Easy apple pinwheel recipe | Cooking with my kids (2024)

Easy apple pinwheels. A simple recipe with apples, cinnamon and puff pastry, that makes the perfect autumn snack.

This recipe for apple pinwheels combines apple cinnamon and puff pastry to make the perfect autumnal snack. I love the smell of apple and cinnamon baking in the oven, so it’s almost enough to make me feel better about the longer autumn nights and cooler temperatures!

This is a great puff pastry apple recipe for kids because it’s really simple and quick but makes a tasty, pretty snack.

Unlike a lot of baking recipes you don’t need to be too accurate when measuring out the ingredients which makes it great for even little kids to do. It means you can keep your kids busy preparing the puff pastry with the butter and cinnamon sugar while you prepare the apples.

How can kids help to make apple pinwheels?

If you use ready-rolled puff pastry, these are really easy for even very young children to make. Older children could probably make these themselves, and younger children can certainly still help with a lot of it.

Kids can help with rolling out the pastry and spreading on the cinnamon sugar. If you’ve got younger children, once you’ve peeled, cored and quartered the apples you can get them to cut them into small pieces. Apples are quite easy to cut and it doesn’t matter too much if the pieces are all the same size so they’re a great fruit for kids to practice their cutting skills.

Finally, your kids can help to roll up the pinwheels. The hardest part is probably cutting the pinwheels out, but if your children are too young to do this, they can help arrange them on the baking tray while you cut them out.

How do I store apple pinwheels?

Apple pinwheels are best served when still a little bit warm from the oven, but if you want to keep them for longer, you can store them for a few days in an air tight container.

Reheat them in a medium oven for a few minutes before serving them.

Can I make apple pinwheels in advance and freeze them for later?

Yes, you can prepare apple pinwheels in advance and then freeze them to serve at a later date. After assembling, but before you bake them, place them on a baking tray and pop them in the freezer until they firm up. Once they’ve hardened, transfer them to an airtight container or freezer bag. To bake from frozen, simply add a few extra minutes to the baking time.

How do I serve apple pinwheels?

You can serve apple pinwheels as they are for a tasty after school snack, but if you want to turn them into more of a dessert serve them warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or a little bit of whipped cream.

Ingredients

1 sheet, ready-rolled puff pastry
15g (1tbsp) butter
1 tsp cinnamon
50g (4 tbsp) golden caster sugar
1 or 2 apples

For the drizzle (optional)

2 tbsp icing sugar
A splash of milk

How to make apple pinwheels

Preheat your oven to 200C / 180C Fan / 390F and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Prepare the pastry

Get your children to measure out the butter then pop it in the microwave to melt. Lay the pastry flat on a large chopping board, or work surface, then use a pastry brush to brush the butter over the top of the puff pastry.

In a small bowl mix the sugar and cinnamon together, then sprinkle on top. We used a spoon to do this to make sure it covered the pastry evenly.

Set aside the pastry for now.

Add the apple

You need to cut the apple into really small cubes so this job is either for grown ups or older children. I did it while the kids were preparing the pastry.

Once the apple is chopped, sprinkle it evenly over the puff pastry.

Make the apple pinwheels

Roll the pastry up, starting at the long edge. Your kids might need a bit of help to make sure it’s rolled tightly enough. You want to make sure it’s as tight as possible so it remains together once it’s baked.

Use a sharp knife to cut the roll into 1 inch (roughly 2-3 cm) pieces. Lay them on the prepared baking tray, leaving enough space for them to expand in the oven.

Bake the apple pinwheels

Pop the apple cinnamon puff pastry into the oven for 20 minutes. They’re ready when they’ve turned golden brown, puffed up and turned crispy.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking trays. Some of the insides might ooze out a bit but it’ll be fine once they’ve cooled down.

Add the drizzle

Mix the icing sugar with a splash of milk and mix it until it comes together but isn’t too runny. If you need to, add a little extra icing sugar or milk until it is the right consistency.

Drizzle the icing over the top of the pastries with a small spoon. Leave to set.

If you liked this apple recipe, you’ll love these

If you liked these apple pinwheels, you’ll love our puff pastry cinnamon rolls and our other easy bakes for kids.

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