Of course you must have noticed. If you have been reading my blog regularly, you must have noticed that I haven’t done ANY pumpkin posts this year. In our home there used to be a pumpkin season. It would start when we would carve pumpkins out for Halloween, then roast the seeds for snacking on, and make the delicious butternut squash rolls that even kids love or make the curried butternut squash soup. But this year, we have done no such thing. In fact we haven’t made a single pumpkin related thing all fall.
But then Holidays are sort of incomplete without some pumpkin. And it was decided that we will make a pumpkin roll this Thanksgiving. It’s traditional, it’s elegant and it is quick to make. Since we had just returned from a long vacation and the fridge was empty and the pantry almost empty, it was time for a trip to the grocery store to stock up on things we would need to make our Holiday treats.
We made some pumpkin dinner rolls, the pumpkin roll and a lot of ginger cookies to share with our friends who had invited us to celebrate thanksgiving with them. And we made these really gooey chocolatey choco chip cookies with all that chocolate for the kids in the neighborhood.
I saved at least 2 hours of my time by shopping for the required grocery online and having it delivered. I also saved myself from the stressful holiday grocery shopping. The best part was I could order online looking at a recipe and knowing what ingredients I would need without having to make a list or hunting it in the aisles.
Pumpkin Roll – Let’s do pumpkin a little differently!
Ingredients
- 3 eggs separated
- 1 cup sugar divided
- 2/3 cup canned pumpkin
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cloves ground to powder
- pinch of teaspoon salt
- Filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar plus some more for dusting
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper and keep it aside.
- In a largish bowl, beat egg yolks until thick, add 1/2 cup sugar and pumpkin a little at a time beating on high until sugar is almost dissolved.
- In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining sugar, and keep whisking until stiff peaks form.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt; gently fold into pumpkin mixture. Fold in the egg whites. Spread onto previously prepared pan.
- Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cover the top with a slightly damp towel or two layers of damp paper towels for 10 minutes. Gently remove towels.
- Sift one tablespoon of confectioners sugar over the top of the cake and cover the cake with a thin flour sack towel.
- Invert the cake onto this thin towel. Gently peel back the parchment. Sift more confectioners sugar over the top of the cake . Roll the cake from the short end using the towel. Yes you will be rolling the cake and the towel together. Allow to cool completely.
- In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, maple syrup,confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Unroll the cake gently; spread filling evenly to within 1/2 in. of edges. Roll the cake up -only this time without the towel. Cover and freeze until firm. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home
