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Southern Sausage Pinwheels. These easy sausage pinwheels are made with just three simple things! Flaky crescent dough gets rolled up with creamy cheese and yummy sausage to make little swirly bites that everyone loves. They bake up golden and bubbly, smell amazing, and are gone before you know it!
Southern Sausage Pinwheels. These little swirly bites are the kind of food that disappears from the table super fast. My aunt used to make two big batches every Sunday, and we still ended up almost fighting over the last one — in the nicest way possible, of course! You just need crescent roll dough from a can, breakfast sausage, and cream cheese. That’s it! The cream cheese holds everything together and makes the inside all warm, melty, and delicious. The best part? They are really easy to make, even on a busy day when you don’t want to spend a long time cooking.
You can put these yummy pinwheels on a big plate and serve them with fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, or a simple salad. They also taste great next to mac and cheese, a pot of beans, or a big green salad. Want a dipping sauce? Ranch dressing or a little pepper jelly on the side is so good — but totally up to you! These travel really well too, so they are perfect to bring to a party, a game day, or a friend’s house straight from the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 can (8 oz) refrigerated crescent roll dough or crescent dough sheet
- 1 block (8 oz) cream cheese, left out to get soft
- 1 roll (1 lb) pork breakfast sausage — pick mild if you don’t like spicy, or hot if you do
Southern Sausage Pinwheels: Directions
- Turn your oven on to 375°F (190°C). Put a big baking sheet out and cover it with parchment paper, or give it a quick spray with cooking spray so nothing sticks.
- Put the sausage in a pan on the stove over medium heat. Break it apart with a spoon and stir it around while it cooks. Keep cooking it for about 7 to 10 minutes until it turns brown all the way through and there is no more pink left. Pour off the extra grease and let the sausage sit and cool down for 5 to 10 minutes. This is important — if it’s too hot, it will melt your cream cheese!
- In a bowl, mix the soft cream cheese and the cooled sausage together. Stir it until everything is mixed up and looks smooth. A big spoon or spatula works great for this.
- Open the can of crescent dough and unroll it carefully on a clean surface with a little flour on it, or lay it on a piece of parchment paper. If your dough has little cut lines (seams), press them together with your fingers so you have one flat piece of dough with no gaps.
- Use your hands or a rolling pin to gently flatten the dough into a rectangle that is about 12 inches long and 8 inches wide. Try to keep it the same thickness all the way across so all the pinwheels cook the same way.
- Scoop the sausage and cream cheese mix onto the dough and spread it out in an even layer. Leave about half an inch of empty dough along one of the long edges — this will help it seal up when you roll it.
- Starting from the long side that has the filling all the way to the edge, roll the dough up into a tight log shape, kind of like a jelly roll. Go slowly and keep it snug so the pinwheels don’t fall apart when you cut them.
- Put the log down with the seam side facing down. Use a sharp knife to cut the log into slices that are about half an inch to three-quarters of an inch thick. If the dough feels too soft or squishy to cut, put the whole log in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes first. It will firm up and be much easier to slice.
- Place all your pinwheel slices flat on the baking sheet. Leave about 1 to 2 inches of space between each one because they will puff up and spread out a little while baking.
- Slide the baking sheet into your hot oven and bake for 13 to 18 minutes. You want them to look golden brown on the outside, look flaky, and have the filling bubbling a little in the middle. Every oven is a little different, so start checking them around 13 minutes so they don’t over-bake.
- Take the pan out of the oven and let the pinwheels sit on the pan for 5 minutes before you move them to a plate. This helps the filling firm up a tiny bit and keeps you from burning your fingers!
- Eat them while they’re still warm! If you want to make them ahead of time, let them cool all the way down, then put them in a container with a lid and keep them in the fridge. When you’re ready to eat them, warm them up in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 8 to 10 minutes until they are hot and crispy again.
