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Practically the perfect party food, party pinwheels are an amazing way to serve a light snack at a party. However, instead of buying them super expensively from the store, why not learn to make your own?
Why not make Homemade Ranch Dressing for your Party Pinwheels rather than using a packet? If you are looking for other super quick party recipes, make sure to try these Jalapeño Poppers!
Party Pinwheels
Serving sandwiches at a party or event can be a pretty harrowing experience sometimes.
Did you get the right kind? Are there enough different options? What if everyone doesn’t like what you’ve put out?
It can be so easy to second-guess yourself, especially when every sandwich is basically the same combination of bread, meat, cheese, and fillings.
A great way to spice up your sandwich offerings is to do away with sandwiches altogether and go with some party pinwheels instead.
Made of ever-delicious tortillas and a thick, creamy, flavorful cream cheese mixture that is actually vegetarian, this is the perfect way to serve easy and simple party snacks and your next get-together.
Could You Use Pre-Made Ranch Dressing For This Recipe?
This recipe calls for the ever-classic package of dry ranch dressing mix. This collection of assorted powders and flavorings is typically mixed with cream cheese and other fatty liquids to make a creamy, flavor ranch dressing.
If you happen only to have those pre-made ranch dressings and want to use those, however, you will need to make a few adjustments.
Not only do those pre-made bottles of ranch dressing containing less high-quality ingredients for their liquid portion, but they also tend to be a bit more liquidy and less thick than if you made it yourself.
If you do use the pre-made stuff, make sure to roughly halve the amount of dressing you use so as to help mitigate the soupiness of the final product.
If you have a particularly thick pre-made ranch dressing, you could even run it through some thick-spaced cheesecloth to help separate out some of the extra liquid, which will help keep it nice and thick.
Using the powdered ranch dressing mix is probably easier, though.
Could You Use Colored Tortillas?
Flour tortillas are a staple food for American cultures for a reason; they are tender, slightly doughy, yet incredibly pillowy, and serve as the perfect container for all kinds of fillings and ingredients.
There aren’t really any good replacements for flour tortillas in this recipe other than using those slightly strange-tasting gluten-free alternatives, but there is a way to make them a bit more interesting – using colored tortillas!
Colored tortillas are made from differently colored corn, which means that the corn plants themselves have been selectively bred for different colors and flavors.
While there isn’t a whole lot of difference between most of the different types of colored corn besides some subtle flavor changes, the main thing is how vibrant and uniquely different in coloring they are.
Use some differently colored corn tortillas to provide a bit of color variety in your party pinwheels, giving each one an individual character and color, despite them being basically the same!
Why Use Two Types Of Peppers?
This recipe calls for the use of two differently colored bell peppers, both red and green.
While most people don’t really think of them as any different, red and green bell peppers do have a little bit of fundamental differences between each other.
To start with, alongside the stark color difference, red bell peppers have a little bit of a sweet flavor, helping to mellow out the total flavor intensity of your mini sandwiches.
This sweetness does come with a bit of a lack of depth of complete pepper flavor, however, which is why green peppers are often thought of as the more flavorful pepper.
While you could certainly just stick to one type of pepper over the other, using a combination of both colors diced really small allows you to get the best of both worlds.
Not only will you get different sweetness and flavor levels in every bite, but the use of two different colors of peppers adds a ton of color variety, making each individual party pinwheel unique in appearance as well as flavor.
Looking for more delicious party Snack recipes? Try these out:
• Jalapeño Grilled Cheese Rollups
Happy Cooking
Love,
Karlynn
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Party Pinwheels
Ingredients
- Two 8 ounce packages cream cheese (softened)
- One 1 ounce package ranch dressing mix
- 2 green onions (minced)
- 4 flour tortillas (12 inch) (Can use colored ones)
- ¼ cup red bell pepper (diced small)
- ¼ cup green bell pepper (diced small)
- ½ cup celery (diced small)
- ¼ cup sliced black olives (diced)
- ½ cup cheddar cheese (grated)
Instructions
- In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, ranch dressing mix, and green onions.
- Spread the mixture on each tortilla.
- Sprinkle red and green pepper, celery, black olives, and cheddar cheese over the cream cheese mixture.
- Roll up the tortillas, then wrap them tightly in aluminum foil or plastic wrap
- Chill 2 hours or overnight.
- Cut off the ends of the rolls and discard. Slice the chilled rolls into 1 inch wide slices and serve.
Notes
- You can customize these to your guests preferences making them totally vegetarian or you can even add a slice of turkey or ham when preparing them!
- Using different flavored tortillas such as sundried tomato, jalapeno cheese, or spinach will bring something a little extra to your Party Pinwheels!
Connie Fox says
I have trouble folding tortillas. Could you show me how to do this?
Bunny Peters says
I make these all the time with lots of different fillings. I often use crystal ginger, carrot and cream cheese, kalamata olive and cream cheese, different types of hummus, tuna salad, egg salad with curry, salmon salad, halibut with preserved lemon and cream cheese, cucumber salad…… the types of fillings are only limited by your imagination…….
I use really large tortillas that yield ~9 slices per roll. I will wrap these rolled sandwiches up in “heavy duty” foil with a toothpick at each end to help the sandwich keep its shape. I let them “firm up” overnight in the fridge. I also label and date each rolled sandwich with a “sharpie” pen.