Nothing says I love you quite like homebaked goodies, in my opinion, and my Valentine’s Viennese hearts are perfect for saying just that. Buttery melt-in-your-mouth biscuits coloured a vibrant red, piped into pretty heart shapes and filled with a delectable whipped white chocolate ganache. These beauties are the ultimate treat for Valentine’s, Galentine’s or just because!
What are Viennese whirls?
Viennese whirls or Viennese biscuits are a British biscuit, despite their Austrian name. They are essentially soft shortbread biscuits piped into a swirl shape before baking. The most common and popular version are the Mr Kipling Viennese whirls, which is made up of two shortbread swirl biscuits sandwiched with buttercream and jam.
As with all biscuits, there are variations on this too. This can include the shape they are piped in, dipping them (often in chocolate) and whether or not they are filled.
Why you’ll love my Valentine’s bakes
- Simple ingredients, dreamy results. This recipe uses just butter, icing sugar, flour and cornflour for the biscuits, and a simple whipped white chocolate ganache to fill them. Since these are staple pantry ingredients in most homes, you can probably make this any time the craving hits!
- Perfect for gifting or teatime. Tuck them into boxes for Valentine’s or Galentine’s gifts, share with friends and family, or simply nestle on a plate and serve with a steaming hot brew.
- Wonderfully adorable. These delectable biscuits are, for many of us, a delicious throwback to a childhood favourite treat. Making them red and heart-shaped, and filling with white chocolate ganache just brings them into being this season’s “must have” scrumptiousness!
Ingredients needed to make Viennese hearts
- Unsalted butter: I like to use unsalted butter so I can control how much salt is in my bakes. For best results and much easier mixing, use butter at room temperature.
- Icing (powdered) sugar: gives sweetness to the Viennese whirl cookies.
- Vanilla: for a subtle and delicious flavour in pretty piped biscuits.
- Flour: I use plain (all purpose) flour to make these Valentine’s Viennese hearts. Do not use self raising flour, as you want the shortbread not to rise and puff up.
- Cornflour/cornstarch: used in the biscuit butter whirls to give a soft and tender texture to the biscuits.
- Food colour: I used a gel based red food colour to give a wonderfully vibrant hue to my Viennese hearts. Gel colours are more concentrated, so will give a much stronger colour with less product, so it is always my recommendation. See the “recommended equipment I used” box below for a link to the colour I used.
- Double cream: used to make a simple white chocolate ganache before whipping it up to use as a filling in these Valentine’s Viennese hearts.
- White chocolate: for the ganache filling and a little for drizzling over the hearts as decoration. Makes a wonderfully sweet and delicious addition to this delightful heart-shaped shortbread!
What do you need to make Viennese biscuits
- Baking tray*: to chill and then bake the Viennese biscuits on. I would recommend at least couple of baking trays so you can chill the piped dough and bake on the same trays.
- Digital kitchen scales*: I provide all my measurements in cups too, however I would encourage all bakers to weigh out ingredients using weighing scales when baking. A set of digital kitchen scales is so useful and an essential baking tool for me.
- Measuring spoons*: a set of measuring spoons is essential for any baker. This is because these are more accurate than using everyday teaspoons and tablespoons, which can vary greatly in size.
- Mixing bowl*: used to make the biscuit dough in.
- Handheld electric mixer*: a useful tool to make life easier in the kitchen! You can, of course, make this whole recipe entirely by hand. But it will be quite the workout for your arm!
- Sieve*: useful to remove any lumps from the dry ingredients before blending everything together.
- Spatula*: to help with scraping down the mixing bowl and transferring the Viennese whirl dough into your piping bag.
- Piping bag*: used for piping the biscuits into swirls before chilling.
- Piping nozzle*: I used a 1M nozzle here, to create the pretty swirl of the biscuits in these Viennese whirls as well as for piping the buttercream.
- Cooling rack*: to cool the baked biscuits on.
- Small bowl*: used to make the white chocolate ganache for the filling.
How to make Valentine’s Viennese whirls
This Viennese whirls recipes are so so easy to make, just mix together the ingredients to form the dough before piping into hearts, then chill before baking. Once baked, make a simple whipped white chocolate ganache to sandwich the shortbread hearts together. Drizzle with a little white chocolate for a special finishing touch and enjoy!
For the whipped white chocolate ganache
Step 1: Place the white chocolate and cream into a small microwave safe bowl. Heat gently in 10-20 second intervals, stirring in between, until completely melted and smooth. Cover with cling film, touching the surface (to stop a skin forming) and leave to cool to room temperature.
