Viennese Whirls

Before I get into telling you all about these delightful biscuits, I must address the fact that I called these "Viennese Swirls" in Sunday's post. Swirls, Whirls, all the same in my head apparently!
I can't actually say that I got to try these, I gave half to a friend for her birthday and the other half were gobbled up by my Mother within minutes (you think I'm exaggerating, I'm really not). However I was informed that they were "the nicest gift ever" and "better than Mr. Kipling's ". I decided to use this recipe, although I found that a lot of them were the same so it didn't matter too much.

These do require some attention in the piping department, other than that they're very simple to make! I almost broke my piping gun twice making these. I should really invest in some ordinary nozzles and piping bags. You by no means have to be an expert but I find them quite time consuming, if you're not hugely bother by what they look like, you could just make them into ordinary circles, I'm sure they would taste just as good! The biscuits  can be as big or as small as you would like, just make sure each biscuit has a buddy the same size. I managed to get 16 Viennese Whirls from this recipe, I think I made about 35 biscuits but a few didn't make the cut. I will definitely be making these again and sneaking some away for myself this time. Happy baking!

Ingredients:

250g butter, softened
50g icing sugar
50g cornflour
250g plain flour
1sp vanilla extract

50g butter
100g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment or grease with butter. 

2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, icing sugar, cornflour and vanilla extract. 

3. Slowly sieve in your flour. I found that the mixture wasn't as thick as most dough but that's the way it's meant to be, so don't worry about it (like I did).

4. Place the dough into your piping bag fitted with a medium size star nozzle and pipe into swirls.

5. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until slightly golden at the edges. 

6. To make your icing, place the butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk together until smooth.

7. Leave your biscuits to cool completely before filling. Spread some jam onto the flat side of one biscuit and about 1 teaspoon of buttercream on the flat side of another then sandwich together.

8. Sift a little icing sugar or drizzle some chocolate over the top, if desired!