Viennese Whirls

When I was a wee nipper, ours was never a particularly confectionary-heavy household. To this day, my Mum proudly tells stories of how I used to nibble at carrot sticks when the other kids were having sweets, and how, on warm days, I used to sit in a cardboard box in the garden, munching away on a bag of frozen peas. I'm pretty sure that this would be widely tutted at in today's society (by parties other than the vegetable-eating youngster, I mean), but that's not really the point...  

The point is, the first time I was introduced to some of the more spectacular-looking boxed confections, it made a pretty big impact. French Fancies seemed like cartoon goodies - out of this world - and Mr Kipling's Viennese Whirls were just about the ultimate in decadent chic.

So when I saw Mary-Anne on the Great British Bake off make her version of Viennese Whirls, 'Melting Moments', I knew I had to give them a try, and I've just been waiting for the opportunity to get around to actually doing it. I know that the buttercream she uses in the recipe is excellent, as I have used it in several recipes before, so I started out with very high hopes for re-living the sugar rush experiences of my youth.

Mary-Anne's original recipe can be found here, and is definitely worth a look, as is the rest ofher excellent blog. You will see by comparing her pictures to mine, that she's also a darn site better at piping than me. Hey ho, I'll live to pipe another day! For ease of reference, I've reproduced the recipe below, with instructions for making only a half quantity of the buttercream filling from the original recipe (which was ample for this amount of biscuits).

Viennese Whirls/Melting Moments

Ingredients

250g plain flour
58g cornflour
58g icing sugar
250g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

a little food dye (optional)

Method

1. Cream together the butter and icing sugar until very pale and fluffy. You will need to pipe it later, so take the hit now and do it properly, or your crampy fingers will never forgive you (I speak from experience here!)

2. Add in the vanilla extract and sift in the flour and cornflour. Beat together until the mixture is nice and smooth.

3. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle, and pipe out in circles on a lined baking tray. If you are conscientious, you may want to draw out the circles so that you get a good shape. If you want the distinctive coloured stripe on your biscuits, then paint a line of food dye down the inside of your piping bag before you fill it. Mary-Anne suggests matching the colour to the flavour of jam that you use in sandwiching them together. I've made them twice, once with strawberry jam, and once with a strawberry and blackberry jam that my Mum made - hence the batch of double-coloured biscuits.

4. Pop the biscuits in the freezer for 15 minutes to help them retain their piped appearance when you bake them. I only have a teeny overcrowded freezer box, so I tried putting them in the fridge for half an hour instead. It really didn't work as well, so bear that in mind if you do have the freezer option available to you.

5. Bake at 180°C  for 12 minutes, until the biscuits are slightly golden in colour.

6. Put the tray on a wire rack for a few minutes, and when the biscuits have cooled for a few minutes, remove from the tray and allow to cool completely on the rack.

7. Sandwich together with jam of your choice, and Mary-Anne's delicious 'depression era buttercream'. If you prefer the biscuits simple, leave them unsandwiched, and they will keep for about 4 days in an airtight container with no bother. Once they are sandwiched, though, they'll go soggy fairly quicky, so put them together when serving if possible.

Depression-Era Buttercream

(due to the cooling time needed, it may make sense to start this before you start the biscuits, just sayin').

Ingredients

125ml milk
2tbs plain flour
110g unsalted butter
110g caster sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method

1. Gently heat the milk and flour, together on the hob, stirring continually with a whisk until the mixture thickens.

2. Continue cooking and stirring for another minute to get rid of the floury taste.

3. Pour the mixture onto a plate, cover closely with cling film, and allow to cool. The cling film will stop a skin forming. The mixture musst be totally cool before proceeding to the next stage, or your buttercream will end up as a melty, curdly mess.  

4. Beat together the sugar and butter until fluffy and pale in colour. 

5. Add the thickened milk mixture and continue mixing together until fully incorporated, pale and thick. Mary-Anne estimates that this will take another 10 minutes.

Bonjour, les Macarons!

Macarons? Aren't they hideously complicated to make, and a touch too lah-di-dah for a simple baker such as moi? Shouldn't I be more comfortable with a bog standard Coconut Macaroon (double 'o')? Well, oui, c'est vrai - Coconut Macaroons are delicious too. But sometimes you want a touch of Parisian chic, n'est pas?

So don't fret. Macaron-making didn't live up to the hardcore hype for me (although perhaps that was beginner's luck!) If you're a bit apprehensive about giving them a go, then this is the recipe for you. To make life simple, I used Belgian chocolate spread for the filling, so that I could concentrate on the shells. The shells froze really well, so that I could make them in advance, then defrost on the day I wanted to serve them, just sandwiched together with the chocolate spread.

They also make rather excellent and delicate gifts...

Super simple Chocolate Macarons

Parisian-style Chocolate Macarons
Makes about 50 shells (25 Macarons)

Ingredients:
3 large egg whites (at room temperature - this is important)
125g ground almonds
125g icing sugar
25g cocoa powder
125g caster sugar

Belgian chocolate spread to sandwich
Alternatives: Nutella, raspberry jam, vanilla buttercream, peanut buttercream... go wild!



Method:

1. Pulse together the almond, icing sugar and cocoa powder until it is very fine, then sift into a super-clean bowl (any touch of greasiness will sabotage your macarons).

2. Put the egg whites in a bowl with half of the sugar. Beat on a low-medium speet with and electric whisk. When you reach the soft peaks stage, increase the speed of the whisk, and continue until you have stiff peaks. Add the rest of the caster sugar and whisk until all of the sugar is disolved.

