Biscuit week touched down last Wednesday, and typically, I quite enjoy biscuit week! In the past 2 years that I’ve baked along, I’ve made florentines and biscotti, both of which were fairly successful.
Although I love Val (she’s definitely one of my favourites personality-wise) I was absolutely shocked she didn’t get sent home. She really needs to pull out all the stops in this 3rd week to have any chance at all at staying in the competition.
When faced with iced biscuits, Viennese whirls and gingerbread house creations, the choice was easy for me. I find iced biscuits a bit bland and boring, and I don’t particularly like gingerbread. Maybe it’s an American thing (or maybe it’s just my family) but we never actually ate the gingerbread house. It just served as a sort-of platter for us to pick candy off of throughout the week. The M&M roof shingles would usually be the first to go, and the gumdrop doorknob usually last.
Viennese whirls it was!
Almond and Cherry Viennese Whirls
Ingredients:
For the biscuits:
220 g unsalted butter
60 g icing sugar
250 g flour
60 g cornflour (or cornstarch in the US)
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
1/2 teaspoon of salt
For the frosting:
1 cup of dried cherries
3 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of mascarpone
1 1/2 cups of icing sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
Instructions:
I’m not very good at free handing circles so the first thing that I did was trace circles onto my baking parchment in permanent marker and then flipped the parchment marker-side down on my baking trays. Then preheat the oven to 170 C.
Start by creaming your butter until it’s fairly fluffy. Add your sugar and beat until it’s pale, creamy and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix all your dry ingredients together. Add your almond extract to your butter and stir in quickly. Then beat in the dry ingredients a bit at a time until your batter is smooth.
Fit a large piping bag with a star-tipped nozzle. Spoon your batter into the piping bag and fill your circles. Then pop the baking tray in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Then bake for approximately 12 minutes until lightly golden. Set your cookies aside on a wire rack to cool completely.
To make your frosting, first blitz your dried cherries in a food processor until they are fairly smooth. Then add in your butter and cream until the butter is thoroughly incorporated.
Then alternate adding in heaps of your icing sugar and spoonfuls of your mascarpone.
Add in the salt and beat thoroughly to finish bringing it all together. Spread about 1 teaspoon of frosting on each cookie and sandwich with another.
Notes:
Though you can skip the refrigeration step, it’s what helps the Viennese biscuit retain it’s peaks and whirls during baking.
Listening to my biscuits telling me when they are done. 
Next time I attempt to make Viennese whirls, I’d take them out of the oven a touch sooner, but otherwise, there’s not much I’d change!
Ala has the pleasure of announcing the Week 1 winner of the #bakeoffbakealong, so head on over to her blog to see who it is….
I hope you’ve enjoyed biscuit week! Link up your creations below!
