What can you do with 1 sheet of puff pastry and 1 baking tray? If you have Puff it Up by Caitlin MacDonald, you can make 60 different recipes ranging from sweet to savory. She intentionally only uses store bought puff pastry because she wants to make sure the recipes are approachable, straight forward and affordable. Each recipe contains 10 or fewer ingredients and requires no more cooking than switching on your oven and popping your creation in. While I love homemade puff pastry, I appreciate the ease of using store bought food especially for feeding a crowd – and nothing is more host-ready than a puff pastry concoction.
Dietary Notes
Recipes are customisable to suit dietary preferences and ingredient preferences. There’s enough variety for any diet – the only thing you’d need to check is if you’re vegan make sure that your puff pastry is dairy free.
Best For
Anyone who wants easy hosting dishes, loves puff pastry and wants to make delicious meals fast.
Cooking Level
Beginner. The recipes have intentionally been made as simple as possible making it accessible to just about anyone. All you need is an oven.
The recipe I’m sharing is the cinnamon twists with a tahini cream cheese that takes these to the next level. I love cinnamon buns and they’ve become the traditional food we break all our fasts on. These are a simplified version, perfect for when you want a cinnamon roll without the effort.
Puff Pastry Cinnamon Twists
Ingredients
- 60 g unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 x 230g sheet puff pastry
- 1 egg beaten
- 40 g cream-cheese
- 40 g icing sugar
- 15 g icing sugar
- 15 g tahini
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Instructions
- Mix the butter, cinnamon and brown sugar together until well combined.
- Unroll the puff pastry and spread the cinnamon butter all over, then fold in half as if you’re closing a book, and cut into eight strips. Working quickly so the pastry doesn’t get too warm, lift a strip and twist it while wrapping it around your fingers. Tuck the end underneath the twist, then place on a lined baking tray. Repeat this with the remaining strips. Brush the cinnamon twists with the egg and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden.
- While they cook, make the tahini cream cheese glaze. First beat the cream cheese until softened, then whisk in the icing sugar until smooth. Add the tahini and vanilla and mix again, loosening with a splash of water to make it just thin enough to dunk.
- Remove the cinnamon twists from the oven, leave to cool slightly, then dunk into the tahini cream cheese glaze to cover. Set aside to cool before serving.
Puff it Up is published by Quadrille and distributed by Jonathan Ball Publishers. It is available here.
