In her kindergarten class, my daughter and her friends are studying snails. They have become little experts on whorls (the swirl on a snail’s shell) and just about every other detail of snail living, and to celebrate, I got to spend an afternoon with them at school making a holiday take on lumace, snail pastries.
Because of prevalent nut allergies in classrooms these days, we needed to our original recipe. We started with puff pastry, spread jam on top, and finished with a spice and butter blend. By the time we were finishes, the kids were covered head to toe in flour. We went to the bathroom down the hall to run damage control and played “water salon”. They giggled as they looked at their friends’ floury hair, nose, forehead, and there were no complaints when I asked them to help clean up. They marched back to their classroom with still-floury clothes but clean, proud faces. Can you tell that I might have had a little fun, too?
The classic flavors in these rolls would make a great project for Christmas morning when you want something warm and fragrant but also may not be willing to spend all morning making breakfast. The puff pastry is store-bought, and the filling mixes up very quickly. The scent of these rolls baking will fill your kitchen with that heavenly mixture of dough, cinnamon and butter. Mmmm. I can just feel a new Christmas morning tradition beginning.
Print This RecipeQuick Christmas Morning Cinnamon Snails
- 1 package of puff pastry, placed in the fridge for 24 hours to thaw
- 1/4 c. apricot or raspberry
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 3/4 c. brown sugar
- 2 t. ground cinnamon
- 1 t. ground ginger
- 1/4 t. cloves
- 1/4 t. freshly grated nutmeg
- 3 T. butter, melted
- flour for rolling out the dough
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the sugars and spices.
- Sprinkle some flour on your countertop or a wooden board. Not too much or the pastry will be tough. Not too little or your pastry will stick.
- Flour a rolling pin
- Unfold the puff pastry and roll it out till the dough is about 1/8-inch thick. Try to keep the rectangular shape as best as you can.
- Using a large offset or a rubber spatula, spread the apricot jam all over the puff pastry.
- Sprinkle on the spice/butter mixture and use the spatula to spread it out.
- Flour your hands, and beginning from on long end of the dough, start to roll the dough into a long tube, making the tube as tight as you can.
- If the dough is now really warm, put it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to chill before cutting the rolls.
- Using a serrated knife, cut the tube into rolls about 3/4-inch thick and place them on the prepared baking sheets.
- Big Person: Bake them for 20-25 minutes or until they begin to turn a little bit golden. Cool for a couple of minutes and serve warm.
