Broccoli Cheese Pinwheels – Puff pastry is rolled up with cream cheese, broccoli, and shredded cheese. They’re sliced into pinwheels and baked to perfection. Perfect as a snack or as a side dish for meals. Add chicken to make them a meal on their own!
Fun, healthy snacks are a new trend in our house now that the kids are a little pickier. They don’t always want veggies – ok they NEVER want veggies – so sometimes you just gotta wrap them in pastry and cheese to get them to eat some.
These Broccoli Cheese Pinwheels are the perfect way to get the kids eating some veggies without the nagging. And they’re so simple to make. Just 4 ingredients rolled up, sliced into pinwheels, and then baked to perfectly golden brown.
Here are my Broccoli Cheese Pinwheels!
Making the pinwheels
Pinwheels are super cute snacks, made with very little effort. For these, we use a thawed puff pastry dough. I roll mine out a little to make them a little thinner and smoother. Next comes some cream cheese. The cheese holds everything in place and gives the centers a creamy texture.
Now it’s time to sprinkle on the cooked broccoli and cheese. The broccoli needs to be cooked because it will not have time to cook in the pinwheels. Plus, all the excess water from the raw broccoli will make the pastry soggy.
Finally, the dough is rolled into a log and sliced into pinwheels. They’re baked to perfection and then ready to serve.
Tips & Tricks
- Chilled dough = flaky pastry. The key to flaky pastry is making sure it’s cold before you place in the oven. So make sure you freeze the pinwheels for a couple minutes before baking.
- Cut broccoli into pieces. The broccoli must be chopped before added to the pastry and rolling. If the broccoli is too big, the pinwheels will not stay round and will get misshaped.
- Adjust portions for appetizers. This recipe makes 8 good meal-sized portions. If you are serving as an appetizer, slice them smaller to make 16 wheels.
- Bake until golden brown. Do not pull out of the oven until the pinwheels are golden brown on all sides and in the center.
Broccoli Cheese Pinwheels
Ingredients
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed
- 10 ounces frozen broccoli florets
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- ½ cup shredded cheese I used a Mexican cheese blend
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare baking sheet by lining with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Cook broccoli in microwave according to package instructions. Measure out 1 cup of cooked broccoli and chop it into smaller pieces. Save remaining broccoli for another use.
- Roll out puff pastry into a 10×10 inch square. Spread cheese cheese all over using an offset spatula to ensure the layer is even. Sprinkle evely with broccoli pieces and shredded cheese. Taking the edge closest to you, roll up pastry dough to create a log. Cut the log into 8 even pinwheels (16 if you intend to serve these as an appetizer and want smaller portions). Place the pinehweels on a prepared baking sheet and place in the freezer for 5 minutes before baking.
- Remvoe from the freezer and bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the pastry turns golden brown and the centers looked cooked. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before serving.
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These look delicious! So perfect for a cold winters day!
Add some shredded chicken breast and these will be great for Super Bowl! Thanks for sharing!
Great flavors and so easy to make, these will be a huge hit at my Holiday party.
Oh man! These were such a hit at our party today. They were gone in seconds and everyone wanted the recipe!
YUM! What a fun take on pinwheels. My kids will gobble this up!
Such fun and beautiful pinwheels! I love the combination of broccoli with all that cheese. Yum!