Viennese Fingers & Melting Moments

It's Monday and there's no biscuits. Considering Hayden woke me up shouting on the monitor "I wa bic-it", suffice to say my little Cookie Monster can't go too long without a snack of the biscuit variety.

So I've decided Monday mornings will be biscuit baking morning so we can have fresh biscuits once a week to (hopefully) last the week.

I couldn't decide what to do so chose two from Jo Wheatley's book "A passion for baking". Now, I don't actually get on with this book, as much as I love Jo. I find that with a few. Nigella for example is foolproof. I love watching Rachel Allen but can't get on with her books either. 

But I thought I may as well have another bash at a few more of hers before I throw in the towel.

First recipe I chose was Viennese Fingers. I only had a bit of icing sugar so substituted the rest with caster and I had no cornflour either so did without. Yes yes I hear you saying "this is why your recipes don't work for her". But anyway....... Here's my amended recipe:

100g softened unsalted BUTTER - only butter

10g icing sugar

15g caster sugar 

100g plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Makes 10-12

Preheat oven to 150c fan

Beat the sugar and butter until pale and light. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and combine thoroughly. Add about a tbsp of milk. The recipe uses 1tsp vanilla extract but I've just run out so omitted, but even with it in the mixture just is too hard to pipe which is why I added the milk.

Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe 10cm long lengths. Bake for 10-15 minutes until pale golden. Remove from the oven and cool on the sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack.

Once cooled melt some chocolate, dip the ends in and cover with sprinkles. Leave to set.

They're incredibly delicate, light and buttery.

Second recipe I chose was chocolate melting moments. I substituted the icing sugar for caster sugar and again didn't use any cornflour. I also used drinking chocolate instead of cocoa as haven't got any in.

I only used half the recipe which made about 12

125g unsalted butter

60g caster sugar  

130g plain flour

35g drinking chocolate

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in the cornflour and drinking chocolate and beat until smooth. I additionally added 1tbsp of milk again. 

Spoon into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe swirls. Chill the baking trays for 15 minutes then bake for 12-15 minutes until hardened. Leave to cool on the baking trays so they can harden a little more.

The recipe uses mousse for the centres but I wanted to use my fail safe filling which doesn't even have a name - I don't even have quantities but its roughly half melted chocolate to half margarine which is stirred until melted and combined then put in the fridge to set. I then used this to sandwich two biscuits together.  

Despite my recipe changes, both worked. I'll keep Jo a while longer 😜