Step 2: Once the ganache is cool, remove the cling film and beat using a handheld mixer until the mixture is fluffy and light, like buttercream. That’s it! Transfer to a piping bag to pipe onto the biscuits.
For the biscuits
Step 1: Line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper and set aside. Make some room in the freezer for the trays to chill the biscuits once piped.
Step 2: Cream the butter and icing (powdered) sugar together for a few minutes until paler and really soft. Beat in the vanilla then gradually mix in the flour and cornflour (cornstarch) until everything is just coming together. Add in enough red food colour to achieve your desired shade and mix until the colour is even. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with an open star nozzle.
Step 3: Pipe the dough into a ‘V’ shape, tapering off at the bottom to create a point. Keep the piping a little smaller than you want the heart shapes to be to allow for the biscuits to spread slightly during baking. Pop the baking trays in the freezer to chill for at least half an hour.
Step 4: When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Bake the biscuits for 9-10 minutes one tray at a time, turning the tray halfway through baking if needed for an even bake. Allow the hearts to cool and firm up on the tray before transferring to a wire rack.
Assembling the Viennese hearts
Step 1: Match the hearts into pairs as best you can so that the two hearts are the same size and shape. This will help give a better finish to the Valentine’s Viennese whirl hearts once they are assembled.
Step 2: Pipe some of the prepared ganache onto the flat side of half of the biscuits, going close to but not all the way to the edge. Top each one with the matching undecorated biscuit, gently pressing together to spread the filling out to near the edge of the biscuits.
Step 3: Melt a little additional white chocolate and drizzle as you wish over each of the Viennese hearts. Allow the chocolate to set before serving, packaging or just digging in. Enjoy!
Viennese whirls recipe tips
Below I share all the top tips I can think of, including potential problems, to help you make the perfect Viennese heart biscuits for Valentine’s Day.
Why is my dough too crumbly? How can I fix it?
If you find the recipe results in a dry dough, no need to fret! Simply add a few drops of milk to the biscuit dough and mix to bring it together. Then continue to pipe and shape as before.
A word of warning here: you want the dough to be pipeable but still fairly stiff. If too much milk is added, the Viennese hearts will not hold their shape as they bake and you will have a collapsed (but still delicious!) heart-shaped blob of biscuit instead.
How to pipe heart-shaped Valentine’s Viennese biscuits
There are a few tips that will make it easier to pipe the biscuits. For a start, be sure not to overfill the piping bag with dough: I find half full at most is best, so you can twist the top tightly and so be able to squeeze the dough out more easily. Hold the bag upright and pipe a ‘V’ shape starting at the top of one of the heart curves, shaping down to the point. Stop piping, lift the nozzle and repeat for the other half of the heart. I like to use a lightly dampened finger to tuck in the bottom tip of the piped heart to prevent it catching during baking.
How can you tell when the Viennese biscuits are cooked?
If you are wondering what these biscuits should look like when they are done baking, it will go from looking a little wet on top when baking to looking dry and matte. The biscuits may well feel a little soft as they come out of the oven, but will firm up as they cool, to a wonderful buttery melt-in-your-mouth biscuit.
Why did my Valentine’s Viennese whirls go flat?
There are a few reasons why the Valentine’s Viennese hearts went flat. It could be that the ingredients were not correctly measured out, so there was less flour in the mixture. It could also be that the dough required more time to chill and firm up before baking, as this will help hold the shape better.
How do you store Viennese whirls
Store these adorable heart-shaped biscuits in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.
Can you freeze Valentine’s Viennese hearts?
Freeze the biscuits before assembling (so without the whipped ganache filling) for up to three months. Make sure they are completely cool before placing in a freezer safe container.
Viennese heart flavour variations
- Chocolate Viennese hearts. Substitute 30g of flour for the same weight of cocoa powder. Fill with the white chocolate ganache filling used here.
- Lemon Viennese hearts. Add the zest of a lemon into the biscuit dough and make a lemon buttercream to fill the hearts
- Coffee and caramel Viennese hearts. Add 1 tbsp instant coffee to the dough. Pipe a heart outline for the filling, then fill in the middle with some caramel before sandwiching the biscuits together.
Tips and techniques to make pretty Viennese whirls
- I would highly recommend using weighing scales to make this type of biscuit, as they can be temperamental and tricky to pipe or hold their shape when baked if the quantities are not accurate.
- Use butter at room temperature when making the biscuits. This will make it a lot easier to mix the ingredients resulting in a better finished bake.
