Jalapeno Cream Cheese Swirls

Around here, everything is turning green. You might ask why.  Obviously, it's St. Patrick's Day in Hoboken.  (No, it doesn't make any sense that it's celebrated before the actual St. Patrick's Day of March 17th.  Let's just roll with it.)  A few weeks ago, my roommate and I eagerly sent out invitations to what is now our 3rd Annual St. Patrick's Day brunch party.  Of course this initiated a hunt for festive green appetizers.

As a part of my "research", I began poking around the Karen Cooks blog.  See, I was assigned Karen's blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club. Karen has quite an extensive list of recipes on her site.  As I was looking for appetizers, I kept getting side-tracked by other recipes that I wanted to try.  Chief among those recipes are these Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls.  They just look delicious.  But that's not what this blog post is about.  This blog post is about some spicy, savory appetizers.

Jalapenos give this appetizer a real kick, especially if you're not careful and add in a few extra peppers.  Apparently, some people at our brunch weren't huge fans of all the spice that I accidentally added(sorry about that!).  At any rate, I thought the blend of flaky, slightly sweet crescent dough, soft cream cheese, and heat from the peppers worked really well together to provide our guests with an unexpected (and green) hors d'oeuvre!

Jalapeno Cream Cheese Swirls

from Karen Cooks
yields 24 pieces

Print Recipe

• 3/4 block of cream cheese, softened
• ~3 ounces pickled jalapenos
• 2 tubes refrigerated seamless dough*
• 2 tablespoons sugar

* If you can't find seamless dough like I did, you can roll out the perforated crescent dough and gently press the seams together to form a "seamless dough".

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2) Add the jalapenos and cream cheese to a food processor.  Blend together until fully incorporated.

3) Roll out one of the dough sheets on a lightly floured surface.  Spread half of the cream cheese mixture evenly over the dough.

4) Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the cream cheese.

5) Starting at the short end, roll up the dough.  (Note: Karen recommends starting at the long end. I just happened to skim over that part and started rolling the dough up the other way. Oh, well.  It was just as tasty!)

6) Cut dough in half, then in half again.  Slice the log into 12 slices.

7) Place the dough cut-side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

8) Repeat Steps 3-7 with the second tube of dough.

9) Bake for ~11 minutes or until the dough is lightly browned.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving warm.