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Spanakopita triangles and pin wheels

Course Snack
Cuisine Greek
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour
Thawing time 10 minutes
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.