Peanut Butter Pinwheels are a delightfully easy treat to make! With puff pastry, crunchy peanut butter, honey and icing sugar, they will tick all of your boxes.
Recipes like my Nutella Pinwheels, Pecan Pinwheels and Pesto Pinwheels are all about the pastry yum!
My Coffee Slice, Tim Tam Slice and Macadamia Caramel Slice are all about getting our bake on in the best way possible.
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🤍 Recipe Highlights
There are so many things that I think you will love about this recipe, but I have chosen a few of my favourites below:
- Quick, easy and delicious!
- Kid friendly, family friendly.
- Works as an appetizer, snack, treat, lunch box food or dessert.
- Easy to find, everyday ingredients.
- Fun, creative and something a little different.
- They look good, they taste good and they are not difficult to make!
- Texture and taste, the pastry and nut combo is to die for.
- Can be made in advance, prepped ahead of time.
Top Tip 1: You can be organised and make these prior to a party. Simply store in the fridge in a sealed air tight container in the meantime. Serve at room temperature or reheat and serve warm.
🥗 Ingredients
I have taken the photo below to show you what ingredients you will need for the recipe. Scroll to the recipe card (end of post) for specific measurements and detailed instructions.
As you can see, the recipe calls for:
- Peanut Butter: I like to use the crunchy type as it is my favourite and it adds texture to the pinwheels. You can use smooth or crunchy, whichever you prefer.
- Frozen Puff Pastry Sheets: We use these as the base of the pinwheels. It is great to have this ingredient in the freezer, so you can use it as needed. It is economical and lends itself to both sweet and savoury recipes.
- Peanuts: I use the unsalted roasted version. We crush these and sprinkle over the pinwheels for decoration. You can also use granulated nuts.
- Icing Sugar: Also known as confectioner's sugar. I recommend sifting this to get out any lumps and bumps. We use this to decorate the pinwheels. A slight dust is all you need for visual delight.
- Honey: we use this to drizzle a small amount over the pinwheels when we are plating them up. This helps the crushed nuts to stick to the pinwheels and it adds a pretty visual and flavour effect. Optional for decorating, not shown in the photo above (because I forgot to put it in haha!)
Top Tip 2: Frozen puff pastry is an excellent ingredient to keep in your freezer. It can be easily grabbed and turned into a recipe like this without effort or haste.
🍳 Instructions
The step by step instructions are shown in the photo series below. The very 1st thing you need to do is remove the pastry sheets from the freezer. You can do this overnight in the fridge if you wish.
- Spread layer of peanut butter onto thawed puff pastry (Photo 1)
- Roll tightly (Photo 2)
- Wrap in cling wrap and place in the freezer for 30 mins (Photo 3)
- Roughly chop nuts into small pieces (Photo 4)
Placing the filled rolled pastry into the freezer helps firm up the scroll. It is then much easier to cut it and keep the ingredients from spilling out.
If you absolutely don't have time, you could skip this step, however the process of cutting the pinwheels and placing onto the baking mat will be a little (or a lot) messier.
Top Tip 3: Do 1 x puff pastry sheet, followed by the next as it is easier to work with if it is on the chopping board.
- Use a sharp knife and cutting board to cut into individual pieces (Photo 5)
- Place on baking tray (Photo 6)
- Baking the pinwheels for 15 - 20 mins (Photo 7)
- Let the pinwheels cool and transfer to a cooling rack (Photo 8)
I like to spray the baking mat with cooking oil (helps clean up also). There is no need to so this if using baking paper (parchment paper).
If the pinwheels are opening up, simply squish back together when placing on the baking tray. Keep the tail (end of the scroll) on the outside, don't roll it inside.
Top Tip 4: Allow the pinwheels to cool in the oven (turn it off) at 1st. Then remove and place on the baking rack. The pastry will crisp up!
Cake is cool, fudge is awesome, no bake slices are effortless and pastry pinwheels are the best thing since sliced bread!
I like to serve with as shown in the photo below. This combines the sweet, savory, sticky, soft, crunchy and flaky. It is all about textural yum and then licking the excess PB, jelly and honey off your fingers!
I love having dessert ideas that are not the typical.
They will be the talk of the town, bring the yum factor and leave crumbs, but they also provide different, why not yum as opposed to same, same yum!
👍 How to Guide
How to Store
Peanut Butter Pinwheels are best stored in a sealed, air tight container. They will last like this for up to 1 week in the fridge.
How to Freeze
You can freeze these pinwheels for later consumption.
The best way to do that, is bake them, let them cool, then place in a sealed air tight container. They will last up to 1 month.
How to Reheat
You can reheat the pinwheels in the oven or microwave. Both of these options mean the pastry will still be flaky.
Reheating in the microwave if not recommended as whilst they warm, the pastry goes soggy, not crispy.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
These are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee!
