German Pancakes with Wine-y Strawberries

Have I ever mentioned that I am a big fan of dessert? No? Well let me clear the air – I am a big fan of dessert. I feel so liberated now. Whew. So, on to the german pancake. I have been eyeballing this treat for some time, but never gotten around to making it.There are SO many recipes out there. Some that are super simple with few ingredients, others that are multi-layered, therefore making something that should be simplistic complicated. It’s called a pancake for goodness sakes! I had a hankering for dessert one day and figured what better time to try one out than right now? But wait. I would totally need a topping of some sort. What a surprise – I had frozen chopped strawberries portioned out into 2 cup servings from when they were fresh and on sale. Ta-da! And I wanted them to be juicy and warm on my warm german pancake. So Wine-y Strawberries were born!

I found the german pancake recipe in one of the old church cookbooks from my Bubba’s collection that were saved and given to me. It was as simple sounding as I was looking for and fairly quick to whip up. I cheated and didn’t sift the flour or really measure out any of the other ingredients. It turned out to be delicous as is. I don’t know the name of the cookbook since the cover has long since been MIA. But it’s got some good old fashioned recipes in it. Along with some weird sounding ones that I wouldn’t feed to an enemy. The recipe makes 2 pancakes, but hubs and split one because I didn’t want to force myself to eat a whole one. He had the other one the next morning for breakfast. Said it tasted great all by itself at room temp and a day old.

This pancake is a nice canvas to add anything you want as a topping, from the sweet to the savory. Just omit the vanilla for a savory dish. It would be good topped with some goat cheese, spinach and artichokes. Mmmm.

German Pancake

Serves 2

adapted from an old church cookbook

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon sugar

2/3 cup milk

2/3 cup flour

2 tablespoons butter, divided

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a food processor or blender, add the eggs, salt and sugar and process/blend until a light yellow color. Add the milk, vanilla and flour and process/blend again until combined.

Grease 2 8 or 9 inch cake pans and divide the batter in between them. Add a tablespoon of butter to the center of the pancake.

Cook for 20 minutes. At 20 minutes, rotate your cake pans and turn down the oven to 350 degrees, cooking another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and plate up, topping with Wine-y Strawberries. You could also top these with some jam or preserves, fresh berries and whipped cream, or just eat them like a pancake and douse it in maple syrup.

Wine-y Strawberry Topping

2 cups frozen strawberries, chopped (if using fresh, see note)

2 tablespoons sweet read wine

1 tablespoon sugar

In a small saucepan, place the berries, wine and sugar, stirring to combine everything together. Over medium-high heat, cook the berries until the are bubbling and the juices & wine start to cook off and thicken a little. Turn off heat and place the hot berries on top of your german pancake. These would also be a good topping for regular pancakes or even a chocolate sheet cake. Yum!

Note: if using fresh berries, chop them and place them in a small bowl. Add the 1 tablespoon of sugar, stirring your berries to coat and let sit for 10-15 minutes. This will get the juices in your berries to come out, helping you increase your sauce to berry ratio. Then just add the juicy berries to your pan with your wine and cook as directed above.

Pumpkin Pie….Smoothie!

Ah pumpkin. And my new addiction to smoothies. Because they offer a sweet treat, without all those pesky calories that usually convert to fat that goes right to my ass, hips and thighs.

I love pumpkin pie, but let’s be honest – that crust is a killer when it comes to calories. And I just can’t bring myself to eat just the filling on a pumpkin pie, leaving behind the crust to be tossed or fed to birds. I blame my childhood. I was raised to clean my plate, and wasn’t permitted to leave the table until my plate was clean of all food. So, ya.

Since the fall starts the pumpkin food obsession in my house, I figured I needed a smoothie option. Hubs and I aren’t the only ones eating pumpkin. The chickens and ducks are enjoying a whole pumpkin. It’s helps keep them from getting bored when they are in their run, and it’s a great nutrient booster to their eggs! It will also supposedly help fend off intestinal parasites, which is always a good thing if you are a chicken. Plus, we’ll get nice orange yolks from all that pumpkin ingestion! Yay!

