Leftover Pastry Pinwheels

Pastry, butter and burnt sugar are just a few aromas that remind me of my grandmother.  She was a wizard in the kitchen but when it came to her pastry she was untouchable! It was like watching a beautiful dance – my grandmother moving effortlessly around the kitchen with such purpose. Even when things went wrong it never seemed to faze her, she’d still happily serve it to anyone willing, which indeed we always were! I’m not sure if this is how I choose to remember her or if this was the reality! As a child and a young adult I had the pleasure of spending so much time with her and I know this has helped shape the woman I am today.

After her passing I remember a close family member saying to me “you are just like her, filled with creativity and passion, I see her in you”. This was and is, probably the biggest compliment I’ve ever had. Time goes by and so does life, but I get reminders of her every once and awhile. It’s normally when a pie is in the oven, there is the smell of buttery pastry or when something sweet has bubbled over and sugar is burning in the oven (a smell that my mom and I used to laugh about, rolling our eyes that grandma’s pie has yet again bubbled over, then we would both have instant headaches).  Now when it happens to me I can’t help but laugh a little and think of her.

Whenever there were leftover pastry scraps from making pies or butter tarts my grandma would add butter, cinnamon and sugar on top and roll the pastry into little pinwheels.  You see pastry isn’t meant to be used or handled over and over again, so whatever is left after you’ve rolled your pastry a few times is basically garbage in the eyes of a baker. But no one likes to be wasteful, so the scraps become little pinwheel treats for tea. It doesn’t matter what they look like or really if one tastes different than the other – they would have been thrown away anyway!

There is no real recipe for leftover pastry pinwheels, it all depends on how much pastry you have. It might be as little as getting 4 or 5 pinwheels or perhaps you save your scraps and freeze them until you have more to make a bunch at once. I don’t always have time to use up the scraps when I’m writing, photographing, and baking for the blog – so I like to freeze them and bake on a rainy day.

You can really do whatever you want with the leftover pastry pinwheels; add your favourite jam, raisins or nuts but I like simplicity of cinnamon and sugar; it reminds me of the comfort of my grandma. I hope to find her easy going grace in the kitchen one of these days.

On a side note; that’s my grandma’s rolling pin that I use (you’ll notice it in the background of my pictures throughout the blog).  She’s always in the kitchen with me! 🙂

Pinwheels

Print Recipe

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These little pinwheels are the perfect way to use up pastry scraps from another recipe. They are filled with a buttery mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon; add nuts or raisins if desired.

• Author: Alie Romano
• Prep Time: 8 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 28 mins
• Yield: 5-20
• Category: Snack
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: French

Ingredients

• Leftover pastry (pastry recipe)
• Unsalted butter
• Brown sugar
• Cinnamon

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400˚F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Roll out pastry scraps on a lightly floured surface (to make a rectangle).
3. Cover the pastry with butter and then sprinkle a generous amount of brown sugar and cinnamon, spreading evenly. Either cut pastry into strips and individually roll up pastry, pinching the ends or roll the entire pastry into a log and slice into pinwheels.
4. Place pinwheels onto your prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until pastry is starting to brown.
6. Let cool completely cool before enjoying.

Notes

Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Suggested Pinwheel Fillings;
– Butter, sugar and raisins
– Butter, sugar and nuts
– Your favourite jam
– Nutella

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