Raspberry and Pistachio Viennese Whirls

Hello readers!

This recipe came into being after inspiration was given to me by a friend. As is often the case, she said "I want to make some Viennese Whirls. Can you make some and blog them please so I can use your recipe?" Being the good friend I am, here I am blogging them!

Truth be told, I've made these before but that was wayyy before I started this blog and the pic I have of them is shockingly bad. Perhaps I'll post it sometime but for now it's far too embarrasing.

Recently, Jac from Tinned Tomatoes (fab foodie blog, get over there if you've not visited before!) introduced me to Silpat non-stick baking sheets. She was raving about them like they were some incredible invention but I've had silicone baking tray liners before and surely they're all the same... How wrong I was! The baked goods just slide off the Silpat's non-stick surface and even chocolate was no match for it as that peeled right off too. I think I've found my new kitchen 'wonder product'; thanks, Jac! Of course, if you're not convinced you can always use baking parchment.

You don't have to dip the biscuits but I think it adds an extra luxurious feel to them and it doesn't take long. If I was being a fancy pants (and I like fancy sometimes!) I'd have sprinkled some chopped pistachios onto the melted chocolate after I'd dipped the biscuits but I didn't have any, so I didn't.

I use flavoured icing sugar here from Sugar and Crumbs and you can easily vary the flavours by just choosing a different icing sugar. The traditional version would have plain icing sugar with a little vanilla extract in the mix.

For this recipe, I experimented with a new product from the makers of Stork baking spread called Stork with Butter. I ALWAYS use Stork in my cakes as I find it gives a lighter sponge and better flavour but some prefer the flavour of butter. In a Viennese Whirl I like the flavour of butter to come through, but using butter can make the mix too stiff. I found that Stork with Butter gave a lovely buttery taste and was also the perfect consistency for this recipe. If you haven't tried it, I think you should give it a go!

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Raspberry and Pistachio Viennese Whirls

by Kevin Chambers-Paston June-07-2015

These delicious biscuits aren't from Vienna, they're actually from East Anglia! Wherever they're from, they are really delicious.

Ingredients

For the biscuits:
• 125g butter or baking spread
• 125g plain flour
• 25g cornflour
• 25g pistachio-flavoured icing sugar
To dip:
• 100g milk chocolate
For the filling:
• 50g butter or baking spread
• 100-110g pistachio-flavoured icing sugar
• A tiny splash of boiled and cooled water
• A few teaspoons of raspberry jam

Instructions

1. Place the butter or baking spread, plain flour, cornflour and icing sugar into a bowl and mix either with a mixer or by hand. Cream well so the mixture is reasonably soft - it needs to be piped so can't be too stiff. 2. Pipe the mixture into rosettes on a non-stick sheet or baking parchment. I found it easiest to start at the centre and work out in a spiral as if making buttercream roses but I'm sure they are lots of other ways to do it. 3. Bake the whirls at 180ºC Fan for around 12-15 minutes or until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely. 4. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in short bursts and then dip the biscuits into it, placing them back on the tray to set. You may need to use more chocolate than stated to get a deep enough pool for dipping. 5. Once the chocolate has hardened, you are ready to make the buttercream. Simply place the butter or baking spread and icing sugar into a bowl and cream together, adding a little water to loosen if needed or a little more sugar if too loose. 6. Assemble the biscuits by spreading half with a little raspberry jam and the other half with a dollop of buttercream then sandwich together. 7. The buttercream will be soft at this point so if you eat them right away, it may ooze out of the sides. This is fine, of course, but if you leave them for a few hours it will firm up and be a bit easier to eat!

Details

Prep time: 15m Cook time: 15m Total time: 30mYield: 6 sandwiched biscuits

REVIEW: Aroma Café and Bar, Norwich

Back in 2014, I noticed a little shop on my walk to the train station was being turned into a coffee shop. "Not another coffee shop", I thought. I remember hoping that this one would be a little different, maybe add something that other coffee shops didn't to the vibrant city of Norwich. It wasn't until about a month ago I tried this little gem of a place and boy, I was not disappointed.

Although Aroma is a lovely café, it's also so much more. They have a delicious range of sandwiches, paninis, pastries and a whole manner of other treats as well as having alcohol on offer and a rather fabulous cocktail menu. Everything I love, all in one place! It's one of those places I knew right from the minute I stepped in I was going to become a regular. And a regular I now am, apparently!

The place is owned and run by Mercedes and her brother Tom and they couldn't do any more to make their customers feel welcome. I went in alone on my first visit but I soon felt I was amongst friends as they are very friendly and chatty which promotes a really great vibe throughout the place.

So, enough of my rambling. What do I THINK of Aroma? Well...

First Impressions

As I've already said, as soon as I walked into Aroma I knew I would become a regular. The decor is awesome and really quirky (just like me!) and the food and drink displayed is in a way that you can't help but want to buy everything!

There are 3 levels, the café on the ground floor, a seating area in the middle and a cocktail bar up the top. All are decorated with wonderfully interesting paraphernalia and all are very warm and welcoming.