For us humans, pumpkin is also super beneficial. It’s loaded with fiber, so it’ helps you feel fuller longer, which in turns helps aid in weight loss. It contains beta-carotene, which helps our body prevent cancer, as well as help to keep us looking wrinkle free. 1 cup of pumpkin contains 564 milligrams of potassium, which is a great way to refuel after a workout. They also contain vitamin c, which can help ward off colds. Oh ya, and pumpkin tastes great, sweet and savory!

This recipe tastes decadent. The key is blending it for a longer period of time to get that creamy ice cream like richness without all the fat. Don’t get lazy and only blend it for a minute. Go for 2-3. It makes ALL the difference! For those calorie conscious folks, this recipe is only 114 calories per serving. If you were to drink the whole recipe, that’s still only 228 calories – and you will be so full I don’t think you’ll be ABLE to finish it!

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon molasses

1 gram of Stevia sweetener

1tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup non fat milk

1 cup ice

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until about double in size. You want to blend it for about 2-3 minutes. This will create lots of air bubbles and make the smoothie taste rich and creamy like a milkshake! Serve immediately and enjoy!

Double your fun dessert: Strawberry Cake Pie

Nope. You aren’t seeing things. The title of this dessert is in fact Strawberry Cake Pie. The bottom layer is cake which you bake in a pie pan. You then top it with strawberries that have been coated in sugar and let to sit and get juicy for a bit. Then…wait for it…you top it with lattice patterned pie crust. YES! It’s a delicious trick. Because it LOOKS like a strawberry pie. But cut into it and you’ve got that yummy cake layer that has soaked up the juices from the strawberries during round 2 of baking. Bliss.

Now, my crust job doesn’t look that fabulous…and I could totally try to blame it on the fact that I was making this dessert at 7am on the 4th of July. But I won’t. Because when it comes down to it, I don’t put a whole lot of time into making things look bakery quality fantastic. I don’t want to fuss and fret that I’ve made the fork pressed edges of the crust perfectly even and didn’t overlap the fork at all on the way around. So what if it doesn’t look like it’s ready for its glossy magazine cover spread. If it looks decent enough and tastes good, I’m a happy girl. I did use boxed cake mix and *gasp* store-bought pie crust due to time constraints. Next time, I’ll double the strawberries and do homemade pie crust. Skip the lattice top and just use mini cookie cutters to let the berries show through. Whether you make it with from scratch ingredients or punk out and use store bought, it’s still a crowd pleasing dessert. I can see making it with apples in the future…or a blackberry top. Yum.

Strawberry Cake Pie

adapted from Food Network Magazine  July/August 2012

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1lb strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced
• 1/4 cup sugar + 1-2 teaspoons for sprinkling crust
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 2 rolls of refrigerated pie dough (or homemade)
• Flour for dusting
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9in pie plate. In a medium bowl, add cake mix, eggs, water, oil & vanilla. Beat for 2-3 minutes until all ingredients are combined and no large lumps remain. Pour all of the batter into your greased pie plate (or ¾ full) and bake for 25 minutes, until the edges are set and the center is slightly wobbly. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.

While your cake is baking, make the strawberry filling – in a small bowl combine the strawberries, ¼ cup sugar and pinch of salt. Stir to coat and let sit for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle cutting board with flour. Unroll your pie dough and slice into 1in strips and set aside.

Drain your strawberries and top your slightly cooled cake with them, pressing into the cake as you add them. Increase your oven temp to 450 degrees.

You will now top your strawberries with the strips of pie dough, spacing 1in apart. To create a lattice design, lift every other horizontal strip and place a strip of crust vertically. Lay down lifted strips and continue in an alternating pattern. To make the edges of the crust, use the leftover pieces, pressing the ends together to bind them. Use a fork to press the edges. Brush crust with the butter and sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes in your 450 degree oven.

Let cool and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Recipe Test: Joy the Baker’s Strawberry Upside Down Cake

I love Joy. From her wittiness in her posts to her down to earth recipes with a little twist. When I saw her post a recipe for a Strawberry Upside Down Cake, well I was just smitten. And HAD to make it ASAP. So I did. It was FANTASTIC. Really. I followed her recipe with the exception that I did not use any Cardomom, because I didn’t have any to use. I increased the amount of vanilla in mine from 1 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons. Also, I increased the brown sugar from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup for the topping. It turned out wonderfully. Took it to a cookout and shared it with family and friends. They very much enjoyed it. It was very easy to make and took only a small amount of time to whip up.

