Easy recipe for air fryer pinwheels made with puff pastry. This tasty appetizer only takes minutes to prepare. It’s one of the air fryer appetizers that crowds love!

If you want to impress your guests or looking for air fryer recipes, I recommend including puff pastry appetizers on your menu.

Made with ham, cheese, pesto and jalapenos, these air fryer pinwheels will become your favorite appetizer.

How to make Puff Pastry Air Fryer Pinwheels Step 1

How to make puff pastry pinwheels with ham and jalapeno

Dust your worktop with flour before you place the pastry onto it. Then, slightly roll it out to the sides, if it’s too thick.

Spread the green pesto over. Cover it with a few slices of ham and sprinkle with finely chopped jalapeno.

Roll this gently (don’t press much) and cut into 1-inch (2.5 centimeters) thick pieces. Cook in a preheated air fryer. Air fryer pinwheels are ready when the pastry is puffed and golden brown.

How to make Puff Pastry Air Fryer Pinwheels Step 2

How to make Puff Pastry Air Fryer Pinwheels Step 3

Frozen or fresh puff pastry?

For these air fryer pinwheels, you can use either fresh or frozen (defrosted) pastry. Note that the fresh seems to take less to cook so you might need to reduce the cooking time just to be on the safe side.

How to make Puff Pastry Air Fryer Pinwheels Step 4

How long does it take to cook pesto and ham puff pastry pinwheels in an air fryer?

It takes about 6-8 minutes. Now please bear in mind that there are different brands of air fryers on the market and each one of them might have slightly different cooking time for the same foods.

The length of cooking will also depend on the thickness of your pastry as well as the size of the pinwheels.

How to make Puff Pastry Air Fryer Pinwheels Step 5

Top tips

Green pesto can be substituted with red pesto. If you like making it from scratch, here is a recipe for classic green pesto: Fresh basil pesto. Homemade parsley pesto is another delicious alternative.

Deli ham – use any kind you like. My only suggestion is to use slightly thicker slices so it does not dry out during cooking.

Omit the jalapeños if you don’t like them or you are making these for kids. I used the ones that come in a jar and have no experience with using fresh ones. I suggest to always use less rather than more, if you are not sure about the heat level of the peppers.

How to make Puff Pastry Air Fryer Pinwheels Step 6

Our favorite puff pastry appetizers:

Parmesan Asparagus Pastry Twists
Smoked Salmon Puffs
Pigs in a Blanket
Ham and Cheese Pinwheels
Bacon Puff Pastry Twists
Beef Wellington Bites
Hot Dog Mummies are perfect for Halloween. But if you omit the eyes, you can enjoy them all year round.
Sweet Chili Puff Pastry Breadsticks are also a great snack. Plus, they are so easy to make!

Puff Pastry Air Fryer Pinwheels with Ham and Jalapeno

Ham and Jalapeno Air Fryer Pinwheels

Author: Julia

Easy recipe for air fryer pinwheels made with puff pastry. This tasty appetizer only takes minutes to prepare. It’s one of the air fryer appetizers that crowds love!

4.72 from 21 votes

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Prep Time 10

Total Time 16

Servings pieces

Ingredients

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (defrosted)
¼ cup green pesto (60 grams, see note 1)
5 ounces deli ham (140 grams, see note 2)
¼ cup jalapenos (drained, chopped, optional)

Instructions

Dust your worktop and slightly roll out the puff pastry sheet. Spread green pesto over and cover it with a few slices of ham. Top with finely chopped jalapenos.
Turn the puff pastry so that the wider side is close to you. Now roll gently (don’t roll too tight) into a sausage.
Slice into 1-inch (2.5 centimeter) pieces.
Cook in a pre-heated (see note 5) air fryer at 400°F (200°C) for 6 minutes or until done.
Enjoy!

Notes

Green pesto can be substituted with red pesto.
Use any kind of deli ham you like. I only recommend using thicker slices (if using paper-thin slices, double them).
Check the pinwheels after 6 minutes. If not ready, set the timer to a further 2 minutes. The cooking time may vary. This will depend on the brand of your air fryer, on the thickness of the pastry as well as the size of your pinwheels. If you feel that 8 minutes is not enough, add more.
I got 15 pieces out of 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry (cut into 1 inch/2.5 centimeter wide pinwheels). The weight of one sheet was 9 ounces (250 grams).
Every air fryer is different. Some may do the preheating automatically while others don’t. I preheat mine for 2 minutes before cooking.
For more tips or if in doubt, I recommend reading the full post.
You might need to cook these in 2 batches, depending on the number of slices you get.

Nutrition

Calories: 129 kcal (6%), Carbohydrates: 8 g (3%), Protein: 3 g (6%), Fat: 9 g (14%), Saturated Fat: 2 g (13%), Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4 g, Cholesterol: 6 mg (2%), Sodium: 190 mg (8%), Potassium: 40 mg (1%), Fiber: 0.4 g (2%), Sugar: 0.3 g, Vitamin A: 100 IU (2%), Vitamin C: 2 mg (2%), Calcium: 9 mg (1%), Iron: 1 mg (6%)

Course Appetizer

Cuisine American

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