This pinwheel recipe is the ultimate finger food! These tortilla roll ups are perfect for entertaining and endlessly customizable.

One of the best finger food recipes there is? A good pinwheels recipe! For years we’ve been looking for just the right version of this party classic. It wasn’t until now that we found what we were looking for: these tortilla roll ups! They’re full of Italian-style flavors: mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, spinach, and a blend of spices. They look totally stunning on a platter. And better yet: we’ve figured out all the tricks to making a beautiful roll up: ours used to turn out misshapen and sad looking. Here’s how to make the most perfect pinwheels for your appetizer trays!

Pinwheel recipe ingredients

Most pinwheel recipes have similar ingredients, but they’re endlessly customizable! You can make this pinwheel recipe with lots of different fillings! Here’s what we did for our version, but you can see below with some customization ideas! Here are the basic pinwheel recipe ingredients:

Large burrito-style tortillas (see below)
Cream cheese (or goat cheese, to class it up!)
Shredded cheese
Filling ingredients: spinach and fire-roasted tomatoes
Spices: basil, oregano, and garlic powder

Tip 1: Buy at least 10-inch tortillas

The first tip to the perfect pinwheel recipe: buy large tortillas! And that means: very large. Here’s what to know:

Buy tortillas marked burrito size or at least 10-inch tortillas. Don’t buy the large tortillas that work for quesadillas or tacos: they’re too small and they make a roll-up that doesn’t have enough spirals.
What if I can’t find them? We recommend holding out for large tortillas if you’re serving these for entertaining. Of course if you don’t mind the look for less spirals, you can use any size you like.

Tip 2: Roll the tortillas very tightly

The other tip for a great looking pinwheel recipe? Roll the tortillas very tightly. Many roll up recipes don’t provide any specifics on how to roll the pinwheels. But if you don’t pay attention to the rolling, you’ll get haphazard looking tortilla roll ups (like ours normally look). Here’s what to know:

Spread on a thin layer of filling — about ⅓ cup. It’s important to have just enough filling to taste great but not so much that it’s overly strong and cheesy. We’ve found that this is ⅓ cup, then sprinkle any chunks of meat, cheese or veggies on top.
Roll the tortillas as tightly as possible, especially at the beginning of the roll. If you’re not scrupulous about a tight roll at the beginning, you’ll have a hole in the roll. Then roll as tight as possible and they’ll look beautiful…promise.

Tip 3: Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Here’s the thing: in a pinwheel recipe, the refrigeration time is important. Why? It gives the filling time to set. This is important for getting just the right texture on the pinwheel. Many pinwheel recipes say to refrigerate for 1 hour, but we found it wasn’t long enough to get the right texture.

Another thing that a 2-hour refrigeration does is the tortillas soak up a bit of the moisture from the cheese filling. This causes them to puff out just a bit, which looks lovely when you cut into the pinwheel.

How to customize this pinwheels recipe

OK, so you’ve got our 3 best tips for the perfect pinwheels. But there are lots of ingredients to customize if you want to get creative! Here are lots of ideas on how to make new flavors of pinwheels following this basic recipe:

Mexican-style: Spread on salsa, add black olives or thinly sliced green onions, use cheddar cheese or Mexican blend instead of mozzarella. Or go to this Mexican Pinwheels recipe.
Classic: Use cheddar cheese, add ranch seasoning to taste, use chopped red pepper, green onion and black olives as filling
Pizza pinwheels: Spread pizza sauce over the cream cheese, add pizza toppings like chopped green pepper, red onion, black olives, prosciutto, etc
Spinach artichoke pinwheels: Make the recipe below, but substitute sundried tomatoes with

The sky’s the limit, as you can tell! You can also customize this specific pinwheel recipe (below). Use goat cheese instead of cream cheese for an upscale spin, or roasted red pepper instead of sun-dried tomato. Add thinly sliced green onion, or any other fillings you like!

Storage info for tortilla roll ups

Last thing before we release you to go roll! Here’s what to know about the storage for this pinwheel recipe:

Store up to 3 days refrigerated. But keep in mind…
The tortillas will soften over time. They’re best day of. The tortillas continue to soak up moisture from the filling, so they’ll get softer. They still taste good, but serve them as fresh as possible to guests.

This pinwheel recipe is…

Vegetarian. For gluten-free, find burrito-sized tortillas that are gluten-free.