Celebrations: The Grand Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin Pie Myths

Pumpkins in November are as ubiquitous as zucchini in August, at least on the American landscape. I am always a sucker for new-to-me varieties – this year it is the Black Futsu from Twin Springs Farm. My plan is to make the Italian Radicchio and Pumpkin  Gratin I discovered last year. The skin is edible, either raw or cooked,  and it goes from a greenish black in its infancy and adolescence to this wonderful warty foggy orange in adulthood. But of course, a pumpkin’s  crowning achievement is supposed to play out as a dessert ingredient for the most American of holidays – Thanksgiving. 

I have tried making a whiz-bang pumpkin pie and have always gotten ho-hum reactions from the attendants at the groaning board. Ditto, pumpkin crème brûléee, ditto pumpkin ice cream with spiced caramel sauce – too much like the dread spiced pumpkin latte from the coffee chain that cannot be named. The divine recipe for Joy’s Pumpkin Cookies from Stephanie Gorenflo cannot be substituted for the Thanksgiving pie, as those remain a sacred Halloween tradition. We do follow some rules!

Helpful Hints

But this Pumpkin Roll from Rebecca Rather’s first cookbook is the Turkey Day Bomb. She also spoiled all other peach cobbler recipes for me with her version, which I wrote about in a post that has had around 2000 downloads. I write this early, as there is a bit of prep for our favorite Thanklessgiving dessert. I make it a day ahead. And as Rebecca Rather wrote in her much splattered cookbook, it’s easy to transport to someone else’s  house for a spectacular end to the meal. 

The caramel sauce can me made several days in advance. She uses white granulated sugar, but I prefer either Dark Muscovado or Light Muscovado sugar. Both make a caramel superior to the white sugar version. The Dark Muscovado takes a lot more patience to make, and the resulting caramel is quite intense, almost like bittersweet chocolate. If you use Light Muscovado, it’s easier, and you’ll still get an exceptional sauce. Guests have asked to take some of the caramel sauce home, so often I have made extra. 

The pumpkin roll, which has no butter, can be made, baked and rolled in a towel for up to two days ahead of serving. If I do that, then I also cover the cake roll in the towel with additional cling wrap to make sure it does not dry out. It can be kept in a cool area or refrigerated.  The baking pan called for is basically a half-sheet, and Silpats are available to fit, which I find a lot easier than parchment. If you use a Silpat, do not grease it as you would baking parchment. I do not use cream cheese (I can’t find any that doesn’t have the gum added to it) and substitute all mascarpone for the filling.

Rather than rolling the cake up from the short end, I prefer it rolled up along the length. It seemed a bit thick and unwieldy when rolled from the short end as pictured in the cookbook  (same image as in the recipe below). I have used pecans or walnuts for the decor, always toasted. The author adds a drizzle of melted white chocolate, and bittersweet chocolate drizzle as a garnish, which, really, it does not need. Instead, I drizzle some of the caramel sauce onto the cake and then garnish with rosettes of whipped cream, sometimes adding a row of rosettes on each side of the base if I’m feeling fancy. The final touch is the toasted nuts on top of the whipped cream rosettes.   The  cake, with its caramel sauce,  whippled cream, toasted nuts and the spiced filling does not need any additional furbelows. For this lovely pumpkin dessert, we are truly grateful.