Viennese Fingers

These are heaven sent. Lovely little light as air biscuits that literally melt in your mouth - I could happily eat about 4 trays of them to myself with a cup of coffee (and im really not a huge sweet tooth person believe it or not!). Before I discovered this recipe, I always thought of them as quite a posh biscuit that would be really hard to make, and god knows I was sooooooooooo wrong. This is a Jo Wheatley recipe (she is one of my biggest idols ever) and they are so easy to make you'll want to punch yourself for not making them sooner. They're so simple theres not much alteration you can do them, I have made them in the past and used white chocolate instead of milk and dipped the chocolate ends (whilst still slightly damp) in freeze dried raspberrys, that was pretty nice, and I have made them into little swirls and dipped the underneath in chocolate so they were like little kisses.. so you could still have a play with them in that sense but the biscuit itself is not something I would want to toy with -- you could say they're perfect as they are.  I knocked this batch up this evening - so it shows how mindnumingly easy it is, if you cant tell my brain is half asleep.

Anyway I'm rambling now.

Go stuff your faces :) 

Ells
x



Ingredients
100g Unsalted butter, softened (the softer the butter is the better)
25g icing sugar
1tsp Vanilla extract
100g plain flour
1 tsp cornflour
1/4 tsp baking powder
100g milk chocolate, chopped

You will need a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle (any star shaped one will do, no preference -- i use various depending what i can find first). And a baking sheet lined with baking parchment

Method
Pre heat your oven to 170c/gas 3
Beat the butter and icing sugar together in a bowl until really light and creamy (or if you're lucky to have one like me, in a free-standing mixer). Add the vanilla essence and mix again. Sift in the flour, cornflour and baking powder and mix until you have a smooth paste.
Spoon the mixture into your piping bag, (i find the easiest way is to stand your piping bag in a tall cup, fold the edges of the bag over and fill it - it saves mess!). Pipe your biscuits onto the baking tray, they do spread slightly so leave about a 1cm gap between each biscuit.
Bake on the middle shelf for 10-15 mins (all ovens vary) or until they are pale golden brown.
Remove them from the oven and cool on the tray for about 10 minutes. Move them onto a wire rack until theyre completely cool.
Melt the chocolate (about 20 second spurts in the microwave should do it, or in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water), then dip each end of the Viennese fingers into the melted chocolate and place them on some baking parchment
. 
Let the chocolate set, then store in an air tight tin for a couple of days (if they actually manage to last that long!)