I’m noticing an obsessive pattern here with me and strawberries lately. I can’t help it! Every sweet treat I make has these ruby red beauties and the fruit portion. I may need an intervention.

These photos below were taken just after it was freshly popped out of the pan. The strawberries didn’t stay that bright red. Once they are exposed to the air and cool down they turn from bright red to a dark shade of mauve. Don’t worry. This happens with all recipes that cook strawberries. They can’t keep that brightness once all the juices soak into the cake. So don’t worry if yours goes from BLAM! Bright Red to Meh Mauve. It will still taste fantastic. I promise.

Get the recipe HERE, straight from Joy. Drool over my pictures. Ya. That’s right. You know you want a piece of this cake. I sure want another one.

Hope & a Strawberry ShortCake PanCake

Heidi, a fellow blogger over at Lightly Crunchy, has tagged me in a blog relay to write about the subject of hope. What better time to write about it than now?

What better place to start than with the definition of hope?

hope/hōp/

Noun:

A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

* I hope that my garden does well because I am so looking forward to using my pressure canner to can pasta sauce for the first time (now that I’ve gotten over my fear of it exploding, covering myself and every kitchen surface in molten hot food lava)

* I hope my chickens start laying some eggs soon, because buying them from the store is for the birds. badum-bum. I’ll be here all night.

* I hope that I am able to find the motivation to get myself back into the swing of exercising so that I can lose that 10lbs of fat from overindulging in homemade beer. Whoops.

* I hope that the hubs and I can take a long weekend soon just to kick back and relax and not worry about having to DO anything!

* I hope that my dad being home on the one year anniversary of my mom’s passing helps to make it a less heart wrenching experience.

* I hope that my blog inspires other to cook, craft, and make as many things from scratch as they can.

I think that hope means different things to different people. That having hope makes you feel a little less lost out in this great big crazy world. That hope brings people together, just like food does.

I hope that you enjoy this Seasoned with Sarcasm original as much as I do.

Strawberry ShortCake PanCake

serves 6

1 box white cake mix

2 cups frozen strawberries, chopped (do NOT drain the juices from them) *see note

1 egg

1 1/2 cups water

1 tablespoon vanilla

powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 9 inch round cake pans. In a medium bowl, add cake mix, strawberries & juices, egg, water & vanilla and mix until no large lumps of cake mix remain. Split the batter between the two cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick pierced in the center comes out clean. Let cool to room temp and dust with powdered sugar. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, or all by itself.

Note: If you are using fresh berries, chop them up and then place them in a bowl with a teaspoon of sugar. Let them sit for 15-30 minutes until you see them getting nice and juicy. You don’t want to skip the strawberry juice portion because it gives the cake a really nice well-rounded strawberry flavor and helps with the moisture. If using frozen berries, chop them up and make sure they are totally thawed. Once you chop them up and let them defrost there will a nice juicy puddle in with them.

And now it’s my turn to pass the torch to 3 fellow bloggers.

The Food and Wine Hedonist – because his posts are witty, funny, and down to earth.

Bonnie, over at Recipes Happen – she’s a new wife finding her way around the kitchen getting creative and crafty, willing to try new things.

Emily, also known as Yinzerella over at Dinner is Served 1972 – I love her wit, sarcasm, and the fact that she is on a mission to work and eat her way through all the DiS recipe cards. No matter how weird the recipes are!

 

The DIY Life: Chocolate Cherry Coconut Granola

Wow. That is a mouthful – Chocolate Cherry Coconut Granola. A mouthful that you want to eat again. And again. And AGAIN! I love granola. Especially in my yogurt. It’s filling, it’s healthy, it reminds me of being a kid. What I don’t like? The high price to purchase it at the grocery store. Blech. I also don’t like having big chunks of the stuff to eat. It makes me feel like a hog shoveling a huge hunk of yogurt covered granola into my face in public. Plus, let’s face it. Your flavor options are limited when it comes to what’s out there. So I decided to concoct my own recipe. This yields a lot of granola, so feel free to cut the recipe in half if you don’t think you will eat it all. My recommendation is to make the whole batch and share it. I gave some to a couple of friends so they could try out the fabulousness that is this recipe. I think this will quickly become one of my favorites when whipping up a batch of granola.

