Saturday, June 9, 2012

Viennese Whirls & Fingers

These Viennese Whirls are my entry into this month's AlphaBakes Challenge hosted by Ros at the More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes. The randomly generated letter for AlphaBakes this month is 'V'...a bit of a tricky one. I thought I had a reasonable idea in making Viennese Whirls but it turns out the host Ros has also made them and she has also received two other Viennese Whirl entries!!! I'm pleased I made them though as it was something a little bit out of the norm to bake...and they tasted delicious!!
The recipe I chose for my whirls was by the Hairy Bikers and can be found on the BBC Food website. The resulting biscuits were light and crumbly...and oh so moreish with that taste of butter. The raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream really compliment the bake too. The only trouble I had with these was the piping out, an iron grip is needed  to get the mixture out of the piping bag. I also used a very large piping nozzle so ended up with rather mamouth whirls...not quite as neat as Mr. Kipling's!! :-)
In addition to the traditional whirls I also made some Viennese Fingers. For these I used a recipe from the Great British Bake Off winner Jo Wheatley. The recipe is in her new book 'A Passion for Baking'. I bought a copy in my local Sainsbury's yesterday and at first glance it seems to be a lovely little book and rather more comprehensive than I was expecting! These Viennese fingers also tasted great, although they were maybe a little too light and crumbly...I really wanted a little bit more bite...but still a winner! :-)
So there we have it my first entry for AlphaBakes this month...but hopefully I have a second up my sleeve (not literally...that would be a bit messy!). Watch this space!


Ingredients

250g soft butter
50g icing sugar
250g plain flour
50g cornflour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Filling

100g soft butter
200g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
75g raspberry jam

These were easy to make, to start line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5. Then put the butter, icing sugar, flour, cornflour and vanilla extract into a food processor and blend until the mixture comes together and is smooth. It might be necessary to scrape down the sides a couple of times during the process.

This mixture can then be placed into a piping bag with a large star nozzle and piped into swirls. The only problem I had here was the stiffness of the mixture and trying to pipe it out of the bag...I kneaded it slightly in the bag to soften it up but I still needed extreme pressure to pipe it out! Bake for around 15 minutes until lightly golden. Once out of the oven, the whirls can cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes to firm up, before being transferred to a cooling rack.

For the filling, put the butter, sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Place this in a piping bag with a star nozzle. To construct the whirls, spread raspberry jam onto one half and then pipe a swirl of buttercream onto the other before sandwiching together. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar.

* Original recipe by the Hairy Bikers on the BBC Food website

30 comments:

  1. I love your piping! It looks exactly like the picture on the BBC website only better :) I could eat these all day. I love the fingers too. Thanks for entering these to AlphaBakes!

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  2. I'm so tempted to have another go at these, my last (and first) batch didn't turn out nearly as good as yours they look lovely!

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  3. Saw these on Ros' blog too :D. These look amazing. Great entry for the alphabakes.
    Have a nice weekend!
    Anuja

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  4. Oh so pretty! I was also admiring the viennese swirls on Ros' blog earlier today. It has definitely bumped them higher up on my to bake list.

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  5. looks so easy to prepare and delicious...lovely!

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  6. Well you can't have too many Viennese whirls IMHO. Yours look so pretty both the whirls and the chocolate dipped fingers. Both very elegantly done. I have no idea what to do for V.

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  7. These looks absolutely amazing!!

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  8. Great V bake! I love the dusting of icing sugar, it really finishes them off! I'd imagine they would be perfect little treats to accompany an afternoon tea spread! very English indeed!

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  9. Gorgeous biccies - I love the texture of a Viennese

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  10. These used to my favourite as a kid and I have never made them so one more for the list as they look so yummy! I remember how they just melt in the mouth (drools).

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  11. Oh, Laura! These looks absolutely adorable! So elegant! I can't wait to try this recipe. Thank you for sharing!

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  12. Another recipe that was saved in my favorite list! Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Gosh you have made this so perfectly! I love this biscuits. Bookmarking X

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  14. I think your piping was amazing! These look fantastic! Well done, I used to love Viennese whirls if ever I improve my piping skills I will try these.

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  15. I have to say...no one else got a look in...I think I consumed most of these before they were offered elsewhere! :-)

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  16. I ended up making these yesterday,yours were the 2nd id seen in as many days and so I had to try them again! Thank you for the inspiration! Ill link back when I do the post :)

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  17. Hi Laura, I've got an award on my blog for you :)
    http://themorethanoccasionalbaker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/abc-of-me-and-cake.html

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  18. You are so clever! I couldn't think of anything that starts with "V" to bake and you have nailed this "V" bake extremely well. These Viennese whirls are very professional made.

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  19. These look so perfect... It would impress anyone if you serve them these with a cuppa:)

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  20. WOW!! These look beautiful!!!

    I want some now!!

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  21. hi i made them exactly how was stated but they were slightly browned but still soft in middle wat do i do thank u .

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  22. Hi, it would be really hard to tell why that might have happened. The only thing I can think is bake for longer at a lower temperature? x

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  23. These turned out so lovely, thankyou so much! I am a beginner at piping so just did a swirl with a star nozzle and they still look beautiful. Thankyou!

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  24. Hi Lydia, I'm really pleased your whirls turned out well! They really are tasty biscuits! :-)

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  25. Hi Laura, I was really interested in your comments about making these and noted how difficult the piping seemed, so I warmed the dough in a bowl over a pan of hot water and gently manipulated it until it was very soft and squishy. Made piping a whole deal easier! Cheers, Tinks

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  26. What a great idea...I really enjoyed these when I made them but they were really difficult to pipe so warming the dough a little first would definitely help...thanks for the tip! :-)

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  27. What size nozzle do you use? Thanks.

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  28. I think it might have been a Wilton 1M but I can't remember exactly :-)

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  29. Hiya I just want to ask you please if the butter for the fingers was chilled straight from the fridge or softer at room temperature?? X

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