The first baking challenge of the year was to make Viennese Whirl biscuits - these are
one of my favourites, but I've never made them from scratch before, and I must say - WOW- these are the BEST biscuits I've ever eaten. Totally worth the effort to make them - they are real show stoppers, and literally melt in your mouth. I'm so glad I took the time to make these (thanks to the challenge) - I've made them a handful of times already - and given them away as gifts also.
I used the Hairy Bikers recipe from the BBC Food website here. I found it worked perfectly!
Ingredients
- 250g/9oz very soft butter
- 50g/2oz icing sugar, plus extra to decorate
- 250g/9oz plain flour
- 50g/2oz cornflour
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- For the filling
- 100g/3½oz soft butter
- 200g/7oz icing sugar, plus ½ tsp for dusting
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 75g/3oz seedless raspberry jam
Preparation method
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
- Put the butter, icing sugar, plain flour, cornflour and vanilla extract in a food processor and blend until smooth. You may need to scrape the mixture down a couple of times with a rubber spatula.
- Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Pipe 16-18 x 6cm/2½in rosettes of the dough, spacing well apart.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 13-15 minutes or until pale golden-brown and firm. Cool on the baking tray for five minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining dough to make 32-36 biscuits.
- For the filling, put the butter in a bowl and sift the icing sugar on top. Add the vanilla extract and beat with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk until very light and smooth. Spoon into a clean piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Put the jam in a bowl and stir until smooth.
- Spoon a little jam onto the flat side of 16 of the biscuits and place jam-side up on the cooling rack. Pipe the buttercream icing onto the remaining biscuits and sandwich with the jam. Put on a serving plate and dust with sifted icing sugar. Serve.And here is a finished whirl….yum yum yum….Sooooooo good!Why not try them yourself?Mrs Bxxx