Viennese Fingers
My tried and tested, easy recipe for Viennese finger biscuits – no piping bag required!
There’s a few recipes that I’ve set myself a challenge to perfect over the years and Viennese Fingers is definitely one of those. And let me tell you, it’s been a long, bumpy road!
Biscuits are one of my most favourite things to bake. I feel confident with biscuits. I know what I’m doing when it comes to biscuits. That’s why I died a little inside each time I tried to make Viennese Fingers and faced countless disasters.
Whether it was flat fingers due to a too-soft mixture, impossible to pipe mixtures resulting in too many burst piping bags, what appeared to be the perfect consistency mixture, only for them to turn to mush in the oven…
I’ve tried countless tweaks to recipes in an effort to find the perfect one and after my failed attempts over a number of years; I try, then vow to never make them again…and always do. Well, let me tell you, I’ve finally cracked it!
Now this recipe does have a bit of hack in terms of biscuit formation but hear me out….
My latest attempt left me faced with the usual dilemma of the perfect biscuit mixture being too thick to pipe and bursting a number of piping bags in the process. After a frantic, end-of-my-tether message to Granny she advised me that for Viennese Biscuits you really need to be using a cloth piping bag – plastic ones just can’t handle the pressure.
Now before you run out and buy a cloth piping bag, I have a solution. Here at Baking with Granny we’re all about baking without extra fancy equipment. If you have a cloth piping bag, by all means pipe your biscuits (although it’s still not easy and Granny remembers her hands aching from her days of doing them at the bakery!). My hack for Viennese Biscuits involves no piping…and no one will even know.
Ingredients:
Butter or Block Margarine
Viennese biscuits are known for having a beautiful butter-y taste and crumbly texture. Traditionally you would of course use butter but you can easily substitute with block margarine to make these dairy-free or vegan.
Icing Sugar
Also known as: “powdered sugar” or “confectioners sugar”.
Sweetness is a must in all the best biscuits but icing sugar is used in this recipe, as opposed to the usual caster sugar you get in biscuits. This helps the Viennese fingers have that familiar melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Plain Flour
No raising agents are required in these biscuits, so plain flour is ideal.
Corn Flour
Corn flour is finer than plain flour, so it gives the dough a finer finish than just plain flour. Again this adds to the melt-in-the-mouth texture, like the icing sugar, as well as giving them a slight crispness as they bake.
Chocolate
Purely optional, and not as common if you are using this recipe for Viennese Whirls, but something we think completes Viennese fingers nicely. Use a good quality chocolate of your choice. I use dark chocolate to omit the diary but milk chocolate is perhaps more common.
Icing Sugar and Butter or Margarine
You can of course enjoy your Viennese biscuits as are but sandwiching them together with some buttercream really does make them next level. A simple buttercream of icing sugar and butter/margarine is all that is needed.
Love this? Try this:
INGREDIENTS
- 200 g Butter or Margarine at room temperature
- 40 g Icing Sugar
- 200 g Plain Flour
- 50 g Corn Flour
To Finish and Fill
- 100 g Chocolate dark or milk
- 100 g Butter or Margarine
- 200 g Icing Sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat your oven to 190°c (170°c for fan assisted ovens or Gas Mark 5) and line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter/margarine and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in the flour and cornflour to create a paste-like dough.
- Take a small amount of your dough (about the size of a ping-pong ball) and roll into a sausage shape. Place onto your prepared baking sheets and score with a fork. Repeat with the rest of the dough, leaving space between each.Alternatively you can pipe the biscuits using a star nozzle and a cloth piping bag, if you desire. A plastic piping bag will not work however (see notes above).
- Bake in your pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes until the biscuits have spread a little, look dry and have a slight golden colour. Leave to cool on the tray.
- Once your biscuits have cooled, melt your chocolate over a bain marie or in short blasts in a microwave. Dip either end of your biscuits in the chocolate, before placing back onto the grease proof paper. When all biscuits have chocolate on, pop them in the fridge to set.
- While the chocolate is setting, in a large bowl mix the butter/margarine and icing sugar, until light and fluffy to create your butter cream filling. Pipe or spread a small amount of buttercream onto a biscuit, before sandwiching another biscuit on top. Repeat with the remaining biscuits and buttercream.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
All my recipes are developed using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and millilitres). Cup measurements are available as a conversion but these, unfortunately, won't always be as accurate. For best results, I always recommend baking with a digital scale.
Free-from & Vegan
Dairy-free: To make these a dairy-free Viennese biscuit, simply use a dairy-free margarine as opposed to butter, and a dairy-free chocolate. Most dark chocolates are dairy-free but always double check when serving to those with allergies.
Nut-free: No nuts are used in this recipe, meaning they can make nut-free Viennese biscuits, but double check your ingredients when baking for those with allergies.
Egg-free: This recipe for Viennese fingers is egg-free. As always, be sure to double check your other ingredients for hidden allergens.
Vegan: To make these vegan Viennese biscuits, simply fswap the butter for a dairy-free margarine and use a vegan dark chocolate.
