Apple Pinwheels With Caramel Icing

These easy caramel apple pinwheels include a cinnamon sugar-spiced apple and pecan filling wrapped in flaky puff pastry with decadent caramel icing on top.

Today I’m really excited to share with you my very first experience using puff pastry. I’ve always been intrigued by the thought of using it, but never really got around to trying it until now. So I thought I’d use my very first experience as a tutorial so you could all cook along with me.

For starters, I chose a recipe on Pepperidge Farm’s Puff Pastry website. This is a very slightly tweaked version of their apple pecan pastries recipe.

Let me tell you, I was really surprised at how easy it was to make this delicious coffee treat using puff pastry. I had always thought it would be fragile to work with, but found it to be sturdy and hold up much better than any other traditional dough. I made these in a fraction of the time it takes to make homemade muffins too.

So, what do you need to make my apple pinwheels? Puff pastry and apples (of course), plus brown sugar, chopped pecans, flour, margarine, and ground cinnamon. Doesn’t that just sound like the perfect combination? Sweet, spice, and everything nice! The instructions are as simple as mixing together the filling, rolling out the puff pastry, and then placing that filling on the pastry dough. 

Roll it up, cut your pinwheels, and then bake them for about 15 minutes. Then I added a decadent caramel icing on top but this is totally optional. I’m just a sucker for caramel apple anything! I found that these apple pinwheels were just the right amount of sweet (but not too sweet) and the puff pastry is wonderfully flaky and light after it’s been baked. Ready to give them a go?

If you need some other really delicious apple recipes try these: Apple Pie, Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings Recipe, Caramel Apple Milkshake, Apple Brownies, or Apple Cobbler With Crescent Rolls.

What You’ll Need to Make Apple Pinwheels:

Recipe Ingredients

• Puff pastry
• Light or dark brown sugar
• Chopped pecans
• Flour
• Margarine
• Ground cinnamon
• Granny Smith apples
• Caramel baking bits for the frosting (Kraft is the brand I love!)

Helpful Kitchen Tools

• Mixing Bowl
• Pastry Cutter
• Rolling Pin

How to Make Caramel Apple Pinwheels:

Combine your brown sugar and flour in a mixing bowl.

The recipe called for “brown sugar” so that leaves it up to you whether you use light or dark. Course y’all know I’m gonna use dark so it will be all the richer in flavor. 

Once you have that stirred up, add in your ground cinnamon.

Then cut in your margarine.

It’ll look like this when you’re done.

Peel and chop your apples and add them into the dry mixture along with your chopped pecans. Mix well!

Unfold your thawed puff pastry sheet onto a floured surface.

I always use a piece of waxed paper as my floured surface because I can just fold it up and toss it for quick cleanup.

Roll out your pastry sheet to approximately 15×10 inches.

Brush water onto your pastry sheet. Or, you can just wet your clean hand and give it a good rub down that works too.

Time to combine the filling and puff pastry!

Pile all of that yummy filling on top of the puff pastry sheet

But don’t go all the way to the edges so we can use that to seal it closed.

Roll it up like a cinnamon roll.

Now, this is where I thought I’d have trouble. I figured all of those diced apples would poke a hole in this for sure but I was amazed at how sturdy this was! I had imagined it to be something like crescent roll dough (the kind you use in a can) but this is a lot sturdier than that.

Who knew puff pastry would be such a workhorse?

The original recipe said to cut it into 12 pieces. But since we weren’t too particular about the measuring thing I figured I’d eyeball this too.

I cut my roll about every inch.

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

Place them all on the prepared cookie sheet about two inches apart.

Bake at 375 degrees! I would check them at 15 minutes, but know that they probably need more like 30 minutes. Remove the apple pinwheels from the oven when the puff pastry is a nice, light, golden-brown color. 

Remove the apple pinwheels to a wire rack to cool.

Even as soon as they came out of the oven they were pretty sturdy and easy to move. I had thought they would fall apart but again, puff pastry proved me wrong.

For the caramel icing:

Place the Kraft caramel baking bites in a microwave-safe bowl

Melt the caramel in the microwave. To do this, I heated them for thirty seconds at a time and stirred them until they were melted completely.

Then I drizzled them over the pinwheels with a spoon…

And they are ready to serve! I served these little beauties with coffee and we enjoyed them immensely.

They were delicious, impressive, unique, and half the work of homemade muffins.

Storage

Puff pastry leftovers do get soggy. So I recommend storing leftover pinwheels in an airtight container in the fridge for only a day or two. Reheat them either in the oven or air fryer to get crispy once more. Just beware of the caramel icing, as it might get a little melty!

Recipe Notes

• Puff pastry is purchased frozen. Take out one sheet and set it on the counter at room temperature to thaw for 40 minutes before starting this. I put the other sheet in a zipper bag and stuck it back in my freezer for my next puff pastry play date.
• Here are some recipe variations:
  • The original recipe uses Granny Smith apples, but any kind of crisp apples will do.
  • Switch the pecans for chopped walnuts.
  • Switch the ground cinnamon for apple pie spice.
  • Swap the brown sugar for sugar.
  • Swap the caramel for vanilla glaze or cream cheese icing, or just add a dusting of powdered sugar.
  • Add 2 tablespoons of toffee bits.

Recipe FAQs

Do you freeze pinwheels before or after cooking?

You can freeze pinwheels either before or after cooking. I recommend double-wrapping them in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn. They’ll last in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight or at room temperature before either baking as directed or reheating in the oven or air fryer.

Check out these other caramel apple treats:

Caramel Apple Milkshake

Snickers Caramel Apple Salad

Caramel Apple Cheesecake

Caramel Apple Dump Cake

Apple Cake With Caramel Fudge Icing

Easy Apple-Caramel Pie

 

I’ve enjoyed bringing you my very first experience with puff pastry in this post, sponsored by Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry.

“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out if they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.”

—William James