Jazz up the plain jane sausage balls with these elegant spiraled pinwheels. This recipe comes from chef Rob McDaniel of Helen in Birmingham. The pinwheels he serves at Helen get a chef-inspired twist on his mother’s classic recipe.
“Growing up, we always had sausage pinwheels for breakfast over the holidays. It was something that my mother could make in advance and simply slice, bake, and serve—they are always a crowd-pleaser. Lately, I have been putting my own twist on this by combining two childhood favorites: the sausage pinwheel and honey bun. The twist I make is by swapping the breakfast sausage with ‘Nduja and adding caramelized onions, fresh thyme, and Eastaboga Honey. We also substitute buttermilk biscuit dough with our angel biscuit dough, resulting in a light, fluffy, yeast-risen dough.”
recipe 
yields
8 Pinwheels
1 pound of your favorite breakfast sausage
3 cups self-rising flour, plus extra for rolling out
1 1/2 sticks cold butter
1 1/2 cups cold whole fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Ingredients
steps
- Mix the flour and salt together in a medium bowl. Use a box grater to grate the cold butter into the flour. With your hands, carefully toss the butter in the flour to coat the outside of the butter slivers. This should be done rather quickly.
- Form a well in the center of the flour and pour in the cold buttermilk. Using a floured hand while turning the bowl with the other, carefully fold the flour into the center of the buttermilk. Once the flour and buttermilk come together, cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the chilled dough on a floured surface, lightly dusting the top, into an even square that’s about a ¼ inch thick.
- Cut two pieces of parchment paper slightly larger than your square of dough and spray both with non-stick spray. Remove the sausage from the wrapper and place it between the two pieces of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, roll the sausage out into a sheet that’s slightly smaller than your sheet of dough. Remove the top sheet of parchment and place the sausage onto the dough, then remove the remaining sheet of parchment.
- Starting with the edges of the dough closest to you, roll the dough and sausage to form a log. Trim the edges off the log, and then cut in half. Wrap each piece separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or freeze for up to 2 days.
- When it’s time to cook, preheat the oven to 400 degrees
- Slice the log into ¼-inch round pinwheels, and place them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees until the bottoms start to brown for about 15 minutes, then turn them over to brown the other side for 5 to 10 more minutes.
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- From chef Rob McDaniel of Helen, Birmingham, Alabama
Comment 1
Made for Christmas Morning breakfast (along with other usual favorites). It seemed like the sausage wasn’t entirely cooked? I used Publix sweet Italian in casing but removed from casing to roll it into a sheet for the dough.