Hands up if you're a fan of The Great British Bake off ? *raises hands super excitedly* I have to admit I didn't quite catch on to it until the 3rd series, but now as it's currently in its 7th series I am a die hard fan .. I even managed to win myself a signed copy (of my favourite contestant) John Whaite's debut cook book by entering a Heat mag competition which I'm still quite chuffed about to this day.
I decided to treat myself to this years cook book from the show and one of the things that caught my eye straight away was the recipe for viennese whirls, as my husband loves them and there aren't many a sweet / dessert that he'll eat.
So with a bit of time to spare on a friday morning before work, I gave them a go and actually found them quite easy to do, and took them in for my work colleagues to taste test for me.
To make 12 biscuits you will need
for the biscuits:
250g unsalted butter
50g icing sugar
225g plain
25g cornflour
for the filling:
100g icing sugar
200g salted butter
1 tsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract/ seeds of a vanilla pod / 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
raspberry jam
- Start by preheating the oven to 190c/375f/gas mark 5
- line 2-3 baking trays with baking/greaseproof paper and using a 5cm cutter draw a total of 24 circles on to the sheets of paper, making sure they are well spaced. Flip the sheets of paper over on to the baking trays so the pencilled circles are face down.
- Ensuring your butter is very soft* cream it with the sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer or hand held whisk. Whisk until the butter is light and fluffy and paler in colour.
- Sift in the flour and corn flour and whisk again slowly to make a smooth mixture that should be soft enough to pipe
- Spoon your mixture into a piping bag that is fitted with with either a star nozzle or a 2d nozzle. Starting from the inside, using the pencilled circle as a guide, pipe in a spiral motion finishing on the outer edge.
- Bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes until they are pale gold in colour. Don't let them brown as they will turn into a crunchy biscuit consistency.
- Once removed from the oven, leave to cool for a few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the filling put the butter- which again should be soft- into a bowl with the icing sugar and the vanilla extract and mix on a slow speed with an electric whisk or in a mixer. Whisk together until the buttercream is pale and light in colour. Add in the milk and whisk on a fat speed for about 2 minutes.
- Turn half of the biscuits flat side up, fill another piping bag fitted with the same nozzle with the buttercream and pipe the buttercream from the centre going outwards just as the biscuits were piped leaving a slight gap all around the edge.
- In a small plate or bowl, put just under half a jar of jam, and stir the jam together till you get a smooth spreadable consistency.
- Place a teaspoonful of jam in the middle of each buttercream swirl. Gently top the filled halves with the other 12 plain halves and very lightly press together to make the 12 sandwiches. Dust the tops lightly with icing sugar and serve.
*I put my butter in the microwave and softened by defrosting it in 15 second hurts till it was soft to the touch (even though it wasn't frozen) as heating it up just makes it melt which is what we don't want.
