These are ideal for morning tea alongside a piping hot cup of coffee. I followed a recipe out of Marian Keyes’ ‘Saved by Cake’, and added an egg-white glaze out of personal preference. The combination of lemon curd and pistachio is unexpected and delicious, although the recipe encourages giving other combinations a go such as cherry jam and chopped hazelnuts, or lime curd and macadamia. Mmm.
What you need
– 2 sheets of frozen ready-made puf pastry (I used Edmonds, and defrosted them for about 15 – 20 minuts)
– lemon curd
– 140g pistachio nuts, chopped roughly (I recommend buying them pre-shelled)
– 1 egg (for glaze)
What to do
1. Line two baking trays with baking paper and preheat the oven to 220C / 200C fan forced
2. Spread the pastry sheets thinly with lemon curd (I’m talking a scraping – you don’t want to get too gooey here!) – then scatter over half of the pistachio nuts. Then, take one end of the pastry sheet and start rolling it inwards and over on to itself to create a little log. The recipe recommended doing this ‘as tightly as possible’, however I’ve had the best results from wrapping it ‘firmly’, but not ‘tightly.’ Take care that the rolling happens evenly across the width of the pastry. Repeat this process with the second sheet of pastry – with more lemon curd and the rest of the pistachios.
3. Use a serrated knife to cut each log into eight equal pieces. The colder your pastry is, the easier this is.. and vice versa.
4. Now, carefully place each pinwheel flat on your baking trays. Leave enough room between each of them because the pastry will ‘puff’ and expand.
5. Whisk your egg with a tablespoon of water, and then using a pastry brush, brush glaze all over your pinwheels. This will give them a slightly glossy appearance once baked.
6. Bake for 20 minutes, 15 if using the fan forced setting. Do watch them, as they are prone to burning if left too long.
7. Remove from the oven, and let them stay on their trays while they cool.
