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Fall in Love with Apple Pinwheels: Caramel Icing Magic for Cozy Autumn Nights!
1 day ago
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These easy caramel apple pinwheels include a cinnamon sugar-spiced apple and pecan filling wrapped in flaky puff pastry with decadent caramel icing on top.
Today I’m really excited to share with you my very first experience using puff pastry. I’ve always been intrigued by the thought of using it, but never really got around to trying it until now. So I thought I’d use my very first experience as a tutorial so you could all cook along with me.
For starters, I chose a recipe on Pepperidge Farm’s Puff Pastry website. This is a very slightly tweaked version of their apple pecan pastries recipe.
Let me tell you, I was really surprised at how easy it was to make this delicious coffee treat using puff pastry. I had always thought it would be fragile to work with, but found it to be sturdy and hold up much better than any other traditional dough. I made these in a fraction of the time it takes to make homemade muffins too.
So, what do you need to make my apple pinwheels? Puff pastry and apples (of course), plus brown sugar, chopped pecans, flour, margarine, and ground cinnamon. Doesn’t that just sound like the perfect combination? Sweet, spice, and everything nice! The instructions are as simple as mixing together the filling, rolling out the puff pastry, and then placing that filling on the pastry dough.
Roll it up, cut your pinwheels, and then bake them for about 15 minutes. Then I added a decadent caramel icing on top but this is totally optional. I’m just a sucker for caramel apple anything! I found that these apple pinwheels were just the right amount of sweet (but not too sweet) and the puff pastry is wonderfully flaky and light after it’s been baked. Ready to give them a go?
Combine your brown sugar and flour in a mixing bowl.
The recipe called for “brown sugar” so that leaves it up to you whether you use light or dark. Course y’all know I’m gonna use dark so it will be all the richer in flavor.
Now, this is where I thought I’d have trouble. I figured all of those diced apples would poke a hole in this for sure but I was amazed at how sturdy this was! I had imagined it to be something like crescent roll dough (the kind you use in a can) but this is a lot sturdier than that.
Bake at 375 degrees! I would check them at 15 minutes, but know that they probably need more like 30 minutes. Remove the apple pinwheels from the oven when the puff pastry is a nice, light, golden-brown color.
Remove the apple pinwheels to a wire rack to cool.
Even as soon as they came out of the oven they were pretty sturdy and easy to move. I had thought they would fall apart but again, puff pastry proved me wrong.
They were delicious, impressive, unique, and half the work of homemade muffins.
Storage
Puff pastry leftovers do get soggy. So I recommend storing leftover pinwheels in an airtight container in the fridge for only a day or two. Reheat them either in the oven or air fryer to get crispy once more. Just beware of the caramel icing, as it might get a little melty!
Recipe Notes
Puff pastry is purchased frozen. Take out one sheet and set it on the counter at room temperature to thaw for 40 minutes before starting this. I put the other sheet in a zipper bag and stuck it back in my freezer for my next puff pastry play date.
Here are some recipe variations:
The original recipe uses Granny Smith apples, but any kind of crisp apples will do.
You can freeze pinwheels either before or after cooking. I recommend double-wrapping them in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn. They’ll last in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight or at room temperature before either baking as directed or reheating in the oven or air fryer.
How do you keep pinwheels from getting soggy?
Leftover pinwheels and puff pastry naturally get soggy after a while. So you want to eat them quickly!
How many days ahead can you make pinwheels?
You can make the pinwheels up until baking them and store the unbaked rolls in an airtight container in the fridge up to 24 hours ahead of time. I would recommend adding a drop of lemon juice to the filling though to help prevent the apples from browning.
How do you serve apple pinwheels?
These apple pinwheels are a delicious treat to enjoy with tea or coffee. But they also taste great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream for dessert.
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