Puff Pastry Pizza Rolls
(5 ingredients, addicting little pizza pinwheels)
These are pizza rolls in the pinwheel sense: a sheet of puff pastry spread with sauce, cheese and olives, rolled into a log and sliced into spirals that bake up golden and crisp. Five ingredients, no dough to make, and they are dangerously easy. They are my go-to for two situations: a tray of finger food when guests are coming, and a fast snack the kids will actually eat. There is really only one thing to get right, and it is temperature. Keep the pastry cold and these are foolproof.
Crisp golden spirals of puff pastry, tomato, cheese and olive. They never last long.
Why These Pizza Rolls Work
The whole recipe leans on puff pastry doing the hard part. You get all the flaky, buttery layers of a from-scratch dough with none of the work, and because it is store bought, the ingredient list stays at five. Rolled into a spiral, each slice bakes into a little pinwheel with crisp edges on the outside and a soft, cheesy, saucy center. That contrast is what makes them so easy to eat by the handful.
The olives are not a throwaway. In a recipe this pared back, they are the thing that lifts it above plain cheese pastry, adding a briny, salty punch that cuts the richness. If you have ever wondered why a five ingredient snack tastes moreish rather than flat, that is the olives doing the work.
How to Make Puff Pastry Pizza Rolls, Step by Step
- Lay the cold puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. You want a large rectangle with the long side facing you.
- Work on it while it is still cold. If your sheet came folded, unfold it gently so it does not crack.
- Spread the tomato sauce over the pastry in a thin, even layer. Go light. Too much sauce makes the rolls soggy and they will leak as they bake.
- Scatter the chopped green olives evenly across the sauce.
- Sprinkle the shredded cheese evenly over the top. Mozzarella, cheddar, or any high-fat melting cheese all work well.
- Starting from the long side, gently roll the pastry into a cylinder. Keep it snug but do not squeeze.
- If at any point the dough has gone soft and sticky and is hard to handle, stop and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes before carrying on.
- With a sharp knife, cut the log into rounds. A clean, sharp blade gives you neat spirals without squashing the roll.
- Lay the rounds cut side up on a parchment lined baking tray, leaving space between them.
- Put the whole tray in the fridge for 10 minutes. This firms the pastry back up so the rolls hold their shape and puff properly in the oven.
- Beat the egg and gently brush the top of each roll. This gives them a glossy, golden finish.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for about 20 minutes, until puffed and deep golden.
- Let them cool for about 15 minutes before digging in. Straight out of the oven the cheese is molten and the pastry has not set, so a little patience pays off.
- ❄️ Keep it cold: The single most important thing. Cold pastry rolls and slices cleanly and puffs properly. Warm pastry turns to a sticky mess. Chill it whenever it starts to soften.
- 🍅 Go light on the sauce: A thin layer only. Too much and the rolls turn soggy, leak, and refuse to crisp up.
- 🪛 Chop the olives small: Fine pieces spread evenly and roll up neatly. Big chunks make the log lumpy and hard to slice.
- 🔪 Use a sharp knife: A sharp blade gives clean spirals. A dull knife drags and squashes the roll flat before it ever hits the oven.
- 🧀 Do not skip the fridge chill: Ten minutes on the tray before baking helps the rolls keep their round shape and rise instead of spreading.
- ❌ Do not overfill: It is tempting to load them up, but a modest amount of each filling rolls tighter and bakes more evenly than an overstuffed log.
Frequently Asked Questions
These belong to my growing pile of puff pastry shortcuts. If you like how little effort they take, my cheese and spinach bourekas and my puff pastry meatloaf run on the same idea: let store-bought pastry do the heavy lifting. Leave a comment and tell me what you rolled into yours.