Viennese Biscuits

By: Pete on 07:49:00

These are far simpler than they look, especially if you have a stand mixer to do all the heavy lifting for you! Piping the biscuits can be a little tricky, as the paste is fairly viscous, however they are fairly forgiving when they bake, and smooth out wonderfully.

I've never tried flavouring the biscuit (they are basically something to smother in chocolate), so I might look at doing orange/lemon/chocolate varieties at some point. Another popular way of serving these is with cream and jam sandwiched between 2 piped discs, however as I was taking these into work, the classic chocolate dip was more suited to transportation...

Vienese Biscuits - Recipe

•  Pre-heat oven to 160-170'C
• Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter - softened
• 50g icing sugar
• 225g plain flour
• 75g cornflour
• 150g dark (70% cocoa solids) chocolate

1) Put the butter, sugar and flours in a stand mixer bowl with the paddle attachment

2) Mix until a smooth paste is formed (I tend to find it goes through the breadcrumb stage, to a dough, and then forms a smooth paste)

3) Using a spatula, put the paste into a piping bag with a small'ish star nozzle

4) Pipe out your biscuits onto the baking trays (I did squares, and wavy fingers, but you can really do whatever you want)

5) Bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes, until they are just turning golden

6) Remove from the oven, and allow to cool slightly on the trays

7) Carefully remove to wire racks to cool completely (they are a bit delicate when warm, so be gentle)

8) While the biscuits are cooling, melt the chocolate on a bain-marie. try to use as small a container as possible, so you get good chocolate depth (it makes dipping easier)

9) Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, dip half the biscuits in one at a time, and place onto greaseproof paper to set.

10) Once cool and set, these can be stored for upto a week in an airtight container (if they last that long!)