Melting moments

Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes, plus setting time

Makes about 20 biscuits

Some people call these Viennese biscuits, but in our house they were melting moments.

INGREDIENTS – 250g butter, at room

temperature – 75g icing sugar – 250g plain flour

– 40g cornflour

– 60g ground almonds – 1½ tsp vanilla extract – 300g plain chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids), broken into pieces

METHOD

Heat the oven to 180C / 170C fan/gas mark 4. In an electric mixer, beat the butter and icing sugar together until light and creamy. Beat in all the other ingredients, except for the chocolate.

Line two large baking sheets with baking parchment.

Put the biscuit mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe big S-shapes on to the parchment. You can pipe any shape you like – long fingers or swirls – but S-shapes are easiest for me. The biscuits spread out when they bake so you need to leave room between each shape, so they can expand without touching each other.

When you’ve used all the mixture, bake the biscuits for 12 minutes. Leave on the baking sheets until they’re cool, then move to a wire cooling rack.

Set a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (the bowl has to sit comfortably on the pan, and the water shouldn’t touch the base). Put the chocolate in the bowl and melt it, being careful not to get it too hot. Stir the chocolate with a wooden spoon to help the it melt. Remove the bowl.

Lay a big sheet of baking parchment on your work surface and set the chocolate beside it. Dip one side of each biscuit into the chocolate and let it run off. Quickly transfer to the parchment. Do all the biscuits like this and leave on the parchment while the chocolate sets.