The Darknoon Kitchen: Pumpkin Roll

In the middle of September Miata Guy and I brew our annual Pumpkin Spice Ale. This particular ale calls for approximately 10lbs of caramelized pumpkin puree to be dumped into the wort. This year Miata Guy sent me to the store early in the brew to pick up more pumpkin puree. I could have sworn he said we needed 10 cans, while he swears he said he needed 4 more cans to make 10. Either way, we ended up with 16 cans, and to make things worse we only used 8 cans in the wort! With so many cans we began to explore different ways to bake and cook with pumpkin puree.

Curious to learn why I have never seen or tasted a homemade pumpkin roll before I set out to find a recipe and try my luck. On one of my trusted recipe websites I found a recipe that seemed relatively easy to make so I whipped up two rolls and sent each to a different location. Each location consisted of a unique set of what like to call my "guinea pigs." The results were astonishing. One roll never reached its final destination before being devoured by the transporters (no it wasn't Miata Guy or myself), while the second lasted 30 minutes against sleep deprived and overwhelmed veterinary students. People could not praise the roll enough! What? Personally, I thought it could use a touch more pumpkin pie spice, however I am still battling a runny nose. (Once my cold clears, I plan to make three more rolls one using the original recipe, one with an additional pumpkin pie spice, and one with adding cinnamon and nutmeg or allspice.)

Here's the recipe (Pumpkin Roll Cake)

My only suggestion thus far- The filling/icing recipe makes way more than you need even if you love lots of icing. I suggest to cut the recipe in half for a conservative amount of filling/icing, and cut the recipe to 1.5 if you prefer heaping amounts of filling/icing.

Step One- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line the bottom of a 11X17 inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper

Step Two- In a small bowl, mix together 3/4 cup flour, 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, and 1 teaspoon baking powder and set aside

Step Two- In a large bowl, beat 4 egg YOLKS until frothy then add 1/2 cup white sugar.

(Be patient, it takes some time)

Beat for 3-5 minutes before adding 2/3 cup canned pumpkin and the flour mixture

*Only use canned pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie mix!

Step Three- In a different bowl, beat 4 egg WHITES until frothy, then add 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and continue beating for about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup sugar, and beat until soft peaks form.

Step Four- Sprinkle 1/2 cup ground pecan over the egg white mixture and gentle fold in.

I tried to put pecan pieces into Miata Guy's coffee grinder and ops, I made pecan butter, HA! There was so much moisture, yeah yeah I know If I took a physics class : )

So I placed the pecan pieces in a plastic bag and beat the hell out of them with a meat tenderizer. Worked much better!

Step Five- Gently fold in yolk mixture into egg white mixture.

Step Six- Spread into prepared jelly roll pan and bake 20-25 minutes.

Step Seven- Remove cake from the oven and gently loosen the cake edges from the pan. Carefully, turn the cake onto a cooling rack lined with a kitchen towel. Let the cake cool 3-5 minutes before slowly removing the parchment paper.

Step Eight- Starting at the short end, roll the cake roll up..... yes.... with the kitchen towel! Let the cake cool completely on a drying rack.

The towel is acting like the filling so as the cake dries it does not stick to itself.

Step Nine- In a large bowl, beat 1 package (8oz) cream cheese (softened), 4 squares (1 oz each) white chocolate melted, 1/3 cup caramel ice cream topping, then gently fold in 6 cups thawed frozen whipped topping.