Chocolate Pinwheels

I recognize that some of the recipes I share in this column are more laborious than I had intended. I would like to return to a recipe that truly is painless and uses only five ingredients! Chocolate pinwheels are an easy snack but yield yummy results, and can be made regardless of baking skill level. This recipe also involves a puff pastry recipe, which can be used for a multitude of desserts—apple tarts, cronuts, blueberry turnovers—but it is perhaps best reserved for the simplest of recipes (like this one).

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Chocolate Pinwheels

Ingredients:

-1 cup flour

-1/4 tsp. salt

-10 tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled

-1/3 cup ice cold water

-Nutella

Steps:

1. To prepare the puff pastry, add the flour and salt to a medium-sized bowl. Stir to mix.

2. Cube the butter and then add it to the flour bowl. Using two knives, cut the butter into the dough. It will be very crumbly, but continue until the butter is in uniform pieces all about the size of peas.

3. Next, make a hole in the center of the dough and pour in all of the water. Using a fork, stir to combine the dough.

4. Flour a cutting board, and add the dough. Pat it into a rough square. You will still see chunks of butter and it will seem too dry, but do not add extra water. The dough will come together with each roll.

5. Flour the rolling pin, and roll the dough out into a rectangle approximately 10″ long.

6. Fold the bottom third of the dough over the middle of the dough. Fold the upper third of the dough on top of the middle too. Rotate the dough one-quarter turn, and repeat. Use additional flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking.

6. Continue to roll out, fold, and turn the dough seven times.

7. When done, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least one hour, or overnight. Dough may also be frozen.

8. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

9. Take dough out of fridge and roll onto flat surface. Spread a thin layer of Nutella across surface, leaving a small amount of dough untouched alone all four sides. Roll dough back up. Using a sharp knife, slice dough about 1/2 inch thick.