- Always use icing (powdered) sugar in both the cookies. Icing sugar dissolves more easily into the mixture, giving smoother finished results without the ‘crunch’ of sugar crystals.
- When making the biscuits, beat the butter and sugar on high until much paler and really soft and spreadable. Doing this will make piping the mixture much easier.
- Once the flours have been added to the mixture, you do not want to beat it any more than required to mix it all together. Overmixing the dough will result in tougher baked biscuits as it will overwork the gluten in the flour.
- Always use a strong piping bag to ensure it does not burst during piping, especially when preparing the biscuits. Ensure you use an open nozzle too (I used a star tip for the extra decoration it gives) to make it easier to pipe the dough. If you don’t have strong piping bags, consider doubling up to give the bag additional integrity and strength.
- Freezing, or at least chilling, the dough piped biscuits before baking will help them hold their shape better as it gives the butter chance to firm up again once softened during mixing.
Troubleshooting
If you have any other questions about this recipe Valentine’s Viennese hearts, please leave me a comment below, I would love to help. And if you do make this recipe for Valentine’s Viennese heart biscuits, please do consider leaving a rating and review below. I would really appreciate your feedback to grow my website and it really helps others looking for a similar recipe too. Additionally, you could also post a picture on Instagram and tag me when you share it with the world. You already know I would love to see!
More recipes from my blog for you to enjoy
Do check out these other delicious Valentine’s recipes on my blog too:
Red velvet brownies: If red velvet cake and brownies had a baby together, what would the resulting bake be? Let me introduce you to the irresistible result that is red velvet brownies! These vibrant brownies are chewy, fudgy, and oh so delicious!
Baked churros with chocolate sauce: My easy baked churros with chocolate sauce are perfect any time, but making them heart shaped makes them perfect for Valentine’s Day!
Red velvet cake truffles: Red velvet cake, cream cheese and white chocolate come together to make these delightful red velvet cake truffles everyone will love!
Happy baking, my friends! x
Recommended equipment I used *
| Baking tray | Digital kitchen scales |
| Measuring spoons | Mixing bowl |
| Handheld electric mixer | Sieve |
| Spatula | Piping bag |
| Piping nozzle | Cooling rack |
| Small bowl | Red food colouring |
Valentine’s Viennese Hearts
Ingredients
For the whipped white chocolate ganache and decoration
- 85 ml (¼ cup + 2 tbsp) double (heavy) cream
- 200 g (1 ½ cups + 1 tbsp) white chocolate, plus extra to decorate
For the biscuits
- 250 g (1 cup + 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 90 g (½ cup + 3 tbsp) icing (powdered) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 230 g (1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp) plain (all purpose) flour
- 70 g (½ cup + 1 tbsp) cornflour (cornstarch)
- red food colouring
Instructions
For the whipped white chocolate ganache
- Place the white chocolate and cream into a small microwave safe bowl. Heat gently in 10-20 second intervals, stirring in between, until completely melted and smooth. Cover with cling film, touching the surface (to stop a skin forming) and leave to cool to room temperature.
- Once the ganache is cool, remove the cling film and beat using a handheld mixer until the mixture is fluffy and light, like buttercream. That’s it! Transfer to a piping bag to pipe onto the biscuits.
For the biscuits
- Line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper and set aside. Make some room in the freezer for the trays to chill the biscuits once piped.
- Cream the butter and icing (powdered) sugar together for a few minutes until paler and really soft. Beat in the vanilla then gradually mix in the flour and cornflour (cornstarch) until everything is just coming together. Add in enough red food colour to achieve your desired shade and mix until the colour is even. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with an open star nozzle.
- Pipe the dough into a ‘V’ shape, tapering off at the bottom to create a point. Keep the piping a little smaller than you want the heart shapes to be to allow for the biscuits to spread slightly during baking. Pop the baking trays in the freezer to chill for at least half an hour.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Bake the biscuits for 9-10 minutes one tray at a time, turning the tray halfway through baking if needed for an even bake. Allow the hearts to cool and firm up on the tray before transferring to a wire rack.
Assembling the Viennese hearts
- Match the hearts into pairs as best you can so that the two hearts are the same size and shape. This will help give a better finish to the Valentine’s Viennese whirl hearts once they are assembled.
- Pipe some of the prepared ganache onto the flat side of half of the biscuits, going close to but not all the way to the edge. Top each one with the matching undecorated biscuit, gently pressing together to spread the filling out to near the edge of the biscuits.
- Melt a little additional white chocolate and drizzle as you wish over each of the Viennese hearts. Allow the chocolate to set before serving, packaging or just digging in. Enjoy!