3. Add the eggs to the almond/chocolate powder, and fold gently, being careful not to lose any of the air. Don't overmix it. The mixture should be smooth and glossy and should form a ribbon when dripped from the spoon.

4. Put the mixture into a piping bag (never more than half-fill it at a time) and pipe walnut-sized blobs onto baking paper on a couple of baking trays. These will flatten out over time. Smack the trays down on your work surface a couple of times to remove and bubbles and let them site for 20-30mins, until a skin starts to form on the top of the shells, and they are no longer wet to the touch.

5. Bake at 160 degrees celcius at 12-14 minutes. By this time, you should be able to see the traditional 'foot' (ridge) at the bottom of the shells. To test if they are done, gently tap the side of a shell,and  it should remain firmly on its foot.

6. Allow to cool thoroughly on a wire rack before attempting to remove from the baking paper. Then, sandwich together with the filling of your choice.

7. If giving as gifts, wrap them in cellophane and tie with a nice ribbon - but they're best eaten within 24 hours or so. (If they even last that long!)

Who wouldn't want a gift of Chocolate Macarons?

My little Valentine's Treat... Creme Brulee

Ah, Valentine's Day - that well-known fake holiday designed only for the gratification of greetings cards companies and those with something to prove in packed-out overpriced restaurants.

As if I or Mr P would fall into that trap!

When I returned home on Tuesday, this is what awaited me:

The romantic, personal touch and no unnecessary consumerism.

 Super romantic, huh?

But that's not all. I'll let you into a little secret...


...my favourite dessert of all time is creme brulee. The mellow, creamy vanilla custard, and the lovely, crisp, brittle shell - perfection!

Mr P knows how I feel about this scrumptious dessert, so as well as preparing the gruesome card...

Mr P's Creme Brulee

Ingredients:

420ml double cream

1 vanilla pod

4 egg yolks

70g golden caster sugar

plus caster sugar for the topping

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 140 degrees celcius. Slice the vanilla pod down the middle, scrape the seeds out into a pan, roughly chop the pod and add that.

2. Pour in the cream, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes.

3. Sieve the caster sugar into a heatproof bowl, whisk in the yolks until you achieve a pale and creamy mix.

4. Return the cream to the boil, and then gradually pour it into the egg mix, whisking as you go. Carry on mixing until the mixture firms a little - indicating that the egg is beginning to cook.

5. Sieve the mixture into a pouring jug, then pour into ramekins filling to about 3/4 of their height.

6. Place the ramekins in a deep baking tray, with hot water poured in up to halfway up the ramekins.

7. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes: the custard should have just a little wobble in the middle.

8. Once cooked, allow to cool (refrigerate if desired). Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar over the top of each creme brulee, and caremalise with a blow torch. Apparently, in the absence of a blow torch, you can do this under a hot grill - though I've never managed this successfully as it just tend to heats up my custard.

9.   Serve up to your very impressed other half, blagging a spot on the blog in the process. 

Looking for some hot stuff? Chocolate and Chilli Tartes

As regular readers will know, this Christmas brought me some rather exciting items of bakeware, including a very cute set of individual loose-bottomed tartlet tins. As a rule, I tend to be something of a "more is more" person in the kitchen, so I've been excited about the opportunity of restraining myself with some dainty little specimens, and have just been waiting for inspiration to strike.

Now that Valentine's Day is fast approaching (an event I vehemently vocally shun, and yet am always a little aware of!) it seems like the perfect opportunity to press the tins into action with some naughty, decadent little morsels. I got this idea for a chocolate and chilli tarte from the Great Sport Relief Bake-Off a few weeks ago. Since I couldn't find the original recipe, I had the perfect excuse to experiment for myself. My friend M recently made a German Chocolate Cheesecake with a weird and wonderful crunchy semi-biscuit/semi-pastry base, so I decided to try and create something similar to offset the smoothness of the filling. The result was scrumdiddlyumptious! Although, if I was making it again, I might go for a little less crunch in the pastry as I think it took something away from the delicateness of the overall finished product.

Definitely worth a try, though, if you're into experimental confections!

Chocolate and Chilli Tartes

Makes 6-8 tartes of 6cm diameter

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

250g plain flour

125g butter, chilled, in chunks

100g sugar

25g cocoa powder

1tsp baking powder

1 egg

For the filling:

crushed seeds from 3 green cardamom pods

3 cloves, crushed

pinch cinnamon

150ml double cream

45g caster sugar

1/3 tsp chopped scotch bonnet chilli

100g dark chocolate, broken up

2 eggs, beaten

Method:

1. For the pastry, mix flour, cocoa and baking powder together. Rub in the fat until you get a breadcrumb constistency. Stir in the sugar, then stir in the egg. Ball up in clingfilm; rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

2. When the pastry has rested, roll out as thinly as you can on a flour-dusted surface and use it to line your pastry cases. Blind bake at 200 degrees celcius for about 8 minutes; remove your baking beans and bake for another 3-4 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 150 degrees celcius. If you have any leftover pastry, you can use pastry cutters to make little biscuits - they only take about 3-5 minutes and are delicious!

3. For the filling, add the sugar, spices and chilli to your cream. Bring to the boil on the hob. Once the cream starts bubbling, remove from the heat, and stir in the chocolate until it has completely melted in. Allow the filling to cool for about 5 minutes or so, then gradually whisk in the beaten eggs, a little at a time. 

4. Pop your pastry cases on an oven tray for ease of movement, fill each one with the filling, and bake for about 20-30 minutes at 150 degrees celcius.

5. Allow to cool on a cooling rack before serving with a little cream. These keep well in the fridge for up to 3 days, but you should let them come to room temperature before serving them.