Pumpkin Roll

Dipping my toes back into blogging post holidays. I'll catch up on holiday knitting a bit later. Tonight, I'm sharing my pumpkin roll recipe. I tend to take a pumpkin roll with me to most holiday gatherings and have received a lot of great feedback about them over the past several years. Enjoy!

Roll Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Filling Ingredients:
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
4 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

To Make Filling: Cut cream cheese into roughly inch squares. Place cream cheese in food processor evenly. Add butter and vanilla. Blend. Add powdered sugar by 1/4 cup increments, blending well after each addition. Set icing aside. (Note: Make sure to cut the cream cheese and place evenly in processor and add powdered sugar slowly or else the food processor may trip a breaker.)

To Make Roll:

1. In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar beating well. Add pumpkin, mixing until blended. I use my mixer for this step.
2. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Make sure all baking powder isn't clumpy, baking powder clumps taste nasty in a finished roll. Add to egg mixture gradually, mixing well.
3. Spread batter into a greased and wax paper lined jelly roll pan. I use a 12x17 inch jelly roll plan, but I don't spread it over the entire pan. Can use a smaller sized deep sided cookie sheet just fine, too. Shake pan vigorously to evenly distribute batter.
4. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Remove the cake and waxed paper and place upside down on a cooling rack.
5. Remove the waxed paper carefully. A sharp knife really helps with the hard to peel off sticky spots.
6. Roll the cake up in a tea towel fairly tightly so it will cool in its eventual shape starting with the shortest edge. Set aside and cool for 20-30 minutes.
7. Unroll cake and spread filling over cake and roll it back up.
8. Place the cake, seam side down on aluminum foil, wrap in foil and chill for at least 2 hours in fridge or placed directly in freezer if freezing for future use.

I usually set aside an entire day before the holidays and mass produce these rolls. They're pretty easy to set up in a more production line style. While one roll is in the oven, another batter can be started. Also, the cooling step in #6 can last longer than 30 minutes until you've completed the baking steps for all rolls you're making. Finally, if you wrap the roll very securely in aluminum foil, the pumpkin rolls can be frozen for a few weeks with no degrading of the taste or texture. The night before an event, I can take a roll out of the freezer and thaw it in the fridge. Happy baking!