Recipe: Back to School Pastry Scrolls, 3 ways, as seen on The Morning Show

Getting kids clean, dressed, fed and out the door in time for school each day can be difficult. It often means that the school lunch box is left full of pre packaged, high sugar snacks rather than healthy and nutritional food.

One of our quickest and easiest lunch box fillers is a pastry scroll. We have three favourite flavours; sundried tomato, herb, and apple cinnamon. They are great because they can be made in advance and baked when needed. Their snail like shape will win over the kids on the playground, and probably a few big kids at the office too!

This recipe is also great for getting the kids involved, they will love rolling up the scrolls!

Back to school pastry scrolls, 3 ways

Sundried tomato filling

• 1 cup semi sun dried tomatoes
• ½ cup Basil leaves
• 2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Herb filling

• 1 cup picked basil (tightly packed)
• 1 cup picked parsley (tightly packed)
• ½ cup mint leaves (tightly packed)
• ¼ cup pine nuts
• 1 garlic clove
• ¼ cup grated parmesan
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

Apple and cinnamon filling

• 2 granny smith apples
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 2 sheets of puff pastry (enough for one type of filling)
• 1 egg lightly beaten

For the Sundried tomato and Herb filling place all ingredients in a food processor and blend into a paste.

For the apple and cinnamon filling, grate the apple leaving the skin on and discard the core. Put apple, brown sugar and cinnamon in a saucepan with ½ cup of water and cook covered on a low heat until the apple has softened. Add more water if needed. Allow to cool.

To make scrolls place half of desired filling on each puff pastry sheet and spread it out to an even thickness, leaving 2 cm gap at one end of the pasty to seal the scroll.

Roll the scroll very loosely so that the pastry can puff all the way to the centre, sealing it at the end with the 2cm gap. Brush the roll with egg wash all over.

Wrap the roll in cling film and place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. The pastry will have a much better texture if cooked from frozen (this also means that you can keep these rolls, uncooked, in the freezer for up to a month – so handy for busy mums!)

Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees. Remove roll from freezer and cling film. Cut into 1.5cm slices.

Place scrolls on a baking tray lined with baking paper. and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden and puffed.

Eat hot or cool before storing in a air tight container in the fridge for school or work the next day.