Viennese whirls – joining in with the Great British Bake Off

We greet the return of the TV show The Great British Bake Off each year with giddy delight. We love it but we are rarely organised enough to join in the way so many of our friends do.

Each year we marvel at the stories of our friend who bake with their kids each Wednesday night and then they all sit down to watch the show with cookies or scones.

This week was the first time we’ve been organised enough to join in with the fun and I made Viennese Whirls, which were this week’s star bake.

If you haven’t watched the show before, jump onto the BBC iplayer and have a watch.

So here is the recipe for my Viennese Whirls. Unfortunately it makes for about 18 biscuits packed with jam and buttercream, too much for Kate and I to eat alone, but not to fear, the ladies in my office were happy to help.

Viennese Whirls

Ingredients

For the biscuits

• 250g soft butter
• 50g icing sugar
• 250g plain flour
• 50g corn flour
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

For the filling

• 100g soft butter
• 200g  icing sugar
• ½ tsp  vanilla extract
• some raspberry jam

To do

1. Switch your oven on and preheat to 190C/170C (fan). Line a baking sheet with grease proof paper or a silicon mat.
2. Put the butter, icing sugar, plain flour, corn flour and vanilla extract in a food processor and blend until smooth. TIP – icing sugar goes EVERYWHERE so cover the mixing bowl with a tea towel for the first 10 seconds or so.
3. Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Pipe 16-18 5cm rosettes of the dough, leave plenty of space around them.
4. Bake in the centre of your oven for about 15 minutes or until pale golden-brown and firm. Cool on the baking tray for five minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining dough to make 32-36 biscuits.
5. For the filling, put the butter in a bowl and sift the icing sugar on top, see previous tip about icing sugar and mixers. Add the vanilla extract and whisk until very light and smooth.
6. Spoon a little jam onto the flat side of 16 of the biscuits and place jam-side up on the cooling rack. Spread or pipe the butter cream icing onto the flat side of the remaining biscuits and sandwich with the jam. Put on a serving plate and eat!