Vienna Fingers Recipes

VIENNESE FINGERS

Steps:

• Pre-heat your oven to 190°c (170°c for fan assisted ovens or Gas Mark 5) and line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter/margarine and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in the flour and cornflour to create a paste-like dough.
• Take a small amount of your dough (about the size of a ping-pong ball) and roll into a sausage shape. Place onto your prepared baking sheets and score with a fork. Repeat with the rest of the dough, leaving space between each.Alternatively you can pipe the biscuits using a star nozzle and a cloth piping bag, if you desire. A plastic piping bag will not work however (see notes above).
• Bake in your pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes until the biscuits have spread a little, look dry and have a slight golden colour. Leave to cool on the tray.
• Once your biscuits have cooled, melt your chocolate over a bain marie or in short blasts in a microwave. Dip either end of your biscuits in the chocolate, before placing back onto the grease proof paper. When all biscuits have chocolate on, pop them in the fridge to set.
• While the chocolate is setting, in a large bowl mix the butter/margarine and icing sugar, until light and fluffy to create your butter cream filling. Pipe or spread a small amount of buttercream onto a biscuit, before sandwiching another biscuit on top. Repeat with the remaining biscuits and buttercream.

VIENNESE VANILLA COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream butter and add sugar. Add 1/2 cup of flour mixing after each addition. Add remaining ingredients. Shape into a disk and then chill for 30 minutes. You can also put the dough in the freezer at this point.
• Begin to roll the dough the dough so that it is about 1/4-inch thick or a little more. Cut with cookie cutters. Place dough on parchment paper or a greased cookie sheet. I prefer using parchment paper. It's just easier.
• Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Bake for 12 to 13 minutes or until the edges are a bit brown. You may need to lower your oven to 325 degrees F.
• You can also freeze or chill the dough in a log shape rather than a disk. If you do this, simply cut small rounds about 1/4 inch thick and place these rounds on the lined cookie sheet. These bake for 15 minutes. (This works well, if you want to transport dough to a friend's house and have kids form the cookies.)
• Once the cookies come out of the oven, either cool them on the cookie sheet or move the parchment paper to a cookie rack. As the cookies cool, but before they're fully cooled, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.
• Arrange on a plate and don't blink because they'll disappear before you open your eyes. Eat.
• That's the classic Brown family cookie. Without it Christmas simply isn't Christmas. Sometimes I bring a batch from my Chicago home and that simply doesn't work. My sister and mother are upset that the house doesn't smell like Christmas...no cookie smell in the air. I'm often required to make many batches...and the cookies are eaten at all times
• and for all meals.
• These were the cookies we left for Santa...He regularly gobbled them up, leaving only a few crumbs on the plate and a note that said, "These are excellent cookies, the best I've had." In retrospect, the writing looked an awful lot like my father's... If they're good enough for Santa, I think they're good enough for anyone.

VIENNA FINGERS® TRIFLE

Steps:

• Prepare pudding according to the directions on the back of the box. In a glass serving bowl, layer ingredients: 1/3 of the whipped cream, 1/2 of the pudding, 1/2 of the strawberries, 1/2 of the blueberries, and 1/2 of the chopped cookies. Repeat.
• Top with 1/3 of whipped cream and garnish with fruit and Vienna Fingers® Cookies.
• Cover and refrigerate for one hour before serving. Helpful Hints: 1) Use any sharp knife to prepare chopped cookies. Each piece should be approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Or, if preferred, pulse cookies within your food processor to desired consistency.

VIENNESE CHOCOLATE FINGERS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare baking sheets with a light coating of cooking spray.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
• Using a double boiler or a large heat resistant bowl over a saucepan, melt your chocolate.
• Beat together the butter and sugar until the butter is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes at medium high speed.
• Using the mixer, slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the whipped butter and sugar. Once done, beat in the melted chocolate.
• Using a large pastry bag fitted with a large star tip (#885), pipe 2 inch ribbons of dough. In doing so, you are not making a straight line but slight small waves/ridges. Sorry I don't recall the terminology here. Allow a good amount of space between cookies to allow to expand during baking.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes, checking at the minimum baking time for doneness. Remove from the oven when done.
• Allow the cookies to cool on sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks.
• Melt the remaining chocolate in a double boiler. Gently dip the edge of each cookie into the chocolate tipping off the excess. Place the dipped cookies onto the parchment paper and let the chocolate set before serving or storing.

VIENNESE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Combine flour and ground almonds; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour. , Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/4-in. round cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 7-9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool completely., Spread jam on the bottoms of half of the cookies; top with remaining cookies. In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and shortening; stir until smooth. Dip half of each sandwich cookie into chocolate mixture; allow excess to drip off. Place on waxed paper until set. Store in an airtight container.

VIENNESE WHIRLS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Put the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk for about 5 mins until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat again until fully incorporated.
• Sift in the flour, cornflour and baking powder, and fold into the mixture using a spatula until combined (the dough should have a tacky consistency). Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped nozzle. If all the mixture doesn't fit, do it in 2 batches.
• Pipe swirly circles 5cm diameter onto 2 baking sheets making sure there are 3cm spaces between each swirl.
• Bake for 10-12 mins, swapping the trays over halfway through the cooking time so the biscuits are evenly baked, until pale golden and cooked through. Leave to cool on the baking sheets for a few mins, then transfer to wire racks.
• While the biscuits cool, make the filling. Put the softened butter in a large mixing bowl and add the icing sugar. Stir together initially with a wooden spoon then switch to electric beaters or a whisk to get the buttercream fluffy and smooth. Add the vanilla extract and beat once more to combine. Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag and snip off the end.
• Turn the biscuits over so their flat side is facing up then pipe buttercream over half of the biscuits and spread a little jam on the rest. Sandwich a jam covered biscuit together with a buttercream one and repeat until all the biscuits are used up.

VIENNA COOKIES

Steps:

• Finely chop the 1/2 cup almonds. Sieve egg yolks. Cream butter with egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice and salt until very light and fluffy. Stir in chopped almonds, cherries and pineapple. Add flour, mixing to make a soft dough. Chill dough until easy to handle.
• Form the dough into 1 inch balls; place on lightly greased cooky sheet and flatten to 1/2 inch. Lightly press an almond half into each. Bake on a high rack in the oven at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Yield about 3 dozen cookies.
• ----------------------------.
• Typically these cookies were topped with an almond half. Heating the whole almonds first makes them easier to split. Place the nuts in a shallow pan in a 300 degree oven for about 5 minutes. As soon as they are cool enough to handle split them into halves with the sharp tip of a small kitchen knife.
• If nuts are not for you, a dusting of confections sugar, or a sliver of cherry also could grace the cookies top. Sometimes we did all 3 just to make an assortment.

VIENNA FINGERS® TRIFLE

Steps:

• Prepare pudding according to the directions on the back of the box. In a glass serving bowl, layer ingredients: 1/3 of the whipped cream, 1/2 of the pudding, 1/2 of the strawberries, 1/2 of the blueberries, and 1/2 of the chopped cookies. Repeat.
• Top with 1/3 of whipped cream and garnish with fruit and Vienna Fingers® Cookies.
• Cover and refrigerate for one hour before serving. Helpful Hints: 1) Use any sharp knife to prepare chopped cookies. Each piece should be approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Or, if preferred, pulse cookies within your food processor to desired consistency.