Hack your way to making the perfect DIY ‘Danish pastry’; these puff pastry cinnamon & raisin twists are quick and easy to prepare and are deliciously moreish. Yum!

See the middle of this page for step-by-step instructions plus handy photos to help guide you, or see the bottom of the page for quick recipe if preferred. I’d recommend spending a few minutes reading the following first though, for very useful information and tips on making this dish.

Quick and easy sweet treat

These puff pastry cinnamon and raisin twists are almost identical to Danish pastries, however this recipe allows you to create this sweet treat in a fraction of the time that a traditional Danish pastry can be made.

Also, although Danish pastries can be bought in many stores, they usually need to be eaten nice and fresh or they can quickly start going stale. Because of this, it makes perfect sense to create your own at home then eat them straight out of the oven for maximum freshness and deliciousness, mmm.

The key to making these puff pastry cinnamon and raisin twists is the use of ready made pasty sheets. These are readily available in most supermarkets and are an absolutely wonderful invention, perfect to use in all types of quick recipe, whether sweet or savoury. Puff pastry is one of the most difficult and time consuming types of pastry to make from scratch, (with the potential for things to quickly go pear-shaped!)

If you have bags of time and are up for the challenge, feel free to make your own puff pastry, however for quick cooking I fully advocate using the ready-made varieties. As a bonus, the store bought uncooked pastry sheets can often be frozen so you can keep a stash in the freezer to whip out whenever you get the urge to create that perfect puff pastry recipe.

Quick hints and tips

One important thing to remember when making these puff pastry cinnamon and raisin twists is to avoid adding too much butter. The puff pastry itself already has a decent quantity of fat within it and slopping on a lot more will result in a greasy, wet mess once baked (I learnt this the hard way in one of my rather sloppy early attempts!)

Because of this, this quick puff pastry cinnamon and raisin twists recipe only uses a relatively small amount of butter (or plant based spread if you prefer) but a decent amount of sugar and cinnamon mixed into it.

This means you will end up with a paste that is very concentrated in flavour and will come across as overpowering if you taste it once it’s mixed together, however this is exactly how it should be so don’t worry! Once it’s spread thinly onto the puff pasty sheet, the flavour will be diluted down to give the perfect amount of sugar and spice in the finished pastry twists.

A word now on the sugar. Most types of sugar would work perfectly well in these puff pastry cinnamon and raisin twists, however definitely for the richest, almost treacle like flavour, dark brown sugar really is the best of all. This type of sugar also complements the rich, mellow flavour of the cinnamon perfectly so I’d recommend using this where possible.

Finally, a few tips on how to successfully turn the raw pastry around to form the classic twist shape, after spreading it with the cinnamon butter; Hold each strip of cut pastry with one hand at each end, then twist the ends round in opposite directions though about 5-6 complete turns. While you do this, you should aim to turn the side that’s spread with the cinnamon butter in towards the centre of the pastry as much as possible. You want to end up barely being able to see the cinnamon butter at all on the outside of the twist. By doing this, you ensure that nearly all of the cinnamon butter stays within the centre of the pastry and does not leach out onto the baking sheet.

For clarity on how to create the twists, I’d really recommend having a look at the ‘step by step’ method photos below that are easier to understand than a description alone.

I hope you enjoy making and eating these puff pastry cinnamon and raisin twists as much as I do, especially the divine aroma they create in your kitchen once then are in the oven, so delicious!

Quick puff pastry cinnamon & raisin twists – step by step method

Makes 6 large twists

STEP BY STEP

1) Begin by pre-heating your oven to 210c / 410f conventional or 190c / 375f fan oven.

2) Line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

3) In a small bowl, add one rounded tablespoon of butter or plant based spread, three rounded tablespoons of dark brown sugar (make sure to use a fine grain type) and finally, 2 level teaspoons of ground cinnamon. Stir it all to combine it nicely.

4) Sprinkle a clean kitchen surface with plain flour. Next, unroll one 320g (11 oz) ready rolled puff pastry sheet and place it carefully onto this well-floured surface.

5) Spread the cinnamon butter that you just made evenly on top of the this unrolled pastry sheet.

6) Next, sprinkle four tablespoons of raisins evenly on top of the cinnamon butter you’ve just spread.

7) Using a sharp knife, divide the pasty sheet width ways into 6 evenly sized strips.

8) Now it’s time to create your twists. Pick up one strip of pastry at a time and holding it with both hands at either end, twist each end in opposite directions, though about 5-6 complete turns, ensuring that you keep the cinnamon butter side in the centre of the pastry as much as possible as you twist it.

9) You should end up with a completed twist where you can only see a thin line of the cinnamon butter from the outside. This helps to ensure very little of the butter leaks out onto the baking sheet as it cooks

10) Place each completed cinnamon raisin pastry twist on the baking sheet.

11) Bake the pastry twists in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes until golden in colour.

12) Remove from oven and leave on baking tray for five minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack for a further 5 mins. Dust evenly with 1 tablespoon of icing sugar and enjoy!