Pumpkin Roll

Now that we've done apple pies, what's the next thing we MUST introduce if we are truly going to usher in fall? PUMPKIN!

Last year James told me he absolutely did not like pumpkin. I made a weight watcher's recipe for pumpkin spice muffins (literally just one box spice cake mix + 1 can of pumpkin, baked into mini muffins, 1 pt each I think). He agreed to try them because they smelled so good, and his response was "There's some really yummy taste in there I can't identify" then proceeded to eat the whole pan. Fast forward a few weeks, I made a pumpkin dip (cool whip, vanilla pudding, canned pumpkin. literally ALL you can taste is pumpkin). And his response again was "There's just some really yummy taste to this!"

Uh--babe. That yummy taste is pumpkin. You like pumpkin! He then admitted that he had never tried it, and has been a pumpkin lover ever since.

I made this pumpkin roll for company Friday night, but ended up getting sick and cancelling the company. So we ate it ourselves. Just ate the last piece for breakfast actually. Yum!

Overall, good recipe. I thought it could use a little more sweetness in the cake part, but the filling was plenty sweet so I guess as long as the ratio of each bite was right it was sweet enough. After sitting and reading the joy of cooking yesterday, I've decided I also want to try this with vanilla ice cream for the filling and freezing.

Libby's Pumpkin Roll

ALL credit goes to http://www.verybestbaking.com/ As in, I copied and pasted. Even the photo.

Ingredients:

CAKE
1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
FILLING
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions:

FOR CAKE:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

FOR FILLING:

BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

COOKING TIP:Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

Apple Hand Pies

Happy 1st day of Fall!


I've been craving pie, but every time I make a pie we throw half of it away. Solution - super cute little hand pies!



I mixed a few regular Apple pie recipes to get to this one, thanks to Martha Stewart and the Joy of Cooking! :)



I took the picture on my phone because I left my camera somewhere this weekend, so sorry for the crappy quality!

Apple Hand Pies
Makes 8


Crust:
2 sticks (1/2 lb) of butter, chilled
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
6+ Tbs water


1. Using two forks or a dough hook (or a food processer, on my Christmas list!) cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembled small peas.
2. Add water, 1 Tbs at a time, and mix until the mixture begins to form a dough. It's ready when you can ball up the dough and it sticks together without crumbling, but it shouldn't be wet or sticky. Add water sparingly!
3. Form the dough into two flat discs, wrap with plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes while you prep your filling.


Filling
4-5 large apples (I use the Alton Brown apple pie mixture - honeycrisp, granny smith, golden delicious, and braeburn)
3 Tbs butter
1 cup sugar
cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg
1 egg


1. Peel, core, and coursely chop apples into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. Melt 3 Tbs butter in a large skillet or saucepan big enough to hold all your apples.
3. Stir apples into melted butter until coated, cover, and cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until apples are soft on the outside but still have some crunch.
4. Mix 1 cup of sugar with cinnamon, ginger,and nutmeg to taste. I like a pretty healthy pouring of cinnamon (2 tsp maybe?) and just a small pinch of the ginger and nutmeg.
5. RESERVE 1/4 cup of the spiced sugar mixture.
6. When apples are parcooked, add remaining 3/4 cup of the sugar mixture and turn heat up to high, and cook at a rolling boil for 3-5 minutes until juices become thick and syrupy.
7. When finished, spread apple mixture onto a sheet pan and cool to room temperature.


Building the pies
1. Flour your work surface, and roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thickness.
2. Using a saucer as a guide, cut 6-8 inch circles out of the dough. You can reroll out the excess dough and get as many circles as you can, but remember pie dough gets less tender as you play with it, so go easy. I got 8 circles out of the dough above, plus a little extra that I cut out with cookie cutters to make the little top designs.
3. Spoon 2-3 Tbs of apple mixture onto half of each dough circle, leaving 1/2 inch or so around the edge to seal
4. Beat 1 egg in a separate bowl, and then brush around the edge of the dough circle.
5. Fold over the circle, making a semi-circle, and seal with the tines of the fork.
6. If you're adding cutouts to the top, just paint the back with egg, and then stick it on the top of your dough.
7. Cut 2-4 small vents in the dough for steam.
8. Brush the top of the pies with remaining egg, then sprinkle generously with reserved sugar mixture.
9. Bake at 350 until pies turn golden brown, 15-20 minutes.



WHEW! This recipe is a lot less complicated than it looks with all these steps, I promise! :)