If you are fan of the chunks of granola clustered together, double the amount of oil in the recipe. Don’t have coconut oil on hand? Substitute olive oil, sunflower oil, whatever your heart desires. I chose coconut because it’s good for you and I have a tub on hand. Please just don’t use canola or vegetable oil. Are you a total chocoholic? I find the chocolate flavor of this to be just right for me with the combo of the cocoa powder and dark chocolate almonds, but if you want it REALLY chocolate laden then add another tablespoon of cocoa powder. I wanted the other ingredients to be able to be tasted so I only used 1 tablespoon. It’s totally adaptable!

And since you’ve gone to the trouble of making your own granola, why not make your own Vanilla Bean Yogurt to eat up with it? Mhmmm.

Chocolate Cherry Coconut Granola

4 cups quick cooking oats

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

1-2 cups unsweetened organic coconut flakes (depending on how much you like coconut)

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 5oz bag cherry craisins

2 1/2 cups Blue Diamond dark chocolate almonds, pulsed a couple times in the food processor

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat. In a large bowl, add your oats, brown sugar, coconut, coconut oil, salt and cocoa powder. Stir to combine and no lumps remain. Pour your mixture onto your prepped baking sheet and place in your preheated oven. Bake for 1 hour, stirring oat mixture about every 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for about 15 minutes. Add mixture to a large bowl, then add almonds and cherry craisins. Stir to combine.

Once mixture has completely cooled, store in mason jars or other air tight containers and enjoy! Stored this way it should last you awhile. Exactly how long I have no idea because it doesn’t last long enough to go stale. This is fantastic on my Vanilla Bean Yogurt. I had a friend who enjoyed it on some vanilla bean ice cream as well. Or, you can just eat it straight out of the container. Whatever your heart desires! 

Campin’ in the Kitchen – Campfire Biscuit S’mores

Have I ever mentioned my love of s’mores? No? Well, I love me some s’mores, in all their melty chocolate, gooey marshmallow messy goodness. They go hand in hand with campfires and camping…and even the upcoming 4th of July holiday! But why should we only enjoy them in certain situations? And why should we have to enjoy them only outdoors??? We shouldn’t. So now when I have a hankerin’ for a s’more, I think this will be my indoor twist. I found it in my Food & Wine magazine. I’m not going to lie. This is the first recipe I’ve seen in the magazine that made me want to make it. Don’t get me wrong – the photos are beautiful, they have great articles on where to go when you’re in a certain place, but for me, their recipes are not up my alley. But s’mores? Those are something I can get behind. There was actually a whole great article called “Campfire Cuisine” that featured a host of camping friendly recipes to help make the experience a little more gourmet. Without breaking the bank on ingredients or causing you to have to purchase hard to find items. If you get a chance, check it out.

This recipe is my adaptation, and will provide dessert for 2. I was on the fence about the jam (the original recipe called for raspberry) but it takes your standard s’more to the next level. Try to use homemade jam if at all possible. I cheated and used store bought marshmallows, but will be whipping up a batch of homemade  to try out so everything in the recipe is from scratch good.

Next time I have a cookout, I may make a bunch of these up as dessert. Everyone can grill or roast their own marshmallows and I’ll provide the biscuits.

Campfire Biscuit S’mores

adapted from Food & Wine June 2012

¾ cup Quick Biscuit Mix (recipe below)

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ cup water

½ cup chocolate chips

1 tablespoon butter

4 tablespoons strawberry jam (homemade is best)

4 marshmallows

Marshmallow fork

In a small bowl, combine the biscuit mix, sugar, water and chocolate chips. The batter should be thicker than a pancake batter.

Preheat a skillet and add the butter. Once the butter is melted, spread it around the pan and reduce flame to medium-low. Scoop the batter into the pan in 4 mounds, spreading it out in a circle to form little pancake like biscuits, 3-4 inches in diameter. Cook for 2 minutes and flip. Top 2 of the biscuits with strawberry jam.

Meanwhile, add 2 marshmallows to your marshmallow fork and warm them over an open flame (I used my stove burner), letting them bubble and crisp up on the outside. Place the 2 marshmallows on top of one of the jam topped biscuits and repeat the process for the other. (alternately, you can put them on top of the biscuits and under the broiler to toast more evenly for gooey deliciousness!)

Once you’ve added your toasted marshmallows, place the jamless biscuits on top of the marshmallows, creating a sandwich. Plate up and serve, eating immediately!

