Anyone for a Viennese Whirl? Bakealong 26 May 2020

For our next bakealong on Tuesday 26 May I thought we might give these a whirl.
Light, crumbly, buttery and utterly delicious, these are surprisingly easy to make. For added indulgence they can be sandwiched to make ‘kisses’ with a smear of jam and blob of buttercream, or you could half dip them in chocolate – or both!
Ingredients:
For the biscuits you’ll need:

• 200g salted butter, softened
• 50g icing sugar
• 2 x tsp vanilla extract
• 200g plain flour
• 2 x tsp cornflour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 2 x tbsp milk (you may not need this but have it on hand)

 For the filling:

• 100g softened butter
• 170g icing sugar
• 1 x tsp vanilla extract
• About 50g jam, I prefer raspberry or strawberry, but you can choose whatever you prefer

Instructions

1. Heat your oven to 180C/160C fan and line two baking sheets baking paper.
2. Put your butter and icing sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk for about 5 mins until pale and fluffy. You might want to sift the icing sugar to break down any lumps. Remember to scrape the bowl down with a spatula to make sure everything is mixed in. Add the vanilla extract and beat again until fully incorporated.
3. Sift in the flour, cornflour and baking powder, and fold into the mixture using a spatula until fully combined. The dough should have a sticky consistency but be soft enough to pipe. If it feels too heavy, add a tbsp of milk (you may even need two – careful though not to make it too thin). Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped nozzle. Do it in two batches if all the mixture won’t fit in.
4. Pipe swirly circles 5cm diameter onto the two baking sheets making sure there are 3cm spaces between each swirl (as the mixture will spread and the biscuits might conjoin).
5. Bake for 10-12 mins, swapping the trays over halfway through the cooking time so the biscuits are evenly baked, until pale golden and cooked through. Leave to cool on the baking sheets for a few mins, then transfer to wire racks to cool.
6. While the biscuits cool, make the filling. Put the softened butter in a large mixing bowl and add the icing sugar. Again, you may want to sift the icing sugar to remove any lumps. Stir together initially with a wooden spoon then switch to electric beaters or a whish attachment to get the buttercream fluffy and smooth. Add the vanilla extract and beat once more to combine. Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag and snip off the end.
7. When they are fully cool, turn the biscuits over so their flat side is facing up then pipe buttercream over half of the biscuits and spread a little jam on the rest. Sandwich a jam covered biscuit together with a buttercream one and repeat until all the biscuits are used up.

Now, at this stage you could make a brew and scoff the lot, or you could melt some chocolate and half dip them.
Alternatively you could half dip them before you sandwich them. Or just dip the flat bottomed side in melted chocolate and let them dry top side down. You could just eat them like that OR sandwich them as above. Choice is yours! Decisions, decisions! 
edit.