I like to drizzle some honey over them, dust with icing sugar and then sprinkle some crushed nuts on the top. They look pretty and taste amazing.
There is a lot to be said about serving with a small bowl of jelly or strawberry jam for that hugely popular PB and J combo!
😉 Substitutions and Variations
This recipe is delectable as is, however, with all thing there are a few ins and outs you can make if you wish. Try:
- Using smooth instead of crunchy peanut butter
- Crushing pistachios instead of peanuts over the pinwheels
- Dusting with cocoa powder instead of confectionary sugar
- Adding a layer of strawberry jam on top of the peanut butter layer
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
What are peanut butter pinwheels made of?
This depends on if you are making a no bake version or baked version.
The no bake version (often known as potato candy) involves making the dough and then layering the peanut butter on top. It is consumed as is without being cooked.
On the other hand peanut butter puff pastry pinwheels are baked in the oven or air fryer, then cooled resulting in crispy, flaky pastry.
How many calories are in a pinwheel of peanut butter?
Based on the individual serving size and combination of ingredients, each pinwheel has approximately 157 calories.
Note this will vary depending on the volume of peanut butter used and the additional calories from decorating, ie sugar, honey and nuts.
💡 Tasty Tips
Here are my expert tips that I am sharing as I want you to nail this recipe each and every time!
- Ensure the pastry is thawed, otherwise it will crack.
- Be gentle when spreading the peanut butter as the pastry will be soft.
- Use the overhang backing plastic and start at that end when rolling.
- Roll the pastry tightly as well as when using the cling wrap.
- Use a sharp knife when cutting the roll into pieces.
- Let the pinwheels cool in the oven a little before removing (crispy pastry!)
- Do use a utensil to transfer them as they will be hot!
- Crush the nuts in a food processor or zip lock bag with spoon (bang, bang).
- Serve the peanut butter pinwheels with jam for the popular PB and J concept!
- These don't have to be cooked in the oven, use the Air Fryer for convenience.
😍More Easy Puff Pastry Recipes
You might be drawn to this recipe because of the sweet or savory. So let's have a look at some more of my pastry focused that you might like to try.
- Air Fryer Sausage Rolls
- Cheese and Bacon Pinwheels
- Cheese and Tomato Pinwheels
- Banoffee Tart Recipe
- Chorizo Sausage Rolls
- Chicken Sausage Rolls
- Beef Mince Sausage Rolls
- Breakfast Sausage Rolls
- Dulce de Leche Tartlets
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Peanut Butter Pinwheels
Equipment
- 1 Chopping board
- 1 Butter Knife
- 1 Glad Wrap (Cling Wrap)
- 1 Baking tray
- 1 Silicon Baking Mat Or parchment paper/baking paper
- 1` Spray Olive Oil If using parchment or baking paper, you won't need this
- 1 Cooling rack
- 1 Flexible turner
Ingredients
- 2 frozen puff pastry sheets Note 1
- ½ cup peanut butter Note 2
- 1 tbs icing sugar sifted
- 1 tbs honey optional
- ¼ cup peanuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
- Remove frozen puff pastry from the freezer and set on the bench to thaw.
- Working one sheet at a time, place thawed puff pastry sheet onto a chopping board and use a butter knife to spread a layer of the peanut butter. Note 4
- Start at one end and roll the pastry to form a tight long log. Wrap in cling wrap and place in the freezer for 30 mins Optional
- Remove pastry from the freezer, place on chopping board and use a sharp knife to cut into portions.
- Transfer the cut pinwheels to the silicon baking mat (or parchment paper). Place the tray into the oven and allow the scrolls to bake for 15 - 20 mins.
- When the timer is up, check that the pinwheels are done, then turn the oven off, leave the tray in so that the scrolls can start to cool.
- After about 5 mins, use a flexible turner and lift the cooked pinwheels off the baking mat and transfer them to the cooling rack.
- Sprinkle with sifted icing sugar, a drizzle of honey and crushed peanuts.
Notes
- Note 1 The pastry needs to be thawed so that it is flexible to allow us to roll it. Simply take out of the freezer and let thaw on bench or in the fridge.
- Note 2 I am using crunchy peanut butter. You can use this or smooth. The difference will be the texture.
- Note 3 You can choose to spread this liberally or in a more restrained way. I think liberal is best as you get the flavour and taste of the peanut butter as the dominant flavour. Not enough peanut butter means the pastry becomes the dominant flavour. You may find if you are liberal, you use more than the recipe specifies and more restrained you will use less of it.
- Note 4 We use the glad wrap or plastic wrap to wrap the pastry roll after we have filled it. This is because after that, we put it in the freezer. The cling wrap keeps the roll nice and tight and the pastry fresh.
Lisa Payers says
Love how easy these are and the combination of peanut butter and pastry works very well.
Adrianne says
Thanks Lisa! I appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback.