Vegan Banana, Pear and Cinnamon Pinwheels

We asked Katie S of the Duck Pond website to share her favourite recipe for a cosy autumnal evening.

Ah, the pinwheel. A relatively new phenomenon in my life, but they seem to be a bit of a trend at the moment. Essentially they’re just sheets of puff pastry, topped with whatever filling you fancy, rolled up and cut into slices – so the possibilities are endless!

I’ve been making a lot of savoury ones recently, mainly inspired by the lovely Amy Chin (aka Postnatal Plant Power) – she seems to have a knack of creating pinwheels with flavours I LOVE and I even managed to get The Little Food Critic eating mushrooms so let’s all take a moment to thank Amy for that little miracle.

Anyway, in my last online shop I inadvertently ordered 2kg of conference pears, when I meant to order 2 pears. This happens occasionally, like the time I wanted 2 courgettes but ordered 2 bags of 6 (courgette fritters, anyone?) or when my husband ordered 6 1kg bags of onions when all we wanted was 6 onions (I made a lot of onion chutney).

So I’ve been wracking my brains about what to make with my glut of pears when I spotted the pastry I had in the fridge. I also happened to have two very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl. That’s when it came to me!

Sadly, this recipe actually only needed one pear so I still have about another 10 to get through but hey, it’s a start.

These are super-sweet so ideal for a dessert with dairy free ice cream or custard, but are completely sugar free so are pretty healthy too and the addition of the  ground flaxseeds and nut butter means that when I fed them to my kids I knew they were getting an extra boost of protein, omega 3, iron, good fats and some other vitamins and minerals too (I used coconut and almond butter which is high in vitamin E and magnesium, zinc and a bit of calcium too. Hurrah!).

As with all of my recipes these are super easy and if you’re missing any one of the ingredients (apart from maybe the pastry or the banana) you can leave it out. I love a flexible recipe.

Ingredients

2 very ripe bananas

1 nice, ripe pear (I used conference but as long as the one you have isn’t too hard another variety should be fine), peeled and very finely chopped.

2 tsp ground cinnamon.

1 Tbsp milled flaxseed (or ground chia seeds or chopped nuts, or raisins, or anything else that’s small enough to sprinkle)

1 Tbsp nut butter (I used Pip and Nut coconut and almond butter which frankly is the best thing I’ve ever tasted but any variety should do the job if you can’t get or don’t have this).

1 pack ready rolled puff pastry (most supermarket brands and Jus Rol are suitable for vegans but please check the packaging to make sure).

Method

1. Get your pastry out of the fridge so it comes up to room temperature a bit – this makes it much easier to roll without it cracking.
2. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and grease lightly with whatever spread or oil you have to hand.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6.
4. Once your pastry has been at room temperature for about 10 minutes, carefully unroll it, leaving it on the paper it comes with. This will help you with rolling later and stop it sticking to your worktop.
5. Put the banana, nut butter and cinnamon into a bowl and mash together well with a fork until you have a deliciously gooey mixture.
6. Spread the banana and cinnamon mix onto the pastry, using the back of a metal spoon to spread it out evenly. leaving around a 1cm gap around the edge so you have something to grip when rolling later.
7. Sprinkle on the chopped pear, flaxseed or other fillings of choice.
8. Time to roll! If you want lots of smaller pinwheels, roll from one of the long sides, but if you’d prefer fewer, larger ones, roll from a short side. Roll the pastry up as tight as you can, using the edges of the paper to help create a nice, tight swiss roll type shape.
9. Cut into slices around 2-3cm wide.
10. Lay them evenly on the baking tray, leaving enough room between them so they don’t stick together when they expand in the oven.

12. Pop in the oven for 25 minutes, and serve straight away. If you don’t want to eat all of them immediately, you can keep uncooked ones in the fridge for up to 3 days, and just cook as many as you need at a time – these are much better fresh rather than cooked then reheated!

Serve with yoghurt and fresh fruit for breakfast, custard or ice cream for dessert or just shove them in your mouth while the kids aren’t looking, they’re delicious all on their own too.