TBRG Holiday Recipe Exchange: Pumpkin Roll from Audrey Carlan

Ingredients:

• 3 Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2/3 cup Pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon Lemon juice
• 3/4 cup All-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking powder
• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• .
• Filling:
• 8 ounces Cream cheese — softened
• 4 tablespoons Butter — or margarine
• 1 cup Powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

Preparation:

In large bowl, combine eggs and sugar, beating with an electric mixer until thick and light yellow in color. Add pumpkin and lemon juice, mixing until blended.

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Add to egg mixture, mixing well. Spread batter into greased and waxed-paper lined 10-by-15-inch cookie sheet (or whatever is closest in size).

Bake at 350 ° for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool for 15 minutes. Place cake on clean tea towel sprinkled liberally with powdered sugar. Cool 10 minutes longer. From 10- inch side, roll cake up in towel. Set aside. (THIS IS IMPORTANT) Setting it aside rolled in the tea towel gives it the appropriate shape you want when you add the filling.

While cake is cooling in towel, prepare filling. Beat together cream cheese and butter; stir in powdered sugar and vanilla and blend until smooth.

Unroll cake. Evenly spread filling over cake. Roll up cake (without the towel). Wrap in plastic wrap. Cover and chill at least 1 hour. Slice before serving. Keep leftover slices refrigerated. This pumpkin roll freezes well.

I like to add more powdered sugar for presentation purposes once you’ve laid it out to serve.

Audrey Carlan’s story:

While eight months pregnant with my second son, I decided that Pumpkin Roll was by far the best thing I’d ever eaten. My girlfriend and I were both pregnant and our due dates were only four days apart. She is known for being a pretty gourmet cook and awesome baker. When I expressed my serious craving for non-stop pumpkin roll, she told me that we should just make some and freeze it. Then I could have it whenever I wanted. To my pregnant mind, this was an epic idea and the best thing I’d heard of since pizza dipped in ranch. So she came up with the attached recipe, brought everything we needed to my house (I cannot be mistaken for Betty Crocker and had NOTHING in the way baking items). Together, ginormously pregnant we went through the process of baking pumpkin rolls. It was not easy. This recipe though relatively simple has a lot of steps and takes time. Big preggos trying to maneuver around each other while baking enough for one prego to get her fix was entertaining to say the least. I remember when we finished them I’m pretty sure I had half of one completely eaten before it ever made it into the fridge to share.

After this experience, a week later, I had run out of pumpkin roll…a travesty! And unfortunately for everyone around me, I wanted pumpkin items nonstop! So I started baking like crazy. Got through baking four of these suckers but was forced to stop. You see, another girlfriend of mine came over to hang with me and she kept watching me. Turns out during the process of baking like mad, I’d went into labor but was ignoring it. Her having had 4 children of her own, noticed that I’d stop, take a few breaths sometimes clutch the counter, my round belly and continue on baking. She started getting really worried after an hour when they got closer together. You see I was three weeks from my due date which was not ideal. Finally she convinced me that it was no longer Braxton Hicks contractions and we went to the doctor. I delivered a 6 lb 10 oz baby boy the next night.

Crazy cravings equal mad pumpkin roll skills and a bouncing baby boy! Hopefully this recipe becomes something you add to your holiday fun making your own memories! Enjoy!