Pumpkin Roll Attempt 1

I finally got the chance to make Heather's Pumpkin Roll. I have been dying to make this recipe. The recipe can be found here. Since this recipe has been passed around from blogger to blogger, I am not gonna list the recipe. But, I will talk about my results and share pictures!!

Many people think that log rolls and jelly roll type baked goods are really complicated. For me, the trouble comes with where we live. Flagstaff is at 7500 ft elevation and that requires a certain degree of mad science. Almost every baked good I have made, I have had to tackle the change. Usually it is added flour and printed in small letters at the end of the recipe. Not this time.

I tackled it by researching different changes for altitude. The first calculations I did left me with more changes than the original items. Or minuscule measuring of the spices. The second thing I found had a application or gadget type thing that let you enter in the specifics of the recipe, pick some items from dropdown menus and enter your altitude. The resulting recipe looked like it would fail completely! I think the bulk of changes dealt with the fact that baking considers 3500 ft high altitude. We are over double that, so all the changes were doubled.

I looked around some more and found King Arther Flour's High Altitude Baking Guide. This page was really comprehensive and gave a tip none of the other pages gave. Try only using the smallest in the ranges of changes. For example, if the table says add 1 to 2 tablespoons for every 1500 ft over 3500, then if it is safer to go with 1 tablespoon. Another tip is to not change all the variables at once. Like any good experiment, you need to have an isolated variable to change.

Personally, I subtracted 1tbsp of sugar, reduced the baking powder to 1/2 tsp and added 3tbsp of flour. More or less, I just touched the dry stuff. And I am happy to report that it turned out great. We had a few mishaps along the way, but after letting the roll sit in the fridge overnight, the flavor was amazing! We barely have half of the roll left. I stored it in the back so that Berkeley can't get it out easily without making noise. However, the first night I made it, we ate 4 slices together. Yesterday morning it was breakfast paired with a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Last night, we enjoyed our slices with a "light" drizzle of Hershey syrup!!