Viennese Swirls





My good friend Aramide, who is a brilliant cook and baker in his own right, sent me an SOS Facebook message claiming he had spent the entire weekend making Viennese Swirls only to fail miserably each time. He requested that I have a go using a different recipe. To quote him “I think my recipe book is a liar!”.

According to him, his recipe yielded a crumbly mess. I remember reading somewhere that the fat content when making these delicate biscuits was what determined the outcome and texture. After doing some research and mixing it up a bit, I have the perfect Viennese Swirl recipe.

Viennese Swirls are basically short shortbread. Its a lovely fine-textured biscuits that literally melts in your mouth and a perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea.

I made two varieties, a chocolate coated one, and a jam filled one.

It took me all of an hour to prepare the mix, bake, and decorate these lovelies.

I hope this solves your predicament Ram!

* Sorry for the lack of photos! Bath has been dreary and rainy the past few days. To make matters worse, I read in the newspapers this morning that its been predicted that it is going to snow in October! How about that.

Viennese Swirls

Yields 16-20 swirls


Ingredients


250 grams butter, softened.

55 grams icing sugar

225 grams plain flour

75 grams corn flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

100 grams dark chocolate (optional)

Strawberry/Raspberry Jam (optional)


Method 

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. 
  2. Soften the butter by either microwaving it for 5-10 seconds, or leaving it out in the open for a few hours. Add the icing sugar, plain flour and corn flour into a bowl and give it a quick mix. Add the butter to the flour mixture and mix it quickly until all ingredients are incorporated. Add the vanilla extract.
  3. It is important not to over-mix the batter as too much air will affect the texture.
  4. Using a star nozzle, pipe the mixture onto a parchment paper or a silicone sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the biscuits take on a golden colour.
  5. Once swirls have cooled, melt dark chocolate and dip half the swirl in. The chocolate has to be quite runny - I had to add a few teaspoons of milk to chocolate to get the perfect consistency.
  6. For round swirls, dollop some jam onto the middle and sprinkle with icing sugar.