Cranberry Onion Pinwheels

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Cranberry Onion Pinwheels are packed with so much flavor!  There’s dried cranberries, onions, pistachios, cream cheese, and smoked Gouda.  What’s not to love?

Remember yesterday when I was talking about how versatile an easy puff pastry is? Well here’s another case in point. These cranberry and onion pinwheels are divine. There are so good the hubs even ate one or two or more than that. I’m not counting.

The box of puff pastry has two sheets. Most normal people would use both sheets for the same recipe. But there’s just two of us and there’s no point in using both sheets for one recipe. I can easily split the package and use one sheet for turnovers and one sheet for pinwheels. So that’s exactly what I did.

The combination of cranberries and either onions or shallots is really good. The tart and the spicy come together and just really enhance each other, I think. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that there’s two kinds of cheese and some nuts in this recipe.

Yes, there are two kinds of cheese in these pinwheels. I wanted these pinwheels to be creamy and delicious. And the only way that I figured out how I could do that is too spread some softened cream cheese over the puff pastry put all the toppings on and then top with the second cheese that I added. And what’s the second cheese you ask.

A super old smoked Gouda.

I’ve been seeing these packages of old smoked Gouda in the grocery store for a few weeks now. And being the total cheese person that I am I couldn’t resist trying a package. I know smoked Gouda is delicious. But this smoked Gouda is aged so it’s a combination of like smoked Gouda combined with the sharpness of a Parmesan if that makes sense. Like smoked Gouda and Parmesan sat together in a bath and aged. Yeah that does kind of sounds strange doesn’t it.

So, I’m going to confess that I had nothing cooked for cranberry week until Saturday. Like two days before the event started. I had just come off cookie week and holiday side dish week. I just did not get myself motivated and organized to really make anything prior to the event.

So, I had a plan. That plan involved me making two recipes by Sunday. And those recipes would get me through Monday and Tuesday. I telework Tuesday and Wednesday so I could finish the rest of the recipes on those days. Except I ran out of good sunlight and didn’t really get everything done. So, my plan was kind of shot to hell.

I came “home” from teleworking and immediately started working on the turnovers. The husband was off that day so he sat on the couch probably thinking I was a crazy person. Actually, probably not. He probably just didn’t really care what I was doing. To be honest.

I made the turnovers first because I knew they would be easy. Then I focused on these cranberry onion pinwheels. I knew the pinwheels were probably going to give me a little bit of a problem period. I was not sure exactly how the cream cheese was going to go on the puff pastry. And I was right in my concerns.

I did not take the cream cheese out in enough time for it to be soft. So, there might have been some denting of the puff pastry as I was trying to spread the cream cheese on it. But don’t quote me on that one. I did my best. Most of the cream cheese was I would say within the center 2/3 of the puff pastry. Which is fine. That left the last little edge clear so that these pinwheels could seal properly.

I thought for sure that these pinwheels would be like all the other pinwheels and the cheese would just go everywhere. But they didn’t. And I think it’s because of the cream cheese. The cream cheese kind of grabbed everything together and made it stick to the inside of pinwheel. At least I think that’s what happened. Because these were creamy and cheesy. But the cheese wasn’t stringy like it normally is. If that makes sense.

My husband was funny when he saw these on the tray. He picked one up and looked at it. I said, “Yes, there’s cranberries in there. But they’re not the fresh cranberries. These are dried cranberries.” Actually, there’s dried cranberries, golden raisins, and dried cherries in there.

You see, I needed golden raisins for the hermit cookies. But I couldn’t find just a box of golden raisins. They were nowhere to be found in any place in two grocery stores that I went to. And I was not going to drive all over town just for Golden raisins. So, I found this bag of dried cranberries, golden raisins, and dried cherries. And that’s what I used in the hermit cookies.

That’s the blend of fruit that is in these cranberry onion pinwheels. Dried cherries, cranberries, and golden raisins. Along with cream cheese, red onions, pistachios, and aged smoked Gouda cheese. That is some packed full of flavor pinwheel isn’t it? Isn’t it making your mouth water? Because it’s making my mouth water just looking at all those flaky layers filled with flavors.

 

See what I mean?

You can see the layers of flaky puff pastry. Then there’s the dried fruit, pistachios, the golden Gouda and the creamy wrapper of cream cheese. I am totally hooked on putting cream cheese in pinwheels. This technique will appear in many more pinwheels and palmier recipes in the future. You can bet on it! It makes these cranberry onion pinwheels super creamy and delicious.

Friday Cranberry Recipes

• Cranberry Broccoli Slaw by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Christmas Cranberry Martini by Our Crafty Cocktails
• Cranberry Fluff Salad by Cheese Curd In Paradise
• Cranberry and Onion Pinwheels by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Pumpkin- Paneer and Cranberry Rolls by Magical Ingredients