3 great pumpkin dessert recipes to try this fall

It’s fall, which means there’s pumpkin spice everything on the shelves and in stores.

And there’s a reason we all love a PSL so much.

According to research done at Johns Hopkins Kreiger School of Arts and Sciences, people may love the seasonal flavor for a purely psychological reason.

“The association that the smell has with the season in our memories allows it to powerfully evoke the refreshing feelings of fall,” says Jason Fischer, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences.

If you’re looking for some fall baking inspiration, here are three pumpkin dessert recipes from the Courier Journal’s extensive recipe archive.

Happy fall!

Pumpkin roulade

Courtesy of The Bakery at Sullivan, 3100 Bardstown Road. Yield: one roll

4 16-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
2/3 cups canned pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cups pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To make the filling, in a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Combine two eggs, pumpkin, sugar, baking soda, pastry flour and cinnamon. Mix well and add the final egg. Spread evenly on a half sheet pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-13 min. Let cool and spread a layer, about one-fourth-inch thick, of cream cheese icing over the entire cake. Roll the cake from the wide side and wrap tightly in plastic. Chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours and slice about half-inch thick.

Pumpkin cookies

Courtesy of the now closed Sweet Surrender Dessert Cafe. Yield: 23 cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 and 1/2 cups pumpkin purée
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until combined. Add eggs. Once they are fully incorporated, add pumpkin purée. Mix until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add all of them at once to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix on medium speed until combined. The cookie dough is a cross between a standard cookie dough and a cake batter. It will be thinner and wetter than other cookie dough you may have made.

On a parchment lined sheet pan, scoop out approximately four-ounce portions. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will not rise or spread. If they begin to brown, they are overcooked. The cookies have a very soft, cake-like texture, unlike a standard cookie. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Note: You can include chocolate chips in the batter or top them with cream cheese icing or a cinnamon glaze.

Pumpkin chocolate chip bundt cake with ganache glaze

Courtesy of Wiltshire Pantry, 901 Baxter Ave. Serves 10 to 12

Bundt cake

2 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chocolate chips
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 15-ounce can solid-pack pumpkin

Chocolate glaze

1 and 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 ounces butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the bundt cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine sugar and oil until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Combine flour, chocolate chips, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cloves; add to egg mixture alternately with pumpkin, beating well after each addition.

Transfer to a greased 10-inch fluted tube pan. Bake 60 to 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Remove pan and cool completely before glazing.

For the chocolate glaze: While the cake cools, make the shiny chocolate glaze. In a double boiler over hot, but not boiling, water, combine chocolate chips, butter and corn syrup. Stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Add vanilla and salt. Spread warm glaze over top of cake, letting it drizzle down the sides.