Quick Biscuit Mix

Adapted from Food & Wine June 2012

1 cup self rising flour (I mixed up my own batch)

3 tablespoons whole milk powder

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

Place all ingredients in a small bowl. Using your hands, work the oil into the flour until combined (it will resemble bisquick). Use for the s’more recipe above, or store for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.

Summer Lovin’ – Cornmeal Lemon Cookies

Here in good old western Pennsylvania, mother nature has our weather all over the place. Over Memorial Day weekend, the temps were in the high 80′s – low 90′s with hell on earth humidity. (I planted the garden in those temps. It was like taking a shower with your clothes on. meh) That being said, it’s not officially summer, but it’s hard not to think of summertime  flavors for desserts, snacks, and meals. Or the movie Grease…and the song Summer Nights….I remember a sleepover as a teen in the 90′s where I, along with 3 friends, re-enacted the scene in her living room. Ya. That’s how we roll. (Am I the only one that when someone says “oh, 10 years ago…” it makes me think of the 90′s? And then when I realize the 90′s were 20 years ago, I feel old.)  Here’s the video in case you want to give it a try yourself….

Ok…back on topic. Enter in the Cornmeal LEMON Cookie. Yep. LEMON. I love lemon. It’s got that bright tangy flavor that just makes me think of sunshiny poolside outdoor fun. Turn it into a cookie and you’ve got something magical. This recipe was originally found on thekitchn.com for a lime version. Now, I like lime too, but it’s just overpowering in comparison to lemon, so I adjusted the recipe to suit my tastes. There is more vanilla, and more lemon zest and juice because lemons are generally bigger than limes, and I used some big lemons. But the lemons do not overpower these cookies. The cornmeal gives them a nice flavor balance while making the texture more filling, rounded out. But not heavy. I’m not sure how they got only 14-16 cookies out of the recipe since my cookies were palm sized after baking – and I got exactly 24 cookies. But whatevs. The cookies are fantastic. They take almost no time to whip up. Great to take to a bbq, picnic, graduation party. Whatever you find yourself getting into this summer. Enjoy!

Cornmeal Lemon Cookies
Yield: 2 dozen cookies Adapted from thekitchn.com

For the Cookies:

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour ( I used white whole wheat)
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 sticks room temperature butter (16tbsps)

¾ cup sugar

Zest of 2 large lemons

Juice of 2 large lemons

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract (I used homemade)

2 large eggs

 

For the icing:

1 1/3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Juice of 1 large lemon

Zest of 1 large lemon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together your flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Fit your stand mixer with a paddle attachment and add the butter and sugar to the bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the zest of the 2 lemons and the vanilla and mix until just incorporated.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add your eggs. (The mixture will separate. Do not fret. It will come together at the end!)

Add your flour mixture in 3 stages, mixing well after each addition.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop by heaping scoopfuls onto 2 cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or silpat mats. Space the cookies 2-3 inches apart and press down with your fingers so the tops of the cookies are flat. Bake for 14 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through for even baking.

Allow cookies to cool completely.

Icing: in a small bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients. Spoon over the tops of your cooled cookies, letting it drip over the edges. (to help minimize the mess, I put a tea towel under the cooling racks to catch any runaway icing)

Store any leftovers in an airtight container and eat within 3 days. Can’t eat them that fast? Freeze them in a single layer. To serve after freezing, let thaw at room temp for 2hrs before serving. The icing will sweat out a little bit out moisture, but it’s all good. They taste as fantastic as they do freshly made! Enjoy!

Crock Pot Love: Dulce de Leche

Sooooo, ya. Um, dulce de leche. If you  haven’t ever heard of it, or tasted it….you are SO missing out. But fret not my pretties, for you can have some of you very own with very little hands on time. Yep. Not only is it amazingly delicious, but it requires such minimal efforts on your part that you can do this before going to work!!! And you only need 4 total things to create rich, velvety caramel laden goodness. Additionally, this method isn’t dangerous like the regular method that is floating around the net where you put the WHOLE UNOPENED CAN into your crock pot. Ya. I’d like to not have any explosions of molten hot caramel lava flung around my kitchen. Plus, this way is totally fullproof, because you can SEE the color of the contents and know it’s done.

