Tag Archives: Puff pastry

Prosciutto Pinwheels

Posted on by

Some of my friends and I did a little get together because we are all very busy with work and family. My contribution was to make the appetizers for the 40 or so people who would be there. So let’s get to it!

I actually cheated a little and bought some puff pastry sheets from the grocery store, let them come to room temperature, floured the kitchen counter and rolled it out to form a large rectangle.

rolled puff pastry

Next step was to mix some homemade pesto into some ricotta cheese and spread it on the pastry dough thinly and top it off with some Parmesan cheese.

pesto starting

spreading pesto

pesto spread

Now top the mixture lightly with some roasted red peppers and top with the finest prosciutto sliced very thinly.

roasted red peppers on pesto

proscuitto

Roll tightly, making sure you seal the end with a few drops of water and pinch the open ends of the “log” like in the picture.

rolled pinwheel pastry log

Place into the freezer for about 20 minutes to let the dough firm up. Once cold it can be sliced into pinwheels, usually I would get 12 to 14 slices out of each log.

cutting pinwheels

Place the wheels on a lightly oiled parchment paper and lightly brush the tops with some olive oil and bake at 425 F for about 17 – 20 minutes. Pull the parchment paper off the baking sheet and let them cool a little before transferring to your serving dish.

cut pinwheels

Enjoy them warm. Really good especially served with some homemade apple pie moonshine, scored some big points with my friends!

proscuitto pinwheel

Cheesy Basil Puff Pastry

Posted on by

Here is a quick way to impress last minute guests!

Start with 1 sheet of the frozen puff pastry dough that you might have in the back of the freezer, bring it up to room temp and unfold it. Then carefully cut about an inch in from the edge but not all the way through and then take a fork and dock it. That is just a fancy term for poking a lot of holes in the puff pastry with the tines of a fork.

last few posts 064

Now place the dough in a pre-heated 425F oven and cook for about 10 – 13 minutes or until the outside puffs up and is golden brown.

While it is baking grab a bowl and add 1 cup of ricotta cheese, ½ cup of Parmesan cheese, ¾ cup of Mozzarella cheese, a handful of fresh basil from the garden cut thin, 1 Tbsp of chopped garlic some salt and pepper. Stir it all together.

cheese topping for puff pastry

Once it is done pull it out of the oven, set it on the counter and turn down the oven to 300F.

Fill the inside of puff pastry with the cheese mixture and score it so the topping has somewhere to nestle into. So now you can top it with whatever you have handy, for us we had some baby onions and cherry tomatoes from the garden and some broccoli from the fridge. Sprinkle some good olive oil over the top and add the last little bit of shredded mozzarella and bake in the 300F oven for about 25 minutes or until it’s brown and bubbling.

So let it cool for a few minutes and serve it with some salad for a nice afternoon snack along with your favorite white wine. Enjoy

 

Sorry, no picture of the final product. It was so good, the family ate it all before I could snap one.