Earlier in the year we had a flood thanks to J leaving the tap running in the bathroom upstairs while we were out. Since this disaster we have been getting the house redecorated. We had the hall, landing and stairs decorated while we were away in May then during our cruise we had the lounge ceiling done. Seeing the new ceiling next to the tired and water stained walls gave us the decorating bug. I actually got my Viennese Whirl biscuits made last week but due to painting all weekend I am a bit later than planned posting my recipe. Tomorrow the children are going back to school and the twins will be starting full time. I am hoping that this will allow me to be more organised, give me more quiet baking time and finally get ahead with my jobs! I am also planning to continue decorating downstairs and even thinking about doing the kitchen so there are lots of exciting times coming!
The Great British Bake Off returned to our screens while we were away with Carnival Cruise Lines and the Great Bloggers Bake Off also returned to bake along with the show. I missed cake week as we were sailing in the Mediterranean, but I am planning on catching up while the kids are at school! Last week was biscuit week. I am the first to admit that biscuits are not my thing. I have never been great at making biscuits so this week I knew that it would be a challenge. I decided to have a go at the technical challenge which was to make Viennese Whirls. I love the creamy biscuit of Viennese Whirls so I wanted to get them perfect.
I actually surprised myself and was delighted with the results. As I have never made them before I did follow a recipe from my trusty Be-Ro baking book. However I did not use self raising flour as the recipe states, I used plain flour as I did not want them to rise.
This is what I did...
Viennese Whirls
Ingredients
175g butter, room temperature
50g caster sugar
175g plain flour
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
Filling
50g butter
125g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
Jam
Method
Pre heat the oven to 160C
1 - Mix the butter and sugar together until light and creamy
2 - Sift in the flour and mix thoroughly
3 - Stir in the vanilla paste and spoon the mixture into an icing bag fitted with a large star nozzle
4 - Pipe the biscuit dough in even circles on a sheet of baking paper. There are a number of ways that you can make it easier to get an even size. You can draw circles to pipe into on a sheet of baking paper, or you can pipe your dough into cupcake cases. You should have 16 biscuits.
5 - Place the piped biscuits in the fridge for 15 minutes. This will help the biscuits to keep the pipesd design on the top while baking.
6 - After they have been chilled place in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for 25 minutes
7 - Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack
8 - To make the buttercream filling cream the butter and icing sugar together
9 - Once you have a creamy buttercream stir in the vanilla paste then place in a piping bag
10 - Pipe the buttercream over 8 of the biscuits
11 - Spoon on a blob of jam on the remaining 8 biscuits. You can use a jam of your choice. I used my Summer Berries, Mint and Arbikie Kirsty's Gin Jam on 4 and some orange marmalade on the other 4.
12 - Sandwich together one biscuit with buttercream with one topped with jam/marmalade
I was delighted that my Viennese Whirls were a huge success. The biscuits had the perfect crumble and buttery flavours that are expected from this classic sandwich biscuit. They are a perfect treat to go with an afternoon cup of tea or pick me up coffee.
These biscuits are so versatile and can be changed according to taste. You can add whichever jam or filling you like. My children would love them with Nutella instead of jam. You can make the biscuits with cocoa to make them a chocolate biscuit and I have got another idea for the biscuits which I am going to be trying so keep an eye out for more Viennese Whirls!
I am looking forward to baking along with Great British Bake Off and will be joining in with Mummy Mishaps #GBBOBloggers2016 Bake Along!
Pin me for later!
Disclosure: Collaborative post
oooh Kirsty well done on your whirls! they look fab and i bet they tasted lovely. Like you now I know how to make them, I am thinking about trying out another version soon. Thank you for joining in #GBBOBloggers2016 xx
ReplyDeleteOh you didn't use cornflour either. What a relief ;) As I'd never made whirls before either, I assumed there was a standard sort of recipe, but everyone I've looked at is quite different. Well done, yours look fab and definitely worth the effort. #GBBOBloggers2016
ReplyDeletegreat idea to pipe into cupcake cases - mine were all a bit different in size but yours are all very uniform!
ReplyDeleteUmm no wonder you were pleased with them they look really good
ReplyDeleteWell done. They look delicious! There is definitely an abundance of Viennese Whirls in cyberspace this week..... a bake that has really caught everyone's imagination!
ReplyDelete