Pistachio and mascarpone cream Viennese sandwiches

These are little morsels of melting delight, if I do say so myself!

Notes

Makes 20 small biscuits

Equipment

• Two large bowls
• Wooden spoon
• Balloon whisk or hand/stand mixer
• Piping bag with large star-shaped nozzle
• Piping bag with smaller circular nozzle
• baking trays lined with parchment/paper

Ingredients – biscuits

• Unsalted butter – 100g
• Icing sugar – 25g
• Plain flour – 100g
• Baking powder – 1/4 teaspoon
• Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon

Ingredients – cream

• Unsalted butter – 80g
• Icing sugar – 200g
• Mascarpone – 2 tablespoons
• Pistachio paste – 2 teaspoons

Method

1. Turn the oven on to 170C fan / 180C conventional
2. Cream the butter and icing sugar together with a wooden spoon
3. Mix in the rest of the ingredients – you need the mix to be somewhere between a batter and a dough: only just liquid enough to squeeze (with effort) through a large nozzle piping bag (if it is any more runny than this it will not hold its shape from the nozzle and will flatten)
4. Transfer the mix to the piping bag with the large star nozzle
5. Pipe 3cm rounds until all the mix is used up. This will be hard work as the mix is thick
6. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes (you may need to turn if your oven cooks unevenly)
7. Leave to cool for a few minutes in the trays (the biscuits are soft and will split if move too early) and then cool completely on a wire rack
8. In the second bowl (or in a stand mixer) combine all the ingredients for the pistachio mascarpone cream together and then whisk vigorously – if you can mix for five minutes until thick and unctuous, so much the better
9. When the biscuit rounds are cool, pair them off in twos (especially if they are not all exactly the same size)
10. Spoon the cream into the remaining piping bag (fitted with a circular nozzle) and pipe the cream neatly on to the bottom of one biscuit and immediately fit its matching biscuit on top
11. Repeat to fill all the Viennese biscuits
12. These do not store for long – they won’t last longer than 48 hours as they are very delicate biscuits indeed, but this shouldn’t be a problem!

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