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overhead view of valentines day heart biscuits
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Valentine's Viennese Hearts

Red shortbread hearts filled with white chocolate ganache make these Valentine's Viennese hearts perfect to share with all your loved ones!
Servings 15 servings
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

For the whipped white chocolate ganache and decoration

  • 85 ml (¼ cup + 2 tbsp) double (heavy) cream
  • 200 g (1 ½ cups + 1 tbsp) white chocolate, plus extra to decorate

For the biscuits

  • 250 g (1 cup + 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 90 g (½ cup + 3 tbsp) icing (powdered) sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 230 g (1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp) plain (all purpose) flour
  • 70 g (½ cup + 1 tbsp) cornflour (cornstarch)
  • red food colouring

Instructions

For the whipped white chocolate ganache

  • Place the white chocolate and cream into a small microwave safe bowl. Heat gently in 10-20 second intervals, stirring in between, until completely melted and smooth. Cover with cling film, touching the surface (to stop a skin forming) and leave to cool to room temperature.
  • Once the ganache is cool, remove the cling film and beat using a handheld mixer until the mixture is fluffy and light, like buttercream. That's it! Transfer to a piping bag to pipe onto the biscuits.

For the biscuits

  • Line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper and set aside. Make some room in the freezer for the trays to chill the biscuits once piped.
  • Cream the butter and icing (powdered) sugar together for a few minutes until paler and really soft. Beat in the vanilla then gradually mix in the flour and cornflour (cornstarch) until everything is just coming together. Add in enough red food colour to achieve your desired shade and mix until the colour is even. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with an open star nozzle.
  • Pipe the dough into a 'V' shape, tapering off at the bottom to create a point. Keep the piping a little smaller than you want the heart shapes to be to allow for the biscuits to spread slightly during baking. Pop the baking trays in the freezer to chill for at least half an hour.
  • When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Bake the biscuits for 9-10 minutes one tray at a time, turning the tray halfway through baking if needed for an even bake. Allow the hearts to cool and firm up on the tray before transferring to a wire rack.

Assembling the Viennese hearts

  • Match the hearts into pairs as best you can so that the two hearts are the same size and shape. This will help give a better finish to the Valentine's Viennese whirl hearts once they are assembled.
  • Pipe some of the prepared ganache onto the flat side of half of the biscuits, going close to but not all the way to the edge. Top each one with the matching undecorated biscuit, gently pressing together to spread the filling out to near the edge of the biscuits.
  • Melt a little additional white chocolate and drizzle as you wish over each of the Viennese hearts. Allow the chocolate to set before serving, packaging or just digging in. Enjoy!

Video

Notes

  • I would highly recommend using weighing scales to make this type of biscuit, as they can be temperamental and tricky to pipe or hold their shape when baked if the quantities are not accurate.
  • Use butter at room temperature when making the biscuits. This will make it a lot easier to mix the ingredients resulting in a better finished bake.
  • Always use icing (powdered) sugar in both the cookies. Icing sugar dissolves more easily into the mixture, giving smoother finished results without the 'crunch' of sugar crystals.
  • When making the biscuits, beat the butter and sugar on high until much paler and really soft and spreadable. Doing this will make piping the mixture much easier.
  • Once the flours have been added to the mixture, you do not want to beat it any more than required to mix it all together. Overmixing the dough will result in tougher baked biscuits as it will overwork the gluten in the flour.
  • Always use a strong piping bag to ensure it does not burst during piping, especially when preparing the biscuits. Ensure you use an open nozzle too (I used a star tip for the extra decoration it gives) to make it easier to pipe the dough. If you don't have strong piping bags, consider doubling up to give the bag additional integrity and strength.
  • Freezing, or at least chilling, the dough piped biscuits before baking will help them hold their shape better as it gives the butter chance to firm up again once softened during mixing.
    • Author: Andrea
    Calories: 313kcal
    Course: Dessert, Snacks
    Cuisine: British
    Keyword: Buttery, Drizzled white chocolate, Easy, Romantic desserts, Viennese Heart Biscuits, Viennese Shortbread, Viennese Whirls

    Nutrition

    Calories: 313kcal