As always, I checked out the toilets too which I found to be spotless. An easy 10/10

Service
As I walked in, I was met with big smiles and the baristas spoke to me like an old friend; their happiness was just infectious. So often in a café I'm greeted with a grunt and a frown, but not in Aroma. The chat continued and now they recognise me and take a genuine interest in what I've been up to between visits. Fabulously 10/10

The Food and Drink

I'm a sucker for a bit of latte art and Aroma do this really well. After quizzing Mercedes about what she could do, we settled on a dirty chai latte with a bear on top. I sat down for a minute or two and that is exactly what I got, alongside a delicious Portuguese custard tart!

Mercedes suggested I should take a picture of me 'kissing the bear'. Sounded a bit rude but I'm not one to shy away from a challenge so I did indeed kiss the bear!

They certainly know how to make a nice cup of coffee here at Aroma. In fact, it's as good as anywhere I've tried in Norwich or beyond. Before the coffee, I'd also had a meatball melt panini which was so tasty I didn't stop to take a picture. Oops!

On subsequent visits, I've had the pleasure of trying many other delights; all of which have been completely delicious. Below is my lunch of an Apple Pressé and a New Yorker aka Chicken, Bacon, BBQ Sauce and Cheese. Then on the right a 'latte art gone wrong' which Mercedes quickly turned into a cowboy. I think he's rather cute...

I cannot fault the food at Aroma and the coffee is excellent too. I was going to write this review for you last week but it occurred to me that I'd never actually tried any of the cocktails and a review of somewhere that serves cocktails without trying one of them would just be so wrong, wouldn't it? So, here's The Naked Busker.

And yes, it was as yummy as it sounds. Kraken, Disaronno, lime juice and ginger beer were combined to make this delight. Cheers Tom!

So, having sampled the food, the coffee and the cocktails I now feel I can give an honest and well-deserved 10/10

Value For Money
To get coffee, cocktails and food this good it's only right that the prices are higher than other similar places, right? WRONG!

Aroma's prices are really competitive, with a latte costing just £2.30 and a Naked Busker coming in at £6.95. As cheap as anywhere in Norwich, for sure. The food was just as competitive, but I'm afraid I can't remember the prices. Bad blogger.

To top it off, Aroma have a great loyalty scheme. They issue new customers with a plastic swipe card that tops up with points to the equivalent of 12p in every £1. I don't know of another scheme that has better rewards.

All in all, it's another 10/10

Overall
So, did I mention yet that I LOVE Aroma? In fact, I love it so very much that I'm giving them my second EVER 10/10. I tried so hard to find something negative to say but it was just impossible.

Get down to Aroma right now and try it for yourself. I'd love to hear what you think and perhaps we can enjoy a bear-y latté together there sometime soon.

P.S. If you'd like to find out more about Aroma then check out their website, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!

Perfecting Pâtisserie June 2015

I'm sorry I've not been blogging very much lately, but I've had a lot going on in my personal life. I'm planning a post with some more detail on that in the coming weeks but for now I am easing myself back into blogging gently. Thank you to all of you who have shown me support.

Anyway, now that's all over... Who's up for a challenge?!

Ever since I started baking, I've always been fascinated by pâtisserie. I've seen on tv all those wonderful French pâtisseries with their delicious delights in the windows and have made a vow to get over to Paris sometime soon to try them for myself.

But making delights like these is far beyond the home baker like myself, right? WRONG! I've found that with a little bit of guidance, skill, know-how and patience anyone can make delicious pâtisserie in their own home. So that's the aim of this challenge. I've teamed up with the lovely Lucy from BakingQueen74 to bring you this blogging link-up and give you a gentle push to explore outside your comfort zone and take a leap into this sweet sweet world.

Our definition of pâtisserie for the challenge is very wide and also includes viennoiserie e.g. croissants, pastries and so on. Anything you might find in a Pâtisserie cookbook is fine! There is no theme for this month, so do link up any pâtisserie recipes you post in June using the linky below, and check the guidelines below.

Perfecting Patisserie Challenge Guidelines

• Post your pâtisserie recipe on your blog.
• You can link up any pâtisserie or viennoiserie recipe. Sometimes there may be a special theme, so keep an eye out for that. If you’re not sure if your recipe is right for the challenge, just tweet us at @thecraftylarder or @bakingqueen74 to check.
• Use the Perfecting Patisserie badge (above) in your post and link back to me at The Crafty Larder and Lucy at BakingQueen74.
• Please link up new blog posts only (not old).
• Use the linky below to enter.
• It’s fine to join in with other challenges as well if your entry meets their criteria, and you can enter up to 3 entries per month, per blog, if you like.
• The challenge will run until the 28th of each month. The hosting blog will post a full round up at the end of the month.
• On Twitter, tweet your entries to @bakingqueen74 and @thecraftylarder and use the hashtag #PerfectingPatisserie and we will RT all we see.
• All entries will be pinned to a dedicated board on Pinterest.
• Please remember not to publish recipes from books etc on your blog without permission, to respect copyright. If you are using a recipe from a website, please link to the recipe.

Happy baking!

An InLinkz Link-up