On yesterdays episode of The Great British Bake Off it was biscuit week and for the signature challenge, the bakers had to make sandwich biscuits. So for this, I decided to make Viennese Whirls, which was the technical challenge on series 7 episode 2 of the Bake Off. Also I am sorry about the bad picture, when I was arranging the whirls they started to break when I was placing them on the stand.
Ingredients:
Viennese Whirl Biscuit Dough:
250g Soften Butter
50g Icing Sugar
225g Plain Flour
25g Cornflour
Raspberry Jam:
200g Raspberries
250g Jam Sugar
Buttercream:
100g Soften Butter
200g Icing Sugar
½ Tsp Vanilla Extract
1. To make the jam place the raspberries and jam sugar into a pan and crush the raspberries. Heat the mixture until it starts to boil. Once all of the sugar has dissolved increase the heat and boil for 4 minutes. To test if the jam is ready place a bit onto a plate and place in the fridge for 2 minutes. After the 2 minutes push your finger against the jam, the jam should start to wrinkle.
2. Next sieve the raspberry jam to remove the seeds and leave the jam to cool. The jam and be kept in a sterilised jar for a few months.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/370F/Gas Mark 5. Then line a baking tray with baking parchment and draw out 8 5cm wide circles (spaced apart). Turn the paper over so the ink/pencil does not make contact with the biscuits.
4. To make the biscuits place the softened butter and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and mix until the mixture becomes paler in colour.
5. Scrap down the sides of the bowl and sieve in the plain flour and cornflour. Mix until all of the dry ingredients have been fully incorporated.
6. Transfer the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M Tip and pipe 8 swirled rounds onto the baking parchment.
7. Bake the biscuits for 13-15 minutes or until they are a pale golden brown colour. Leave the biscuits to cool for 5 minutes before placing them onto a wire rack to cool (these biscuits are very delicate). Repeat this process until all of the mixture has been used up.
8. To make the buttercream, in a large mixing bowl add the softened butter and mix until the butter becomes paler in colour. Then add the icing sugar and vanilla extract and mix until you get a spreadable consistency. If the mixture is a bit too dry add a little bit of milk.
9. Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag with a Wilton 1M Tip and pipe the buttercream onto 12 of the biscuits (on the flat side).
10. Spread the jam over the other 12 biscuits and the sandwich the two halves together.
