Party-Perfect Cream Cheese Pinwheels

This fun appetizer is perfect party food and serves as a tasty, quick snack on busy workdays. These cream cheese pinwheels are beyond delicious and use deli ham to wrap the delicious cream cheese mix and crispy bacon. With only 5 ingredients and 15 minutes of your time, you won't find an easier and better-tasting snack!

Pinwheels with Cream Cheese

Pinwheel sandwiches are common party appetizers at buffets, BBQs, or picnics, but I prefer to snack on them or make them for kids' packed lunches or grandkids.

Pinwheels are mainly served in a flour tortilla and filled with various ingredients like bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, green onions, cheddar cheese, ranch dressing, and some form of meat like ham, turkey, sausage, chicken, and roast beef.

For this cream cheese pinwheels recipe, I use big slices of round deli ham to replace flour tortillas and wrapped the cream cheese mixture seasoned with ranch seasoning and cooked bacon. The whole thing takes approximately 10-15 minutes to roll up that will give you 10 servings.

As an alternative, use thinly sliced leftover roast beef instead of round deli ham.

Pinwheels are also a great appetizer as they are low in carbs and can be made vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free.

🍽 What you need

When buying meat like ham, turkey, sausage, or chicken, buy big slices. You may need to ask the butcher specifically for thinly cut meat. You'll also find the best variety and freshness by requesting it directly from the butcher. And in my experience, at least 1-2 options are discounted every week.

To save time in the kitchen, I recommend buying canned sliced olives rather than unsliced seeded olives.

🔪 How to make Pinwheels

Learn how to make cream cheese pinwheels in 4 easy steps. All you need to do is form a layer of ham, smother it with cream cheese spread, bacon, and olives. Roll it up, wrap it, and serve.

Instructions

1. Place the ham on the chopping board so that each piece overlaps the other, then combine cream cheese with the ranch mix and spread it evenly over the ham.
2. Sprinkle the black olives on top of the cream cheese and place the bacon pieces over.
3. Once the pinwheels are filled with the ingredients, carefully roll them up as tightly as possible. (long side facing)
4. Cut each pinwheel in half if you want to serve them straight away or wrap each in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge, ready to serve later.

💭 Top Tips

• Make your pinwheels super cheesy with a layer of shredded cheddar cheese on top of the bacon bits.
• Do not skip the plastic wrapping step if you want your roll-ups nice and tight, as this helps keep the tortilla tightly wrapped.
• If the cream cheese spread is not spreading easily across the ham, microwave it for 10 seconds to warm it up. Alternatively, you can mix some sour cream with the cream cheese filling to make it more spreadable.
• Pinwheels are fantastic for dipping in a homemade enchilada sauce, ranch dressing, or sour cream.
• Use a piping bag for the cream cheese filling to spread it over the ham easier and quicker without any mess.

📖 Variations

If you're looking for some tasty pinwheel inspirations, try some of these easy variations for your next super bowl or holiday party.

Ham and Cheese Pinwheels

Classic pinwheels are outrageously easy to make and combine buttery pastry wrapped around delicious cured ham and swiss cheese. This is one of my go-to recipes to take with me when traveling and for picnics.

Salmon Pinwheels

If you love Salmon, try thinly sliced salmon filled with a cream cheese mixture, avocado slices, cucumber, then rolled up in smoked salmon slices. I usually have these salmon pinwheels for breakfast as they have all the ingredients needed for a hearty, healthy breakfast.

Sausage Pinwheels

If you love sausage rolls, you will love sausage pinwheels filled with cream cheese and baked in low-carb eggless cheesy chewy pastry. I usually make these when I host a BBQ, as I usually make homemade burgers and use the leftovers for pinwheels.

🧊 Storing

These easy cream cheese pinwheels are excellent for meal prep and store any leftovers in the fridge.

Fridge

Place each pinwheel in plastic wrap and tightly twist the ends, so it becomes completely tight. Place them inside an airtight container and keep them in the fridge for up to 3 days maximum.

Freeze

I do not recommend freezing cream cheese pinwheels. The dairy in cream cheese will become liquified upon thawing and spoil the texture of the roll-ups.

When I want to freeze pinwheels, I substitute the cream cheese for cheddar cheese or another variant. Make sure to tightly wrap each one in plastic wrap and place them in an airtight container for up to 4 months.

👪 Serving Size

The recipe makes enough pieces to share with 10 people, and you can make them with or without flour tortillas. This recipe is easy to scale and I typically make batches of about 40 and store half.

Cream cheese pinwheels are probably one of the easiest appetizers you can possibly make in less than 15 minutes and one of the most requested snacks in my house. My kids go crazy for tortilla roll-ups, so much so that I hardly even buy bread, as roll-ups are a substitute for a sandwich!

📋 Recipe

Cream Cheese Pinwheels

This fun appetizer is perfect party food and serves as a tasty, quick snack on busy workdays. These cream cheese pinwheels are a low-carb, Keto, gluten-free alternative to tortilla roll-ups, and use deli ham to wrap the delicious cream cheese mix and crispy bacon. With only 5 ingredients and 15 minutes of your time, you won't find an easier and better-tasting snack!

4.65 from 14 votes

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Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 10

Calories: 143kcal

Author: Kim Grabinski

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 8 slices ham - thick sliced (or double up thinly sliced lunchmeat)
• 5-8 slices bacon - cooked
• 4 oz cream cheese - softened
• 1-½ teaspoons homemade ranch seasoning
• ¼ cup black olives - chopped

Instructions

• Place the ham down on a cutting board in overlapping rows 4x2.
• Spread cream cheese over the salami. If your cream cheese is too hard to spread with a knife, you can try placing it between two sheets of wax paper and rolling it flat with a rolling pin and then placing it onto the salami or ham.
• Sprinkle the ranch seasoning on the cream cheese and then add the black olives. (alternatively, you can blend seasonings into cream cheese before spreading).
• Lay the strips of bacon across the cream cheese in the short direction.
• Carefully roll the pinwheels - long side to long side, rolling as tightly as possible.
• Hold the roll securely and cut into 1-2" pieces.
• Serve as an appetizer or wrap each piece individually with plastic wrap for single-servings.

Notes

• Make your pinwheels super cheesy with a layer of shredded cheddar cheese on top of the bacon bits.
• Do not skip the plastic wrapping step if you want your roll-ups nice and tight, as this helps keep the tortilla tightly wrapped.
• If the cream cheese spread is not spreading easily across the ham, microwave it for 10 seconds to warm it up. Alternatively, you can mix some sour cream with the cream cheese filling to make it more spreadable.
• Pinwheels are fantastic for dipping in a homemade enchilada sauce, ranch dressing, or sour cream.
• Use a piping bag for the cream cheese filling to spread it over the ham easier and quicker without any mess.

Nutrition

Calories: 143kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 543mg | Potassium: 101mg | Vitamin A: 165IU | Calcium: 14mg | Iron: 0.3mg