Pumpkin Cheesecake Pillow Popovers

These little "pillows" were such fun to make and so plump and cute, you just can't resist them. My only regret was I wanted more pumpkin! I always tend to stuff too much filling in recipes like this, so was more cautious this time and avoided having the pumpkin filling seep out all over the pillows and the pan.
The original recipe pictured them with both caramel and ice cream (can you imagine?), but really, they only need a sprinkle of powdered sugar and cinnamon. However, I did drizzle some caramel just for the presentation. The recipe makes 39 pillows, but if you don’t need that many, just halve it or even quarter it, which is what I did.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pillow Popovers
From Willow Bird Baking 

Ingredients:
4 cans crescent rolls
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
5/8 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
powdered sugar  and a little cinnamon mixed in for sprinkling

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray two mini muffin tins with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice, and beat to combine. Chill in the fridge while you prepare your dough.

Unroll one can of crescent baking sheet dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out to around 9 x 12 inches. You might have to seal the perforated edges by pinching them before rolling it out. This is not as easy as it looks, but you don't want it to separate. Cut it using a pizza cutter into 9 squares, roughly 3 x 4 inches each. Push the squares into wells of the mini muffin tins, skipping a well between each. Spoon a heaping spoonful of the pumpkin mixture into each well and pinch the corners of the dough together around it, twisting at the top to close. 

Bake for 10-14 minutes or until browned (let them get good and golden or they’ll still be doughy in the middle.) Remove from the oven and top with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Let them cool in the pan for around 5 minutes before serving.