Hairy Bikers Viennese Whirls Recipe

For Hairy Bikers Viennese whirls, a dough of butter, icing sugar, flour and cornflour is piped into swirls, then filled with buttercream and cherry jam. With their Brilliant Bakes recipe you get about 16 sandwiches in 1 hour 35 minutes plus cooling, and my estimate is 305 calories a sandwich.

Two of their books carry this biscuit, and in the Austria chapter of the Big Book of Baking they admit “they’re not really from Vienna”. But chilling happens only in Brilliant Bakes, first the dough and then the piped swirls, while cherry jam takes the place of raspberry.

Half an hour in the fridge after piping is the step worth protecting, I’d say, since “this will help them keep their shape”. So pipe first, chill them for at least 30 minutes, and only then heat the oven, which is the order the recipe follows.

Hairy Bikers Viennese Whirls

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Baking Cuisine:British Courses:Snack

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 35 minutesCook time: 15 minutesRest time: 45 minutesTotal time:1 hour 35 minutesServings:16 servingsCalories:305 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

A soft, buttery paste goes through a star nozzle into swirls, stars or strips, rests in the fridge, then bakes until pale golden. Once cool, half get vanilla or kirsch buttercream and the rest cherry jam, before they are pressed together in pairs.

Ingredients

For the biscuits

• 250g butter, softened
• 50g icing sugar
• 250g plain flour
• 50g cornflour
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

For the filling

• 100g butter, softened
• 200g icing sugar, sieved
• a few drops of vanilla extract or kirsch
• up to 2 tbsp milk
• 50g dark chocolate, grated (optional)
• 75g cherry jam or conserve

To serve

• icing sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. Make the dough: Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment. Then beat all the biscuit ingredients together in a bowl to a smooth, soft paste, and chill it for 15 minutes.
2. Pipe: Fit a piping bag with a star nozzle and spoon in half the mixture. Then pipe it onto the trays as small swirls, stars or strips, spaced well apart, then repeat to make about 32 biscuits.
3. Chill again: Chill the piped biscuits for at least 30 minutes, or longer on a very hot day, so they keep their shape. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5.
4. Bake: Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until pale golden and cooked through, then leave them to cool on the trays.
5. Make the filling: Mix the butter and icing sugar with a spoon until crumbly, then beat until very soft and light. Stir in the vanilla or kirsch, plus just enough milk to loosen it.
6. Sandwich: Using a palette knife, spread the filling over the underside of half the biscuits and scatter over the chocolate, if using. Then spread the underside of the rest with the jam or conserve and sandwich them together in pairs.
7. Set and dust: Leave them to set, chilling for 30 minutes if needed, then store in an airtight tin. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

FAQs

How is the Big Book of Baking version different?

It sits in the Austria chapter, where a near-identical dough, minus the salt, is blitzed in a food processor or beaten with a hand whisk. Then it is piped into rounds of about 6cm, which they describe as slightly smaller than a digestive biscuit.

Those bake in batches in the centre of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, giving 32 to 36 biscuits in all. And the jam is stirred smooth in a separate bowl before filling, which to my mind makes it the more classic of the two.

Why are my Viennese whirls crumbly or hard to pipe?

Some crumble is the point, since their Big Book of Baking version has “a very light, short texture”, in their words. And that version asks for very soft butter and a large star nozzle, which as I understand it makes the dough easier to pipe.

So my own tip is to take the butter out well ahead, since the soft paste needs soft butter. Then, as in Brilliant Bakes, leave them to cool on the tray, which saves handling them while warm.

Can you fill them with chocolate instead?

Yes, as their Big Book of Baking tip is to sandwich them with melted chocolate instead of jam and buttercream. Or keep the cherry version and add the optional 50g of grated dark chocolate over the buttercream.

With kirsch in the filling, that combination echoes their Black Forest gateau, which pairs morello cherry jam, kirsch and chocolate sponge. So for a party plate, I would make a few of each filling.

How long do they keep, and can you make them ahead?

In Brilliant Bakes they say to store them in an airtight tin, but they give no number of days. And my own estimate is 3 to 4 days once filled, since the buttercream slowly softens the biscuits.

So for Christmas, I would bake the biscuits ahead and fill them on the day, alongside their orange and cranberry mince pies. And for a fuller biscuit tin, their gingernuts with chopped stem ginger come from the same book.

Is there a Hairy Bikers video for them?

I could not find a Hairy Bikers video of Viennese whirls on YouTube, so the written recipes are the ones to follow. On BBC Food, their Viennese whirl biscuits also make 32 to 36, the same count as the Big Book of Baking version.

If you like a rich teatime bake with a shortbread base, their millionaire shortbread is another teatime bake worth a look. And it layers condensed milk caramel and chocolate over a buttery base in one square tin.