The other day I wanted to make something other than sandwiches for our fellowship meal which follows our communion service.  We have been having a cold potluck (our space does not have an oven) lunch as an extension of the Lord’s Supper.

I was perusing Pinterest and was inspired by this recipe.  They had me at pesto and parmesan.  I’m hankering pesto these days.  These parmesan whirls are kind of like a fancy pizza roll.  I didn’t have puff pastry, so I improvised.  You’ll find I do that a lot here. We don’t live in a place where we can just pop out and grab whatever we need, especially if it’s a little out of the ordinary, early in the morning or late in the evening.  These made up quickly, which is imperative on a busy Sunday morning.  Probably an hour and a bit start to finish, but only fifteen minutes or so actually work time.

I began with making a quick-rise pizza dough:

• 1 cup warm water (think baby bath water temperature)
• 1 tablespoon sugar or honey
• 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
• 1 tablespoon quick-rise yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2-2 1/2 cups bread (you can use all-purpose) flour

Using a KitchenAid mixer (or whatever you have, or by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer that can handle bread dough), fitted with the dough hook, mix the water, sugar, oil, yeast and salt. Add the flour gradually until a soft dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough should be soft and smooth. You can add up to another 1/2 cup of flour, but no more than that.  Knead the dough for 3 minutes.

Drizzle a little olive oil in bowl and turn dough to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes or so.

While that’s resting, I prepared the ingredients for the filling.  The amounts given are approximate. I really just spread and sprinkled to cover.

• 2 tablespoons pesto (I used store-bought–Kirkland, but fresh pesto would be fantastic!)
• 1/4-1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes or so, then removed and chopped
• 1 cup grated mozzarella
• 1/2 cup Parmesan, grated (I had a container of shaved so I used that)

Using half of the filling ingredients, I spread the pesto, sprinkled the cheese and tomatoes, then rolled it all up like a cinnamon roll.

I cut my roll into half, then fourths then thirds to get 12 fairly consistent slices.  Repeat this with the other ball of dough to have 24 pinwheels in total.  Place your slices on a parchment covered cookie sheet.Cover with a clean towel and let rest for half an hour or so while your oven preheats.  And you do your hair and makeup.  Oh sorry…maybe that’s just me.  Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes.  It doesn’t take long.  Oh ya, I did drizzle a little olive oil on top before popping them the oven.