Warming Up to Spring with Pizza Pinwheels

The last couple of days have been a chilly, windy return to wintery weather (regardless of the sun!) - what I hope will be the last stint of cold and yuck before a long summer. It got me thinking about warmer things - like hot soup, and savoury scrolls (pizza pinwheels, as I prefer to call them). This is a recipe that I've been wanting to share for awhile now, not just because they are so popular at shared morning teas! And it's super simple because you get to use whichever scone dough recipe you know and love. 

This morning my grandfather passed away due to illness - we had been expecting him to succumb for a month or two. I think he would have loved these pinwheels. A stand-out memory of him at the lunch table involved him including a cheese and jam sandwich with every midday meal! Minus the jam for this recipe but I don't think he'd mind, as long as there was plenty of cheese ;-)

Pizza Pinwheels

Ingredients for quantity of scone dough from your favourite recipe (mine is Edmonds!)
4 tsp dried herbs of your choice (I love oregano!)
1 cup grated cheese
4 Tbsp tomato paste

A well-worn page in my Edmonds cookbook 

Sift together the dry ingredients for your scone dough, including the dried herbs.

Rub in the butter to the dry mixture as per your scone dough instructions.

 Once the texture of the mixture is like breadcrumbs, add 2/3 of a cup of the grated cheese.

Slowly add the milk (1 to 1 & 1/2 cups if you're also using the Edmonds recipe) and 'cut' into the mixture with a knife. The best consistency is when the mixture separates into what look like many doughy ribbons, like the second image below. Then use your hands to knead it into one large lump of dough.

Perfectly 'cut' dough

 Separate the dough into two equal-sized parts...

For each half of the dough, shape it into a rectangle with your hands, then roll it out onto a floured board or bench-top. Try to make it about half a centimetre thick, a hand-span wide, and a rolling pin's length-long!

Spread the tomato paste on two-thirds of the width of the dough. 

Use a small amount of milk to moisten the edge that is not covered in tomato paste. Roll up from the tomatoey edge to the moistened edge (you might find it easier to roll by cutting the dough rectangle in half first).

Action shot!

Once rolled up, secure the moistened edge by pressing it onto the roll. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut the pinwheels approx. 1.5cm thick. 

Arrange the pinwheels on a lightly floured or papered baking tray with at least 2cm spacing.

Use a pastry brush to paint the tops of the pinwheels with milk and add a sprinkle of the remaining cheese to each one.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a hot oven (check your scone recipe - probably around 200 degrees C). Cool on a baking rack once done.

LLB Scones - or, The Easiest Scones You'll Ever Make

As a perceptive reader of my blog has pointed out, when one posts a soup recipe it is only right to provide a tasty bread to go on the side. And I have one! A few weeks ago I made The Easiest Scones in the World. Were you ever told that it was impossible to stuff up scones? I, too, was told this myth. Perfect scones were an impossibility in my experience. Too dry, too stodgy, too floury - I could never get them just right.

Then I met Allyson Gofton's 'Bake' book. I've just discovered that she also publishes her recipes online here. Her 'Waiheke Lemonade Scones' (I assume named for the Island north of Auckland, popular for day trips and weddings) contain three ingredients: cream, self-raising flour and lemonade. However, I had a bottle of Lemon Lime and Bitters (LLB) kicking around in the fridge - I bought 'diet' by accident, will ALWAYS check the labels now! Hence LLB scones were born. You can't taste the soft drink in the scones, and as far as I can tell it's there to provide the liquid for binding and carbonation for rising. 

These scones are truly un-stuff-up-able. They are unbelievably light and soft-textured. And they go beautifully with soups, or jam and cream cheese, or just on their own when hot out of the oven. I think it would be worth substituting regular cream with coconut cream to reduce the fat or lactose content. 

LLB Scones

2 cups self-raising flour

¾ cup Lemon Lime and Bitters )or any other carbonated beverage e.g. lemonade)

½ cup cream

Set the oven rack towards the top of the oven. Preheat the oven to 220ºC. Dust a baking tray with flour or line with baking paper. Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre.

The recipe for deliciousness has these three ingredients :)

Pour the lemonade and cream into the centre and use a knife to mix together to make a soft dough.

If the dough's a little too moist (i.e. leaves batter on your fingers) then add a little flour and mix in.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead very lightly - I prefer to knead dough while it's still in the bowl, then spread it onto the floured tray.

Pat into an 18-20 cm round or other preferred shape and place on the prepared tray. Use a sharp cook's knife to make the scone into 8 even wedges without cutting all the way through. Or, as I prefer, shape into a rectangle and cut into approx. 12 squares spaced just apart (see image below). The cut squares will rise against each other, helping them to bake through - or so my Mum tells me!

Brush with milk to glaze. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until cooked. 

Different stages of risen-ness (using slightly different iPhone camera filters)

How'd that one get in there?!

Transfer to a clean tea towel covered cake rack to cool. Serve warm.

Unbeatably light! 

Here's a flock of 'em, ready to eaten quick-smart.

Variation: add a cup of cheese and half a cup of cooked bacon to the flour mixture. You won't taste the LLB/lemonade at all! Mmm...savoury yums!

  

This method of cutting up scone dough is what I grew up with - I'll never get sick of it!

This batch provided much-needed sustenance before an important rock concert ;-)

There you have it - the lightest and easiest scones you'll ever make! Grab one before they head out the door... The plain ones are delicious with jam and cream cheese, and both varieties are best served warm.

Soon only the crumbs with be left