Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Oonagh Williams, award-winning chef, culinary instructor, and expert in all things gluten and allergen free. Oonagh has a bunch of delicious looking recipes on her website, so I thought I would give one a try. She has a pumpkin roll listed. When I told her that I would be adapting it to gluten free, she sent me the following recipe.

I wanted to pick a dessert from Oonagh's collection in honor of the Holiday Food Festival, which kicks off today. Stop by Hoosier Homemade to check out the dessert edition!

Oonagh's Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll/Layer Cake

Ingredients for cake

• 2/3 c 100% pumpkin from a can (not pumpkin pie filling). Don’t increase amount of pumpkin, cake won’t work.
• 3 large or 2 extra large eggs
• 1 c sugar (I used honey)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking powder and pinch of salt
• ½ tsp xanthan gum
• 1+1/2 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice
  
• ¾ c gf flour blend

Ingredients for Filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese softened -lite is fine but gives a softer texture.
• 1 c powdered sugar (I used honey + cornstarch)
  
• 4 tbsp butter softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp bourbon - if you can tolerate it, otherwise rum or brandy or none
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• You can also use only ½ c powdered sugar and add 1 cup cool whip.
  

Directions

1. Mix filling ingredients together with a beater until smooth.
2. Toast ¼ c chopped pecans in 350° oven for 10 minutes (optional - for cake topping)
3. Line 10 x 15” jelly roll pan with parchment paper or foil. Grease foil or paper.
4. Mix together pumpkin, eggs, vanilla and sugar until well blended.
5. Add baking powder, xanthan gum, spice and flour and mix well.
6. Pour onto lined jelly roll pan, gently spread out, it might seem as if you don’t have enough batter. Bake for 15-18 minutes until well risen (but it won’t be very high), springy but still soft to the touch.
7. Remove cake from oven, sprinkle with sugar, place cooling rack topped with parchment paper on top of sugar sprinkled cake and turn it upside down. Carefully remove paper or foil from base of cake and roll up pumpkin roll with sugar sprinkled parchment paper caught inside. Or cut cake into 2 or 3 sections to create long thin pieces or short fat pieces and leave flat to cool.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
9. Unroll, retain about ¼ c filling, and spread remainder of filling on cake.
   
10. Re-roll or stack. Don’t worry if the cake has cracked. When you drizzle remainder of filling on top, it will hide cracks.
    
11. Thin ¼ c of filling slightly with cream and drizzle on top of roll. Sprinkle with toasted pecans and refrigerate.
    

For layer cake, spread flat pieces of cake with cream cheese filling, stack, spread more on top and sprinkle with toasted pecans or chopped spiced pecans.






Different filling:

• ¾ c heavy or whipping cream
• 8 oz tub of Mascarpone cheese
• ¼ c powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp liqueur, rum, brandy to taste

Directions

1. Whisk cream, sugar, vanilla and alcohol until cream forms soft peaks.
   
2. Turn mascarpone into bowl and gently break up with a fork.
   
3. Gently fold cream mix into mascarpone until well blended and very creamy. Don’t use electric mixer, the mix will almost curdle. Use as in #9 above.