Viennese Whirls (pipe-able biscuits)

I'm going to struggle more than usual with this year's Great British Bake Off Free From Technical Challenge. For those of you who don't know, I have recently had surgery on my eye. Currently struggle with altered depth of focus, blurriness and double vision. Have been able to manage phone screen a few inches from my face, but laptop is more of a struggle, so forgive any weird spellings or oddness. 

I lucked out with this week's technical challenge as Viennese Fingers was one of the dozens of recipes I already had in draft form. Thought it was about time to post it! I don't like the traditional buttercream and jam filling, so went for an orange biscuit with chocolate filling this time. Mary's Original recipe is here. You could probably just do a straight swap to dairy free margarine and gluten free flour.

My recipe made 6 filled biscuits (plus 6 straight ones with the extra mix), just double quantities if you want to make 12.

Biscuits

120g Dairy & Soya Free Margarine (works best with hard one like Stork or Trex)

40g Icing Sugar (I used 25g orange flavoured icing sugar plus 15g icing sugar)

1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

20g Corn Flour (or Custard Powder if you want yellow colour, useful if using Trex)

120g Gluten Free Plain Flour (I used Doves Farm White Bread Flour) 

10g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

'Buttercream'

120g Dairy & Soya Free Spread

60g Icing Sugar (or 45g Icing Sugar plus 15g Cocoa Powder)

Whisk together the margarine, icing sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Whisk in the flours until well combined and smooth.

Spoon mixture into a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle.

Pipe 12 swirls into a tray lined with greaseproof paper.

Bake for 15-18 minutes at 190ºC (170ºC if fan oven).

Transfer to rack to cool.

Meanwhile, make the buttercream by whisking the dairy free spread and icing sugar (and cocoa if making chocolate filling).

Spoon (or pipe) the filling onto half the biscuits, then top with the plain ones.

As an alternative, pipe straight biscuits (about 8cm long) and dip one end in melted dairy free chocolate.