Chocolate Covered Viennese Fingers

Makes several dozen Viennese Fingers

220g Butter at room temperature

100g Icing Sugar or fine caster sugar

2 egg yolks

2 Vanilla Pod seeds or 2 tsps Vanilla Extract

300g Plain Flour

50g Cornflour

100g – 150g melted  Dark Chocolate

Caster sugar for dusting (Optional)

Plastic Disposable Piping bag with a star piping nozzle. Do not use a paper bag as it will burst due to the firm nature of the Biscuit dough.

Method

Cream the butter with an electric mixer until soft and creamy.

Add the icing sugar and beat until well combined.

Beat in the egg yokes and vanilla seeds

Add the sifted Flour and Cornflour until a firm dough is formed.

Put a small amount of the dough into the Nozzled plastic piping bag and carefully pipe out the dough onto a baking tray covered with baking parchment. Continue doing this until all the dough has been used up.

This is a very firm dough, so it is essential you use a plastic bag. If you use a cloth bag the butter from the mixture will seep through the cloth and ruin the dough mixture. If you use a paper bag it will burst.

Bake at 170 deg fan assisted oven for around 12 – 15 min until a pale golden colour.

When baked, take them out of the oven and dust with caster sugar. Leave the biscuits to cool completely.

In the mean time melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water and dip the cold biscuits into the melted chocolate and lay them back on the baking parchment until the chocolate has set on the biscuit. Remove from the parchment when completely set.

As an alternative you can pipe the dough mixture into bun cases and make Viennese Whirls, fill the centre with a spot of jam. These will take an extra 5 mins or so to bake.