There is literally nothing better than a swirly butter cookie dipped in chocolate. End of story. # 85: Chocolate Dipped Viennese Whirls

 

I’ve been meaning to make some version of these since first watching the Great British Bake Off episode where they made Viennese Whirls – buttercream and jam sandwiched between buttery swirl-design cookies. They are the definition of melt-in-your-mouth. Mmmm, butter. It truly is a magical ingredient.

 

 

At first glance, the recipe looked like a classic shortbread. Only four ingredients: butter (lots of it, no skimping here!), flour, sugar and flavoring (vanilla, almond etc.) The main difference comes in the ratio of flour to butter and the way they are prepped. Shortbread is normally pressed into a plan and sliced into bars or triangles, while these are piped with a star tip. They hold their shape due to the lack of any rising agents; no eggs, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tarter or anything of the sort.

Piping this dough was such an arm workout! The hand cramps were worth it though – the frilly edges make all the difference. It’s the kind of cookie where appearance is everything. You already know it’s going to taste great (with the insane amount of butter involved), so it all comes down to how you transform it and dress it up.

 

Step 1: get amazing butter! When you only have 4 ingredients, each one has to shine. I’ve talked about butter in previous posts, but I’ve fallen in love with Kerrygold Irish butter. They now sell it everywhere so there’s no excuse to not use it! I still love my 2 lb rolls of Amish butter, but this called for the holy grail of store-bought butters.

 

I left the cube out on the counter all morning to get it all soft and ready for whipping up into a creamy cloud.

 

While not quite a cloud, it needs to be as soft and light as possible. You will be piping it and you will regret all your life choices if you try to skip this step.

 

Sift away! No lumps allowed.

 

I used my sturdier pastry piping bag for this one, and it still took some sweet talking to get it to pipe smoothly. No swirly cookies before their time.

 

Such divas. They’re pretty and they know it.

 

While they baked, I prepped my dark chocolate for dipping. You can use milk chocolate too but I think the bitterness in the dark chocolate cuts through the richness of the cookie.

 

Omnomnom.

 

It was difficult to wait until the chocolate hardened before munching away. I want to experiment with flavors next time! I’m thinking a cocoa cookie with a strawberry white chocolate dunk. Or maybe a mint white chocolate dunk! Or just classic sprinkles on the chocolate before it dries. This is clearly a very versatile cookie and I plan on making many more.

 

 Happy munching!

 

Recipe from: Thida Bevington’s instagram highlights! Her creations are glorious, go check them out.