Pizza puff pinwheels

When I was a young girl, I used to play with Pinwheels made of folded palm leaves. That memory is so tinged with nostalgia. My cousins and I used to run into the wind so the Pinwheels could spin and we laughed with joy. Another kind of Pinwheels are the fireworks that mark celebrations. Pinwheels are always associated with happiness. So, I baked some at home to celebrate the arrival of Spring.

My Pinwheels are made out of puff pastry. These have a touch of pizza flavours by adding savoury sauces and toppings inside the rolls.

I used Parsley pesto, black olive Tapenade, Mozzarella cheese and tomato paste. Tapenade is a paste made with Greek Kalamata olives, garlic,vinegar and salt. I used it from a store bought jar but I plan on making it at home after this jar is emptied. I made my parsley pesto by grinding curly parsley leaves with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, almond, Parmesan, salt and pepper.

These Pinwheels have the flakiness of the puffs and the flavours of a pizza, making them remarkably tasty. I took a quarter part of my puff pastry I made here ,to make these rolls.

Ingredients

• Puff pastry dough as needed
• flour to dust

Filling

• 2 tbsp basil pesto
• 2 tbsp black olive tapenade
• 2 tbsp mozzarella cheese
• 2 tbsp tomato paste

1. Thaw puff pastry in the refrigerator overnight.
2. Roll into a rectangle dusting with flour.
3. Use a flour dusted parchment paper under dough as a template.
4. Trim edges if needed and spread the filling.
5. Spread a large stripes of pesto, followed by olive tapenade, mozzarella cheese and tomato paste.
6. Repeat until the end of the puff pastry dough.
7. Start rolling the pastry from the green pesto side rolling into the other fillings.
8. Roll it without the filling oozing out.
9. Place the pasty roll in the refrigerator to chill.
10. Remove pastry after 20 minutes and cut them into circles.
11. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
12. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
13. Place the circles cut side down on parchment paper and bake for 15-17 minutes.
14. Remove from oven when they are golden brown and transfer to a rack to cool.

Roll the pastry starting with the green filling and roll into the other colours. This helps the cut pieces to have all colours in each wheel. It yields 16 pieces. Cut the rolled log in half and divide each half into 8 parts. Gently ease the roll into circles and place on trays to bake.

Arrange pinwheels with enough space between them on a baking tray. When butter in the dough melts, it creates air pockets in between layers of the pastry and needs room to expand. On baking, these puffs crisp up and retain a delicate crunch. Store them in air tight containers if you have any leftover.

These savoury puffs make excellent tea-time snacks. It can be served as an appetizer or at kid’s parties. Enjoy!

I would like to share this with the party goers at Fiesta Friday# 66.

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