These biscuits are a British classic and are often referred to as shortbread piped in a whirl pattern.
These biscuits are super quick and easy to make and will mean you have fresh warm biscuits in no time at all. I am not someone who has got the hang of piping things yet but I like to try and do my best.
These biscuits can be eaten as they are once baked or even made into biscuit sandwiches and filled with cream and jam.
I made this recipe twice and wish both times that maybe I should have put the dough in fridge for ten minutes to ensure that when they baked they keep the whirly pattern because you can lose some of the definition.
So for me I like a cuppa with any biscuits that I make and these just accompany a cuppa so well.
I piped a fair amount of the dough for each biscuit as I wanted to ensure that the biscuits were all a decent size and a similar shape even though I wasn’t sandwiching them together.
Viennese Whirls
Ingredients
- 200 g slightly salted butter softened
- 50 g icing sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g plain flour
- 2 tsp cornflour
- ½ tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Put the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl and beat with a whisk for about 5 mins until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat again until fully incorporated.
- Sift in the flour, cornflour and baking powder, and fold into the mixture using a spatula until combined (the dough should have a tacky consistency).
- Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped nozzle.
- Pipe swirly circles 5cm diameter onto 2 baking sheets making sure there are 3cm spaces between each swirl.
- Bake for 10-12 mins, swapping the trays over halfway through the cooking time so the biscuits are evenly baked, until pale golden and cooked through.
- Leave to cool on the baking sheets for a few mins, then transfer to wire racks.
