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spiral biscuits on a baking tray
cookingwithmykids

Swirl biscuits

Spiral biscuits or 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!
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Chilling time 2 hours
Total Time 32 minutes
Servings: 20
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American, British
Calories: 124
Ingredients Method

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

Method
 

Rub the flour and butter together
  1. 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
  1. Measure the sugar out and add to your flour/butter mixture. Add the egg and vanilla extract.
  2. Knead or mix everything together until it is well combined into a nice soft dough.
  3. Split the dough into two even amounts. Add the pink colouring to one of them and keep the other one plain.
  4. Wrap both blocks of dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Form the biscuit dough
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 160C Fan / gas 4 / 350F and line a baking tray with baking/parchment paper.
  2. Unwrap the dough, trim the ends, and cut the rest into about 20 slices. Lay them on your baking tray.
Bake the biscuits
  1. 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)
  2. Leave them to cool on the baking tray before transferring them to a wire rack to cool complelety.