Pumpkin Roll

The best part about fall is obviously pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING! This is definitely my favorite ‘food season’….if there can be such a thing. Here’s one of my favorite fall recipes.

My recipe is a conglomeration of several other recipes. The first recipe I tried was not very descriptive and just left me very, very confused. I had never made any kind of roll before, nor had I seen one made. I had no idea you had to roll the dish towel up with the roll, coat everything in powdered sugar 5,000 more times than expected, let the roll cool for an hour before unrolling & filling it. I didn’t even know how to tell when the cake part was done, because it’s not like a normal cake. Needless to say, my first pumpkin roll didn’t win any beauty pageants. It still tasted good, but it looked more like a dump cake than a roll!

So….Matt & I did some research and watched a few youtube videos that helped me create my own pumpkin roll recipe with cream cheese filling. I’ll be very detailed (with more pictures than you probably need) so that you hopefully have a better first time experience with this than I did! Because it’s oh so worth it.

Roll Ingredients:

4.5 eggs
1.5 cup of sugar
1 cup pure pumpkin
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1.5 tsp ginger
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tbsp lemon juice
1.5 cup of flour

The original proportions I had were too thin for my half-size jelly roll pan (18″x13″), so I added another half of everything – which is the recipe you see above.

• Preheat oven to 375°
• Beat eggs, add sugar, pumpkin & lemon juice → mix well
• Add all other dry ingredients → mix well
• Grease jelly roll pan with coconut oil (or crisco), cover with wax paper, grease top of wax paper.

•  Pour mixture onto pan, smooth as best as you can with spatula (thicker on edges). Then hold sides of pan tightly & alternate between lightly shaking pan back & forth & gently hitting on counter to get a nice smooth finish.
• Place in oven for 15 minutes.
  
  

• While roll is cooking, generously coat a linen dish towel (I used flour sacks) with powdered sugar.
  
• Roll is done when ‘springy’ to the touch. Nothing should stick to your finger.

• Remove roll & immediately flip onto powdered dish towel.

• Remove wax paper. It should come off very easily with the amount of oil you used (like image on left). If it’s a little harder, just carefully roll away a little at a time (on right).
• Roll it up with the dish towel, place in fridge for 1 hour. I check mine at 50 minutes to see if it’s cool because you don’t want it to dry out.

• Make cream cheese filling while the roll is cooling.

Cream Cheese Filling Ingredients:

9 oz. cream cheese
1.5 cup powdered sugar
6 tbsp butter
1.5 tsp vanilla

• Mix everything together until it has a smooth & creamy consistency.
• Once roll is cool, you’ll carefully unroll it & spread the cream cheese on.
  
• Now roll it back up & gently squeeze it to move the cream cheese to the edges.

I trim off my edges because I think it looks prettier. And who’s going to complain about a free taste test? Not me!

Your roll will be coated in powdered sugar still, but it’ll eventually absorb in. I roll mine back up in a clean flour sack & place in an airtight container to keep it moist. Store in fridge & enjoy with a nice cup of coffee!

About the author

Cara Kramp

Lover of all things sweet…my husband, our twins +1, our adorable cocker spaniel, and Reese’s peanut butter cups. But I know none sweeter than the name of Jesus.