Mason jars with lids and bands (jelly jars)

sweetened condensed milk (14oz cans)

crock pot

hot tap water

Yep, that’s it. How many mason jars you need depends on how many jars of dulce de leche you want. I wanted to fill my crock pot to make it worth my while so I filled 7 jelly jars. For those 7 jars to be filled, I used 5 cans of sweetened condensed milk.

Method:

Clean your mason jars and lids in hot soapy water. Let air dry or dry with a lint free towel.

Add sweetened condensed milk up to the thick band on the glass right under the threads.

Add the lid and a screw band to finger tight. Put them right into your crock pot. Once you have added all your jars, add hot water (from the tap, not boiling!) to cover the tops of your jars. In my pot, I just added water right up to the lip that the lid rests on. Turn your crock pot on low and set the time (if you have one of the smart crock pots) or set a timer if you do not.

Let them sit in the crock pot for 8hrs if you want a creamy dulce de leche, 9hrs if you want it thicker. I’ve read on the net where they left it in as long as 11hrs, but mine was nice and set at 8hrs. Feel free to check at 8 and if it seems like you want more time added, tack on an additional hour.

Once the jars are the desired color and consistency you want, carefully remove the jars and let rest on the counter overnight to cool. Your jars screw bands may be rusty looking as they did just soak in water for 8 whole hours. Just wipe them off once the jars cool. We have well water so mine had a lovely mineral film on them in addition to rust. Yipee! The jars will seal – but since it is a milk product, put them in the fridge the following day. There is not a lot of info out on the net right now as to shelf life, mostly no one has much left after one month! But, I’m going to freeze a few jars to see if the taste and texture are still good and will update. But I am definitely going to have to freeze some ASAP or there will be none left. None.

Now, wondering what to use this lovely stuff for (other than shoveling it straight to your pie hole with a finger or spoon that is)?  I’ve used some to sweeten tea and coffee. It’s great for an apple or pretzel dip. Mixed into cake icings. As a cake filling. And I’m going to be testing it out in a recipe for a spanish cookie called Alfajores – this stuff is the filling in them. Mmmm.

Don’t be intimidated, it’s just a pumpkin roll!

I’m not sure why, but some people are intimidated by anything that involves rolling up a thin cake with a filling inside. Sure, there is always the possibility that the cake can crack or filling can ooze out, but is that really a cooking failure? You can still eat it! It will still taste delicious even if it doesn’t look as pretty as you think it should.

That being said, as long as you follow the basics and have a nice moist cake, pumpkin rolls and jelly rolls are easy peasy!

This recipe is an adaptation of the Cook’s Country recipe. They know their stuff. I love Cook’s Country – they take all the guesswork out of it for you and stop you from wondering when trying a new recipe if it’s going to be worth it. This is because they are already giving you the best tested version of it!

I only use a double batch of the cream cheese filling for this as I like to be able to still taste the pumpkin in the cake, but don’t feel the single batch is enough filling. Feel free to use the single batch recipe below, or double like I do.

Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

INGREDIENTS

• 1cup cake flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 large eggs
• 1cup sugar
• 1cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 batch cream cheese filling recipe (see below)
•  Confectioners’ sugar for dusting finished roll

INSTRUCTIONS

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and 18- by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet and line with greased parchment paper. Whisk flour, spices, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl; set aside. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat eggs and sugar until pale yellow and thick, 6 to 10 minutes.

Add pumpkin and mix on low until incorporated. Fold in flour mixture until combined.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

Bake until cake is firm and springs back when touched, about 15 minutes. Before cooling, run knife around edge of cake to loosen, and turn out onto clean sheet of parchment paper that has been dusted with confectioners’ sugar.

Gently peel off parchment attached to cake and discard.

Roll cake and fresh parchment into log and cool completely, about 1 hour. (notice all that powdered sugar all over the counter and the stuff on the counter. That’s what happens when you slap the cake on the parchment!)

Gently unroll cake and spread with frosting, all the way to the edges, leaving 1inch of space at the far end. Re-roll cake snugly, leaving parchment behind. Slice off rough ends (and eat them like it’s your job!) Wrap cake firmly in plastic wrap and chill completely, at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. I slice mine in half and freeze each piece wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap to enjoy later!

Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened but still cool
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
4 ounces cream cheese , softened, cut into 4 pieces (DO NOT soften in microwave!!!)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese one piece at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and mix until no lumps remain.