Guest Recipe: Tom's Spider’s Web Pinwheel Canapés

When it comes to hosting parties, any shortcut is a blessing. So while these savoury pinwheel canapés might look like you’ve slaved over your hot stove for hours, the reality is very different…

A simple black olive tapenade (wickedly resembling crushed flies) makes up the filling of these canapés; blitzed up in the food processor before it is spread across shop-bought ready rolled puff pastry. Once rolled up, baked and cooled, a ‘frosting’ of goats and cream cheeses is piped to form a web atop the biscuits.

With the quantities here making around 58 tasty bite-size morsels, you will have more than enough to whet the appetites of all the young and old goblins and gremlins you invite over this Halloween.

• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Total Time: 50 minutes

Serves: 58

Category: Pies & Pastries,Dinner,Halloween

Ingredients

For the pinwheel canapés
• 330g stoned, drained black olives
• 30g capers
• 3 anchovy fillets (in olive oil)
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 35g freshly grated parmesan
• 2 x 325g ready-rolled puff pastry

For the Spiders Webs

• 65g soft goat’s cheese
• 65g full fat cream cheese

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan oven)/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line three baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2. Drain the black olives into a colander and rinse under cold water. Tip the olives out onto a clean tea towel and pat dry before popping them all into the bowl of a food processor. 
3. Add the capers, anchovy fillet, around 2 tbps of the oil from the anchovy tin and the fresh thyme.
4. Blitz everything together, scraping down the sides of the processor until you have a coarse paste.
5. Unroll the puff pastry sheets and layout with the long edge closest to you. Evenly spread half of the olive mixture over each of the pastry sheets, leaving a 1cm clear border along the long edge closest to you. 
6. Dust with freshly grated parmesan before rolling each filled pastry sheet into a coiled sausage shape, using the clear edge closest to you to seal. 
7. Trim the rough edges and wrap the sausages back up in the paper wrappings the pastry came in, gently squeezing to compact together before popping into the fridge for 10 mins to firm up.
8. After 10 mins chill time, unroll the pastry sausages and slice them into rounds, roundly 1 cm thick. I get 58 from quantity - 26 per roll. 
9. Place the rounds of cut pastry onto the prepared sheets - spacing to allow each canapé to double in size in the oven. 
10. Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown before carefully popping them onto cooling racks to chill.
11. To prepare the spider’s web frosting, remove the cheeses from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature. 
12. Pop both kinds of cheeses in a bowl and beat to make a smooth, creamy sauce with the consistency of buttercream. Be careful not to whisk air into the mix otherwise this will make it difficult to pipe.
13. Put the cheese mixture into a piping bag or a zip-lock plastic food bag. Snip a very small opening at the corner of the bag and squeeze gently to form a spider’s web pattern on each canapé.
14. Present your canapés on trays or large plates and serve to your invited Halloween guests.

Tom Frizell-Shackley is a food writer, private chef, recipe developer and freelance PR consultant. Based in the North East of England, he lives with his partner, son and three spaniels. Since 2019, he has published recipes and kitchen tips for his Kitchen Notes food blog.