Dessert!
Pumkin Roll (taken from Libby's, but with some modifications of my own)
Ingredients
1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel or wax paper..when you read "towel" you can substitute the word wax paper if that's what you choose to use)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)
Directions
1.PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan (or a pizza pan, same thing) line with parchment paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle towel with powdered sugar. (or a separate sheet of wax paper)
2.COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan.
3.BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Do not over bake. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel (or wax paper). Carefully peel parchment paper off the cake. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. I don't like to use a towel because they pick up too much lint no matter how clean they are and lets' face it, nobody likes a hairy cake. So, I invert the cake onto a pam-sprayed sheet of wax paper, then I roll it up and cool on wire rack.
4.BEAT cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel (or parchment paper) . Spread cream cheese mixture over cake, taking care to NOT spread the cream cheese to the edges, or it will squish out when you roll it up. Leave about a inch from every edge...... Reroll cake. As you are rolling it back up, you are pulling the wax paper off at the same time....Wrap roll plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired. You can also freeze these. When I do pumpkin roll, I triple and quadruple the recipe and make three or four at a time.
Cooks notes:
This recipe is really not as hard as it sounds. Just prepare yourself to fuck up the first one almost every time and you'll be fine. The mixing and baking are a piece of cake (haha), it's the whole rolling and unrolling that get you. I've seen some recipes where people don't do the second roll. They just let the cake cool in the original pan they baked it in, then they spread on the frosting and roll it right up. You will just have to experiment.
Even if you do screw it up, it still tastes good......The first time I made this, I lined the pan with wax paper and it just didn't work during the baking process, so the next time I tried baking it with parchment paper and it was much better. I also cut and trim the sheet of paper so that about an extra inch or so overlap the edges of the pan. Don't leave too much, or it could catch on fire. Once I'm ready to roll the cake up, this time I use wax paper. Google a video of how to do this if you want, it helps.
There are a million ways to make crepes. There are even more fillings to choose from. You can substitute whatever you have on hand, or add whatever you like. I've made both recipes below and have gotten extra fancy with them adding fresh berries, whipped cream, melted chocolate, etc....Use your imagination. I hope you enjoy! I make my "easy" recipe almost every day and Julia's crepes when I have company. Both are good recipes.
Sue's easy crepes
1 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter melted
1 cup flour
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of sugar
4 tbsp butter for pan
Strawberry, Raspberry or whatever jam you have.
Whisk together the milk, water, egg, sugar, vanilla and butter. (for smoother results, use a blender) Add in flour and salt. Mix well until lump free if possible. The batter should be thinner than pancake batter. If you need to thin it out, add more milk.
In a saute or crepe pan, melt the butter so bottom of pan is coated. Pour in batter and swirl around pan to make a crepe (if you dont know what you're doing, I'm sorry. Just test a few batches)Cook about 30 seconds.
So, flip your crepe and cook another 30 seconds or so. Then set aside to a plate.
Continue to cook the rest of the crepes. (adding more melted butter as you go) You do NOT want them brown like a pancake just lightly cooked with some small browned spots, if that makes sense....
With this recipe you will get about 7 or 8 depending on the size of your pan.
So, spread your jam, or nutella, or whatever on the crepes. Roll them up. Squirt on some whipped cream, or not. Sprinkle some powdered sugar. (another nice touch is to melt some chocolate and drizzle it over your finished crepes. I have also added fresh berries to the crepes/jam before I roll them up.
Julia's Crepes!
As I've mentioned before, I've tried at least 10 different crepe recipes. I found this one to be the most flavorful as the crepes are soft with a bit of crispness to the edges. They are fantastic. This recipe came from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" Volume I.
Page 649.
Crepes Fines Sucrees
3/4 cup cold milk
3/4 cup cold water
3 egg yolks
1 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp orange liqueur, rum or brandy (I use 2 tbsp of amaretto and 1 tbsp pure vanilla--you could use all vanilla if you don't have the liquor on hand)
1 cup flour (scooped and level)
5 tbsp melted butter
Additional melted butter for the pan.
Whatever jam or jelly you have on hand
Whipped cream
Powdered sugar
fresh berries for garnish
Place the ingredients in a blender, in the order they are listed. Cover and blend at top speed for one minute. Scrape sides and blend for one minute longer.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight even.
In nonstick frying pan, brush with melted butter and add about 1/8-1/4 cup of batter. Enough to swirl bottom of pan. Again, think "pancake" but NOT as thick. Try to get them as thin as you can. It can take practice and I've messed up a few, but you can eat whatever you mess up.
Some people don't even flip the crepe, but I do. As you cook each crepe, set aside and separate with wax paper if you like. Also, add more melted butter as you go to keep the crepes from sticking)
This should make about 10-12 crepes, depending on the size of your pan. Take each individual crepe and spread jam or jelly on it, roll it up and dust it with powder sugar.
These can be tough to master as the batter is very delicate and I've had my share of problems trying to flip them with the spatula(if too thin, they will break when you try to lift them out to flip them)
You can also make these ahead of time, fill them, wrap them and place them in a baking dish. You can reheat them in the oven whenever you need them.
Banana Nut Bread
3 or 4 ripe bananas, peels off and smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 to 1 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, mix butter into the mashed bananas. Add sugar, egg and vanilla nad mix well. Add baking soda and salt and mix in. Pour in flour and mix all together. Pour mixture into a greased or buttered (I prefer butter as we all know) 4x8 loaf pan. Bake for an hour or until toothpick comes out clean and dry. Cook on a rack. Remove from pan and slice.
You can add chopped walnuts, blueberries or chocolate chips. If you add chocolate chips, roll them in flour to give them some 'texture' before adding to batter. This way they won't sink to the bottom of the batter.
One of the EASIEST desserts I've ever made that impresses and tastes FANCY.
Raspberry Upside Down Cake
1 box of white cake mix (not with pudding in it)
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 cups of fresh raspberries (3 packages)
whipped cream (optional-but necessary)
more fresh raspberries for garnish
Grease and flour a 9x13 cake pan and set aside
Prepare cake mix according to directions on box except reduce the water to use only 1 cup. (this is because you will be adding the cream later) Pour batter into prepared cake pan.
Sprinkle 3 cups of berries over batter. Sprinkle sugar evenly over the berries. Pour the cream over top, coating the sugar and berries.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour. Immediately invert (turn upside down) onto a serving platter, taking care to try to get the whole cake out of the pan if possible. If it sticks, just carefully loosen with a spatula. (you will top the cake anyhow, so nobody will see mistakes)
Once the cake is plated, top with dollops of whipped cream or cool whip. Add more berries randomly over the cake. Cut and serve warm.
This recipe is deadly, I have to say.
