wrap your messy barbecue-y fingers around.
Take the makings of a Greek salad and transform them into a meal even meat-eaters can understand. These Greek quesadillas were finalists at the 41st Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest in 2004. Fun fact: Target-famous designer Isaac Mizrahi designed the finalists' aprons that year.
This is a quick, zesty party mix using, among other things, Bugles original corn snacks, Chex cereal, soy sauce and wasabi peas. Just make sure to give your guests fair enough warning about the wasabi peas' heat, and watch them refill their plates (and drinking glasses) again and again and again.
Winner of the $1 million dollar grand prize in 2010, this recipe is insanely simple, and just involves taking the Pillsbury Ready-to-Bake! sugar cookies and molding them in a muffin tin into the perfect pint sized ice cream cups.
Galettes are pretty much artisan-looking, free-form fruit tarts, which is nice when you think about all the extra imperfect crevices this caramel rum sauce gets to flow over.
Instant coffee-drowned cinnamon rolls make for the ultimate jittery indulgence. Pro-tip: don't feed this to children.
Have you ever had a ravioli made out of crescent dough? Neither had we, but after seeing this picture, can you really afford not to? Subtle, sweet nuttiness comes from all sides in the form of salted caramel whipped cream and pumpkin and pecans. Is it possible you're still not convinced? This recipe won the contest's $1 million grand prize in 2012.
Sugar cookie dough is fine on its own, but transforming the dough into a crepe? GET IN MY BELLY. Bring your strawberry and chocolate hazelnut friends.
Originally written by Dominique Zamora for Foodbeast.com