Spiral biscuits
Spiral biscuits (swirl cookies) are a fun bake kids will love. The pinwheel shape might look difficult to make, but with these step by step instructions you’ll find them surprisingly easy!
I saw these spiral biscuits on BBC Good Food and thought they looked fun. Now that we’ve bought some proper Wilton food colouring that doesn’t fade in the oven I couldn’t resist giving them a try. As it turns out they’re a bit trickier than the things we normally do or at least there are a few extra steps with some chilling time in between, but small children can still definitely get involved in making the biscuit dough so they are still a fun biscuit recipe for kids. I took over finishing the biscuits off to make the swirl but the kids loved seeing the end result.
How can kids help make these swirl cookies?
These pinwheel biscuits might look like they’d be very difficult but once you know how to make them, you’ll find them easier than you think. Kids can help with lots of the steps but might need a bit of patience as you’ll need to chill the dough a few times in between the steps.
As with any biscuit dough, your kids can help measure and mix everything together and there’s a great chance for them to get their hands a bit messy rubbing the butter and flour in together.
To make the actual spiral effect in the cookies you need to colour at least one half of your dough which can be a fun step for kids.
How do you make the swirl in cookies?
To make the fun pinwheel effect in the cookies, you simply need to roll out one half of the biscuit dough and lay in on top of the other. Then it’s a really easy job of rolling them up together in a tight spiral, chilling the dough then cutting them into biscuits.
We just coloured one half of our dough so the cookies looked pretty, but you could add table spoon of cocoa powder instead to one half to change the colour and add a little flavour.
Difficulty: A bit harder
Time: 20 minutes + 2 hours + chilling + 12 minutes baking
Serves: 20 biscuits approx
Ingredients
250g (2 cups) plain flour
150g (1 stick) butter, softened
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
pink food colouring
how to make spiral biscuits
Rub the flour and butter together
Get your kids to measure the flour and butter out add to a large mixing bowl. Using your fingers rub it together until it looks like breadcrumbs. This is one of my kid’s favourite things to do in the kitchen but it can get a bit messy if you’re not careful! 
Add the sugar, egg and vanilla
Measure the sugar out and add to your flour/butter mixture. Add the egg and vanilla extract. If your kids are in charge of the egg, I normally find it safer to crack it into a small bowl first, before adding it to your dough in case you end up with rogue shell. If you do get a little bit of shell in, simply fish it out with a larger piece of shell – it should stick to that more easily than your finger.
Knead or mix everything together until it is well combined into a nice soft dough.
Split the dough into two even amounts. Add the food colouring to one of them and keep the other one plain.
Wrap both blocks of dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Form the swirl biscuit dough
Sprinkle a little flour down on your work surface. Roll each of the blocks of dough out in turn so they are 25cm x 20cm. Lay one over the top of the other. Lightly roll over the surface a few times with your rolling pin to press them together.
I found my dough was a bit soft and sticky which made this step a bit tricky. If the same happens to you, you could chill the dough for a bit longer, add a little more flour or use a piece of baking paper over the top of the dough to stop it sticking to the rolling pin.
Trim off the edges of the dough so it’s nice and neat then roll them up, starting at one of the short edges to make a tight spiral. Wrap the dough and clingfilm and chill for at least an hour or overnight.
Make the spiral biscuits
Preheat the oven to 180C / 160C Fan / gas 4 / 350F and line a baking tray with baking/parchment paper.
Unwrap the dough, trim the ends, and cut the rest into about 20 slices. Lay them on your baking tray.
Bake the spiral biscuits
Bake them in the oven for 12-15 minutes. They’re ready when they are just starting to go slightly golden at the very edges (you don’t want them to colour too much).
Leave them to cool on the baking tray before transferring them to a wire rack to cool complelety.
Enjoy!
Swirl biscuits
Ingredients
- 250 g (2 cups) plain flour
- 150 g (1 stick) butter, softened
- 100 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- pink food colouring
Instructions
Rub the flour and butter together
- Measure the flour and butter out add to a large mixing bowl. Using your fingers rub it together until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar, egg and vanilla
- Measure the sugar out and add to your flour/butter mixture. Add the egg and vanilla extract.
- Knead or mix everything together until it is well combined into a nice soft dough.
- Split the dough into two even amounts. Add the pink colouring to one of them and keep the other one plain.
- Wrap both blocks of dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Form the biscuit dough
- Sprinkle a little flour down on your work surface. Roll each of the blocks of dough out in turn so they are 25cm x 20cm. Lay one over the top of the other. Lightly roll over the surface a few times with your rolling pin to press them together.
- I found my dough was a bit soft and sticky which made this step a bit tricky. If the same happens to you, you could chill the dough for a bit longer, add a little more flour or use a piece of baking paper over the top of the dough to stop it sticking to the rolling pin.
- Trim off the edges of the dough so it’s nice and neat then roll them up, starting at one of the short edges to make a tight spiral. Wrap the dough and clingfilm and chill for at least an hour or overnight.
Make the biscuits
- Preheat the oven to 180C / 160C Fan / gas 4 / 350F and line a baking tray with baking/parchment paper.
- Unwrap the dough, trim the ends, and cut the rest into about 20 slices. Lay them on your baking tray.
Bake the biscuits
- Bake them in the oven for 12-15 minutes. They’re ready when they are just starting to go slightly golden at the very edges (you don’t want them to colour too much)
- Leave them to cool on the baking tray before transferring them to a wire rack to cool complelety.
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If you liked these swirl cookies you’ll love our other biscuit and cookie recipes as well as our favourite easy bakes for kids.
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