Posted on
21 March 2019
by
Liz Robb
Treat Mum to a traditional English afternoon tea with these light and crumbly Viennese whirls filled with tangy blackcurrant jam and buttercream.
Ingredients
For the biscuits:
170g softened butter
60g caster sugar
110g self raising flour
60g cornflour
A quarter teaspoon of vanilla essence
For the filling:
150g softened butter
300g icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
Blackcurrant jam
Servings
14
Preparation
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Preheat the oven to 180 degrees or 160 degrees fan oven.
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Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment and draw circles about 5cm in diameter to guide your piping.
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To make the biscuits, cream the softened butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Sift in the flour, add the cornflour and beat well together. Stir in the vanilla essence.
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Using a large star shaped nozzle, pipe the "whirls" onto the baking parchment. Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Be careful not to overbake; the biscuits should be just a pale brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before lifting onto a cooling tray.
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Meanwhile, make the buttercream. Beat together the softened butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth.
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Spread blackcurrant jam generously onto the bottom biscuits and then pipe on the buttercream before gently placing another biscuit on top. Dust with icing sugar before eating. Place carefully into an airtight container if not eating straight away.
Cooks Note
It is really important to use well softened butter to make the biscuits and the buttercream, to make the piping possible. If you want to achieve a really well defined "whirl" shape, the star nozzle on your piping bag needs to be fairly wide.
Traditionally raspberry jam is used, but I like the sharpness of blackcurrant.
These biscuits need to be eaten as soon as possible as they can become soft quite quickly.