Puff pastry spirals turn you into an instant party host
As soon as summer is over, I turn my attention to the upcoming holiday season. That’s my high season at Parties That Cook, and it brings such an onslaught of corporate holiday parties, any entertaining I do at home needs to be easy.
I love to invite people over for a glass of wine and an appetizer — and this puff pastry spiral is one of my favorites. You can make it in advance and keep the rolled log in your freezer. When guests are coming, you just slice and bake it. It actually comes out better when it enters the oven in its frozen state, and it is made with my favorite kind of dough — puff pastry!
When I was in culinary school, I learned to make puff pastry, a dough that requires seven triple-folds with butter slathered between each layer. It’s a technique that creates more than 700 layers. As the butter melts between each one, it creates a space, which is what makes puff pastry so puffy and flaky. It’s a laborious process, though, so when life gets busy, even I just buy the dough ready-made.
For the filling, I like to use blue cheese with smoked paprika and pecans in the fall, but any of your favorite filling combinations will work. Try prosciutto, sage and Gruyere as a Thanksgiving appetizer or basil pesto with fontina during the summer months.
Guests coming over in an hour? Pop these in your oven!