These spinach artichoke pinwheels were inspired by the many garlic & herb pinwheel recipes I saw on Pinterest and on the back of my puff pastry box! These pinwheels are even more delicious, however, with a gooey and tasty filling that others lack.
Sometimes I find the puff pastry overpowering, but the filling ratio in these spinach artichoke pinwheels is perfect. They can also be made ahead which is super convenient for party planning. For my afternoon tea, I rolled them ahead of time before slicing and baking on the day of. It was my easiest dish of the day and everybody loved them!
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Check out my afternoon tea post for other party food ideas!
Spinach Artichoke Filling
The filling is a modified version of my favorite spinach artichoke dip from NYT Cooking. I used all the same ingredients, but cut the amount of cheese. Rather than mixing everything cold, I like to sauté my spinach & artichokes first, before adding the cheeses and other ingredients to create a melty and homogenous filling. After it cools, I spread it over the puff pastry and roll!
If you’re in a rush, you can probably get away with mixing everything cold. I haven’t tried this, but I would expect this to still be tasty!
Prep Ahead
If you want to prep ahead, you can store your spinach artichoke pinwheels rolls in saran wrap in the fridge for 2-3 days. Try to make sure it is as airtight as you can get it. Otherwise, you can slice and bake on the day of!
If you decide to slice and bake on the day of, I recommend chilling if you have time. It is not a requirement, but makes it a little easier and less messy to slice.
Also check out my shortcuts in the Notes of the recipe!
Spinach Artichoke Pinwheels
Ingredients
- 4-5 cloves minced garlic
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 9 oz spinach, roughly chopped (approximately, I use 1 9oz bag from H-E-B)
- 1 can quartered artichoke hearts, roughly chopped (14.6 oz)
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup mozzarella (fresh is best, but pre-shredded also works)
- 2 tbsp pecorino romano (I used a fresh block and grated)
- salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
- 2 sheets puff pastry (Pepperidge Farms is my favorite brand)
- 1 egg (for egg wash)
Instructions
Filling
- Set out frozen puff pastry to thaw and soften while you prep the filling.
- Heat 1-2 tbsp olive oil in a medium sized pot
- Sauté minced garlic 1-2 minutes until fragrant
- Add roughly 1/2 of the roughly chopped spinach and sauté until completely wilted. Then, add and sauté the other half to the pot
- Once all the all spinach is completely wilted, add the roughly chopped artichoke. Cook for 1-2 minutes
- Add cream cheese, sour cream, mozzarella, and pecorino romano.
- Heavily season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Mix until all cheese is melted and gooey.
- Turn off stove and cool. Ideally, cool for 20+ minutes, but cool 5 minutes minimum. The longer you cool, the easier it is to roll.
Rolling it up
- Once filling is cooled, lay out puff pastry. Slightly roll or press together creases to ensure you have 2 homogenous puff pastry layers.
- To one puff pastry sheet, add about half of the filling. Spread out the filling to the edges.
- Starting at one end, tightly roll. I like to roll along the long edge ("Hot dog" not "hamburger" style for those of you who learned how to fold paper like me).
- If you have time, tightly wrap your roll in saran wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes. I like to make ahead and chill overnight.
- Repeat for the other puff pastry and half of filling.
Cooking
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Once chilled and ready to bake, line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Slice each roll into approximately 1cm thick slices. You can make them thicker if you'd like, but I got about 10 pinwheels from each roll, 20 total.
- Lay out the pinwheels, brush with egg wash, and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
- Let cool for around 5 minutes and then they are ready to serve. Enjoy!
Notes
- Skip the sauté: I made my filling over the stove, just like a traditional spinach artichoke dip. This helps ensure all the flavors are incorporated and helps take some of the raw bite off the spinach and artichokes. Skipping the sauté may alter the flavor, but as long as you evenly mix and distribute when spreading your filling on the puff pastry, you should have no problems!
- Prep Ahead: If you are making for a party, prep the pinwheels the day or 2 before so you can bake quickly the day of! This saves a lot of time and dishes.
- Alternatively, you can even bake ahead of time and reheat. I wouldn’t recommend this, since reheating will take a long time in a toaster or not keep the crunchiness in the microwave. You can reheat in the oven, but if you are already using the oven, might as well bake fresh!
- Skip the overnight chill: You can also skip the overnight chill and bake on the day of. I still recommend chilling or letting the filling cool because if not, the hot filling will make it difficult to roll and slice the puff pastry. Either way, the puff pastry roll will be slightly harder to handle without the overnight chill, but it is a shortcut if you are low on time!
