My friend Caroline, being half French, is rarely inclined to ask me for recipes, so it’s testament to the quality of the Viennese whirls we had atthe Cake Fridge in Bixtera couple of years ago, during a very damp cycle tour of Shetland, that she has been relentless in her demands for me to recreate them. Many foods are described as melting in the mouth, but these really did.
These relatively plain biscuits are known asSpritzgebäckin German, from the verb “to squirt”, because they’re piped or pressed from a special cookie tool rather than cut or rolled. The dough is, asRavneet Gillobserves in her first book The Pastry Chef’s Guide, “really simple … the knack is in the piping”. Somewhere between a fairy cake and a cookie, they’re fancy enough for a tea party, but easy enough to knock up, though the people at the Cake Fridge were, quite understandably, tight-lipped about their recipe.
Plain flour is the thing for a short, rather than chewy texture – readers in the US, Canada and other places that grow high-protein wheat may wish to experiment with specialcake flour, but in the UK, bog-standard plain is ideal. The protein content is relevant because, when hydrated and kneaded with sufficient force, these give dough its strength and elasticity in the form of gluten. Great for bread, but the kiss of death for a biscuit of this kind, which bears more relation to a shortcrust pastry (hence their Italian name,biscotti di pasta frolla).
To minimise gluten development, work the dough as little as possible after adding the flour (though I’m not sure patting it together between two sheets of clingfilm, asRose Levy Beranbaum recommendsin her Baking Bible, is really necessary. Stirring it briefly together, as Susan Spaull and Fiona Burrell direct in their rivalLeiths Baking Bible, feels as if it should do the job almost as well, with rather less in the way of faff. Like Gill, bothMary Berryand Delicious magazine replace some of the flour with gluten-free cornflour.
Icing sugar is the name of the game for a smooth, fine crumb, but too much will cause the biscuits to spread in the oven. Instead, keep the dough muscularly plain and add sweetness in the filling, or just give them a generous dusting of icing sugar before serving.
As pastry chef Nicola Lamb explains on herKitchen Projectsbaking Substack, “piped biscuits need to do a few things – first, be delicious, second they can’t spread too much when baking, and third, the dough needs to be soft enough to be pipeable. Unfortunately, points one and two are kind of mutually exclusive. When it comes to flavouring your biscuits, butter is the MVP. But butter, it melts and spreads. So, limiting the overall proportion of butter without losing flavour or texture is KEY.”
Her solution is to add much less butter than some of the other recipes. Berry, for instance, uses equal parts butter and flour; Gill,DeliciousandBen Mims’ book Crumbsslightly less; and Leiths slightly less again – Lamb allows just half the weight of butter to the flour, butbrowns it first, to concentrate the flavour. She makes up for the loss by adding egg and milk to bring moisture and flavour to the dough without burdening it with too much extra fat (Leiths’ egg yolk and single cream do much the same job).
I love the nuttiness and rich golden hue of Lamb’s browned butter, but my testers prefer the less Germanically precise-looking, but richer-tasting butter-heavy versions. Thanks to the lack of water hindering gluten development, however, browned butter cookies will always spread more than ordinary ones, so I’m happy to yield and go half and half, because taste always comes first, especially when precision piping isn’t really in your skill-set in the first place. That way, I can blame the butter. If you’d prefer a more classically perfect-looking Viennese whirl, skip the browning step.
Gill uses custard powder (cornflour, salt, colouring and vanilla flavouring) to give her biscuits colour, but I’m relying on the browned butter to do that job for me, while I’ll save the vanilla for the buttercream filling I’ve borrowed from Berry. If you’re planning not to fill your biscuits with icing or jam (or the Nutella or curd Gill suggests), or to dip them in chocolate as Delicious does, you may like to flavour the dough with vanilla, Mims’ lemon zest or the ground hazelnuts in the Delicious take. The latter is particularly good, and I suspect most ground nuts would work well here.
Much easier than it sounds – these biscuits are very forgiving, though, given the high butter content, they do benefit from a brief chill before baking, so they keep as much as their shape as possible in the oven while still tasting great.
Prep45 minChill30 min+Cook15 minMakes20, or 10 sandwiches
300g butter, if making browned butter or 240g softened butter if skipping that step55g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting¼ tsp fine salt, or a good pinch of coarse salt250g plain flour50g cornflour1 tsp vanilla extract(if not using buttercream filling)A splash of milk(optional)
For the buttercream (optional)100g softened butter200g icing sugarA pinch of salt½ tsp vanilla extract, or flavouring of your choiceA splash of milk
If making browned butter, melt 180g of the butter in a light-coloured pan over a medium heat, making sure you have a heatproof bowl ready. Once the butter stops sizzling, whisk or stir it regularly to stop the milk solids sticking to the pan and, once it’s turned a honeyed, amber colour, tip into the bowl, solids and all, and leave to cool and set.
Measure 120g of the browned butter into a large bowl or stand mixer, add 120g ordinary butter and beat to soften (or, if not making browned butter, beat 240g plain butter instead). Sift over the icing sugar, add the salt and beat again until the mix is soft and spreadable, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Combine the flour and cornflour, then add to the bowl with the vanilla, if using. Stir just until everything is thoroughly combined – do not overwork the dough. It should be firm, but add a splash of milk if the dough looks too stiff to pipe.
Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper (stick it down with a little oil or butter), and prepare a piping bag with a large star nozzle – I used a 1½cm one. Pipe round swirls (or S shapes or fingers) across the trays, spacing them slightly apart; you can make them as large as you like, but I think about 5cm is perfect. Chill the biscuits on their trays for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 190C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5, then bake for 14-16 minutes, until the biscuits are very lightly golden. Remove and leave to cool on the trays.
Meanwhile, if you’re making the buttercream, beat the butter until soft, then sift in the icing sugar, add the salt, vanilla extract and a splash of milk to loosen, and beat again.
If making sandwiches, pair up biscuits of a similar size and shape, then spread the flat side of half of them with the buttercream (or jam or similar). Top with the remaining biscuits, dust lightly with icing sugar and serve.
Viennese whirls,spritzgebäck,biscotti di pasta frolla… if it’s a sweet, soft biscuit that melts in the mouth, it’s probably from the same family, so share your favourite relatives! And if anyone’s close enough to Bixter to try both together, please report back on how mine measures up to the original!