pinwheels

I love making pinwheels. sometimes they're a pain, but when they come out right, they're delicious. mexican pinwheels are a great appetizer if you ever need them for a cocktail party, especially if you need heavy hor d'oeuvres. I was enchanted with a recipe I found in my bisquick cookbook and finally attempted it. As you'll see, I had to modify it. slightly. :)

Breakfast Pinwheels
Pinwheels
2 1/4 cups original bisquick mix
1/2 c milk
1 T butter/margarine, softened
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 c finely chopped walnuts
1/2 c dried currants
1 T butter or margarine, melted

Glaze
3/4 c powdered sugar
1/4 t vanilla
1 T milk

1. Heat oven to 400F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix and 1/2 c milk until soft dough forms. Place dough on surface generously sprinkled with Bisquick mix; roll in mix to coat. Knead 5 times.
2. Press or roll dough into 11x8 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1 T butter. In small bowl, mix granulated sugar, cinnamon, walnuts, and currants; sprinkle over top of dough; press in slightly. Starting with 11 inch side, roll up dought tightly; seal edge. Cut into 3/4 inch slices. Place slices on cookie sheet. Brush slices with 1 T melted butter.
3. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet; cool 10 minutes. In small bowl, mix all glaze ingredients, adding milk, 1T at a time, until glaze is thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over pinwheels. Serve warm.

So I followed the instructions for the bisquick bit, but then i changed the ingredients inside. This is actually a recipe that has been annotated since the beginning of my ownership of my cookbook with a post-it note from my mom saying "? cherries or jam instead of cinnamon" under which I wrote in "preserves" and underlined that emphatically. Me being me, I didn't even follow my annotation. I used cherry pie filling and that ended up being to heavy to roll up successfully. I managed, but I definitely cooked it in a jelly roll format instead of the pinwheels, which ended up working out okay, though a little undercooked in the middle while started to be more than golden brown on the edges. I've fixed that with reheating in the toaster oven, but lesson learned: cherries are too heavy. preserves would be perfect.

And you really do have to seriously coat whatever surface you're rolling this out on with flour/bisquick.

Since I used cherries, I also tipped a little more vanilla into my glaze which made it seriously vanilla-y. I love to flavor and smell of vanilla though, so that worked out okay. (As a sidenote, this glaze does not work well on an aforementioned recipe for pumpkin bread...the bread is too heavy to combat the light glaze) Also, cherry and vanilla is a flavor combination made in heaven.

In short, I used cherry pie filling because it was what I had in my cabinet and I was just trying out what I had without a new trip to the dreaded grocery store. I like my attempt but see its flaws. Either way, it was (and since I froze some of it, still is) delicious...it's how I started off my New Year, actually. :)

the possibilities for filling are endless!