Viennese 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 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.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD FINGERS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Put the butter and 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 10cm long, 1.5cm wide fingers onto the baking sheets, making sure there are 3cm spaces between each finger. Bake for 8-10 mins, swapping the trays over halfway through the cooking time, until pale golden and cooked through. Leave to cool on the baking sheets for a few mins, then transfer to wire racks.
• Melt the chocolate separately over a pan of gently simmering water (making sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water) or in the microwave in short bursts, stirring every 15 secs or so. Dip 1 end of the shortbread fingers into the bowl of milk chocolate and the other end in the white chocolate. Leave to set on baking parchment before serving.

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.