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Cookery corner - Puff Pastry Pizza Whirls

Practice Recipes Nutrition
Use ham or another popular topping to make puff pastry pizza whirls, which are a great finger food to help children develop their hand-eye co-ordination.
Puff pastry pizza whirls
Puff pastry pizza whirls

Approximately 2 – 4 people

Ingredients

  • 1/3 ready-made puff pastry roll
  • 30g cheese
  • 1 slice ham/other optional topping
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 beaten egg
  • Sprinkle of parsley

Ask children to help you to prepare thesedelicious pastry whirls. What other fillings could you add another time?

Method

  • Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
  • Line baking tray with greaseproof paper.
  • Cut 1/3 of the puff pastry roll into a rectangle(save the rest for another bake – perhaps jam tarts or cream slices).
  • Spread the tomato paste onto the pastry. Children can help with this.
  • Together, grate the cheese and sprinkle over.
  • Tear ham or other toppings and sprinkle over.
  • Roll pastry up into a cylinder from the shorter edge and cut into five rounds.
  • Place each whirl round side down onto a tray and brush with the beaten egg.
  • (You can put the rest of the egg into a small ovenproof bowl and bake with the whirls to avoid wastage.)
  • Bake for 12-15 mins, until golden.

Finger food

While it is important to encourage young children to develop the tricky skill of using a knife and fork, providing finger foods for some meals is also beneficial. This can enable a child to focus more on the food they are eating and improve food intake for some.

It can boost the confidence of those children who struggle with cutlery and help them to continue to develop their hand-eye co-ordination, pincer grip and chewing skills during mealtimes while also independently eating nutritious food and being introduced to a variety of new tastes and textures.

Recipe courtesy of Rebecca Tomlin