Viennese Fingers. Or you can pipe them in swirls and call them Viennese Whirls. Either way, this is a delicate, buttery, vanilla-scented shortbread biscuit. I chose to dip mine in chocolate, but you can also sandwich these together with buttercream. Or jam. Or jam and buttercream.

It’s taken me a while to get this recipe to work because, so many times before, I got a great tasting biscuit, but it just would not hold its shape when baked. Finally, I got it to work and these Viennese Fingers don’t (shouldn’t!) spread when in the oven and taste great too.

You’ll need a little bit of milk for this recipe, just to get the consistency right. I add a tablespoon, but you might need more. There’s a fine line between a soft dough that pipes smoothly and one that won’t budge when you squeeze the piping bag. And if you have to take the dough out of the bag and add more milk to get it a little looser, then don’t panic, this has happened to me too!

You’ll need a piping bag for these Viennese Fingers and a large, star-shaped tip. If you don’t have a piping bag, or a star-shaped nozzle, then you can improvise by putting the dough into a freezer bag and snipping off a corner. You won’t get the ridges on your biscuits, but they’ll still taste good.

As usual, with any recipe that requires creaming butter and sugar, don’t forget to take your butter out of the fridge in advance, so it has time to soften. This will make this stage so much easier.