Spanakopita triangles and pin wheels

As I am writing the post for this spanakopita (spinach pies) triangles and pin wheels, my daughter is going through her primary school orientation! I’ve had to start thinking about what to prepare for her lunch boxes as of next year. So more school friendly recipes will be coming up on the blog. This recipe will be on high rotation, as I am hoping to make big batches to freeze and just bake them as needed in the morning for school. Something my mum used to do when we were young as well.

The ingredients used

The amount of filling I made, for the spanakopita triangles and pin wheels, is perfect to use up the whole pack of puff pastry. The mixture included four different kinds of cheeses, to create different layers of flavour and texture. Both kinds of feta are salty but their texture is very different. Danish feta is a lot smoother, creamier and easier to spread. The parmesan cheese is added for the extra sharpness in flavour and the ricotta to balance it all out, as its flavour is mild and has a low salt content. Sumac is a spice derived from a red flowering plant and adds to the tangy taste of the mixture. A simple substitute to sumac would be lemon zest or even if you have lemon pepper.

For the spinach I added baby spinach leaves. This was firstly because of the convenience of its preparation, as bunches of fresh spinach leaves take a lot longer to wash all the soil out. Secondly I chose not to use frozen spinach, as the recipe makes for a lot of pastries and that will allow me to freeze them.

The assembly process

Once the filling is put together you can then start to assemble the shapes. I have demonstrated in the photos here two different kinds of shapes – the triangles and pin wheels. Each puff pastry sheet will make four sufficient sized triangles and about 14 pin wheels. The full method is written on the recipe card.

I also have another spanakopita recipe on the blog, the filling components are similar but it uses a larger tray and phyllo pastry. You can find the spinach and cheese open pita here.

For more baked good creations, traditional and non, check out this link!

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Spanakopita triangles and pin wheels

Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Thawing time

10 mins

 

Course: Snack

Cuisine: Greek

Author: Eleni Georges

Ingredients

Filling

• 600 g baby spinach leaves, washed and roughly chopped
• 3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 50 g parmesan cheese, shredded ½ cup
• 100 g Danish cow’s feta, just under ½ cup loosely packed when crumbled
• 150 g Greek goat’s feta, ¾ cup loosely packed when crumbled
• 100 g ricotta, crumbled ½ cup
• 2 spring/green onions, chopped
• 20 fresh mint leaves, chopped or you can replace it with fresh dill
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp sumac
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• ¼ tsp salt

Assembly

• 6 puff pastry sheets
• 1 large egg, whisked for brushing

Instructions

1. Sauté the baby spinach with some extra virgin olive oil on a medium heat. Cook until the spinach is slightly wilted and place it in a bowl. Once it cools down squeeze the excess liquid out, add the rest of the filling ingredients and mix them all well.
2. Allow the puff pastry to thaw at room temperature for 10min. The puff pastry should be soft enough to roll without tearing but not too soft, otherwise when you try to cut through the pin wheels it might get a bit messy.
3. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Firstly make the pin wheels before the puff pastry softens too much. Spread a thin layer of the filling all over the pastry but allow a 2cm wide strip without it on the side further away from you. Start rolling the puff pastry slightly tight from the side closer to you working your way up. Slice the pin wheels, between 1.5-2cm thick, to make 14 of them. Place each pin wheel on a baking tray lined with baking paper, but allow for space between them as they expand while cooking. Bake them for 18-20min or until golden brown and cooked through.
4. While the pin wheels are cooking use the other 5 puff pastries to make the triangles, which will make 20 of them. Cut each 24x24cm puff pastry at a time into four squares, measuring 12x12cm. Start by filling each square with 1 heaped tbs of the mixture on the top right side diagonally. I like to shape the filling into a triangle with a blank border around it so that it’s easier to close up. Pinch the bottom left corner of the pastry over the filling. Use a fork to press around the two sides so that the mixture is sealed. Place each triangle on a baking tray lined with baking paper, but allow for space between them as they expand while cooking. Use a pastry brush to coat the whisked egg on top of each triangle. Bake them for 15min or until golden brown and cooked through.
5. A lot of pastries are made using this recipe, so they may be frozen by laying out each one of them separately. Once they are frozen they can be stacked or placed in a freezer bag without them sticking to each other. The frozen pastries may keep stored in the freezer for up to 3 months and you can cook them from frozen. They might require a couple of minutes more in the oven and for you to cook at a slightly a lower oven temperature so they don’t burn before they cook.

Recipe Notes

If you want to cook all the pastries and do not want to freeze them, then you can use frozen spinach. To do so, thaw the spinach as per package instructions, squeeze out the excess liquid and then use following the method above. The frozen spinach I typically use is from the frozen aisle of Aldi and it is less than $1 for a 250g pack. I also used a separate brand from Woolworths (Bell farms brand) but it was prepared very fine, almost blended. There was heaps more liquid released and actually 2 packs (500g) of the Woolworths (Bell farms brand) ended up being a bit less than 1 cup. Unlike the Aldi brand which I got 1 cup worth of spinach from just 1 250g pack. You can use bunches of fresh spinach also but the time you need to prepare it will be increased due to the thorough cleanse of the soil you need to make.