Holiday Ham and Cheese Pinwheels

Chilling the rolled log is essential for clean slices. A serrated knife works best for cutting. Leave small gaps between filling and edges so pinwheels seal properly. Experiment with different cheeses and add-ins like sun-dried tomatoes or pesto.

Pinwheel appetizers belong to the tradition of puff pastry-wrapped savory preparations that developed in French and European baking from the 17th century onward, when the technique of laminated butter-pastry was perfected by French bakers. Puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) is documented in French culinary literature from the 17th century; it was codified and taught at the École de cuisine in Paris during the 19th century, and its principles were disseminated through the foundational French culinary texts that influenced American cooking. The availability of commercial refrigerated puff pastry dough — introduced to American grocery stores in the 1970s and 1980s — democratized the preparation entirely, making it possible for home cooks to produce visually impressive appetizers without the labor-intensive process of making laminated pastry from scratch. Ham and cheese as a combination has roots in French cuisine (the croque-monsieur, documented in Parisian cafés by 1910, and the ham and cheese croissant, a staple of Parisian bakeries) and in American cooking, where deli ham and American or Swiss cheese became standard sandwich components through the 20th century. The pinwheel format — rolling the filling inside the pastry before slicing into individual rounds — maximizes visual impact: the spiral cross-section displays the filling attractively without extra effort.