Viennese Whirls

INGREDIENTS For the biscuits:

250g very soft unsalted butter; 50g icing sugar; 220g Carr’s plain flour; 50g cornflour

½ tsp salt; 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

Filling Ingredients:

I use vanilla buttercream (chocolate can also be used). You can use shop bought buttercream or make your own by beating 50g of soft unsalted butter with 100g of icing sugar and a dash of vanilla extract or paste; a few tsp of strawberry jam or jam of your choice; dark or milk chocolate for dipping, approx. 100g of each in a small bowl (the bowl/s needs to be just big enough for dunking, but not so big that it’s too shallow to give a good depth on the biscuits)

METHOD

1. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Draw circles on each sheet of baking paper, using the small glass as a guide. Space these well apart and then turn the paper over to avoid getting ink on your biscuits.

2. For the wiggly ones you won’t need templates, do it by eye.

3. Place the butter, vanilla and icing sugar into a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Then sift in the flour, cornflour and salt and beat until just combined, although don’t over mix as you won’t want them to be tough.

4. Spoon the mixture into the piping bag, and pipe rounds inside the circles on the baking sheets.

5. Chill these for about 30 mins in the fridge before baking, so that they keep their shape.

6. Preheat the oven to 170°C Fan, then bake in the centre of the oven for approximately

12-15 minutes, until a pale golden-brown. Cool on the baking sheets for five minutes then transfer to a rack to cool.

7. Enjoy plain or assemble with jam and buttercream.

■ Recipe created by

Juliet Sear for Carr’s Flour