Vegan and Gluten Free Viennese Whirls!

Tell you what, I've wanted to have a go at a batch of Viennese Whirls for so long now, and lately if the chance to bake something vegan and/or gluten free comes up I seem to be embracing the challenge!


The lemon curd just peeping out!

These Viennese Whirls are flavoured with lemon zest, and are filled with a vegan vanilla-flavoured American buttercream and a homemade vegan lemon curd. I'm sure this isn't the first time I've made vegan lemon curd, but for the life of me I can't remember which bake I used it for... I know I've made vegan passionfruit curd to go in my vegan Strawberries and Coconut Cream Meringue Cake, so maybe that's what I'm thinking of?


Preparing the dough for the whirls is very easy. To start with, all you have to do is cream together vegan butter and icing sugar, before adding gluten free flour, xanthan gum, corn flour, and lemon zest. This method is so easy it almost feels criminal! The resulting dough, which is very similar to shortbread, is then piped in a swirl onto a baking sheet, chilled, and baked! Chilling the piped dough before baking helps the biscuits to hold their shape in the oven! 

For the lemon curd, lemon juice and zest are combined with soya milk, sugar, and corn flour in a bowl set over a pan of water. The curd is then heated until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon, before turmeric is added for color! When thickened, the bowl is removed from the heat and vegan butter is whisked in until fully incorporated. I would argue that a vegan curd is far easier than a curd containing eggs, and it cooks faster!

To assemble the whirls, a swirl of the buttercream is piped onto half of the biscuits, and the lemon curd is spread onto the other half. The biscuits are then sandwiched together. I love the way the buttercream swirl matches the swirling pattern of the biscuits!

Not to sound arrogant, but I'm insanely proud of the way these Viennese Whirls turned out! I'd almost go as far as to say they're perfect, if it wasn't for the fact that the lemon curd looks a little radioactive! Seeing as vegan lemon curd doesn't contain any eggs, the curd doesn't take on the colour of the egg yolks. To make up for this, turmeric is commonly added to give the vegan lemon curd its colour. I did tip the jar just a little bit too much, and quite a lot of turmeric went into the bowl! The resulting curd, whilst not tasting any different, ended up being very very yellow!

It's safe to say that these whirls didn't last two minutes in my house. I was supposed to take them to work for my new colleagues to sample, but they didn't make it that far!

Gibby x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aperol Spritz Mini-Cakes!

Image
Who's ready for an original recipe?! Fair warning, this post is quite long! These past few days have been some of the most anxiety-ridden ever for me. I'm starting a new job (stressful), the interview for which involved a ten-minute presentation (stressful), leaving behind an industry I've worked in for seven years in favour of one I have zero experience in (stressful), and I've finally gone out and got myself a car (extra stressful, considering how much I hate driving!). I've been feeling constantly nervous and anxious for well over a week, and I've been feeling so run down and exhausted as a result... I needed to do something to take my mind off the changes happening around me. I haven't been able to sit still long enough to focus on a book, and feeling ill once again has made running a challenge. So I decided to do a little bit of baking, and coming up with an original recipe felt like the perfect way to distract myself! And it worked! The eagled eyed out
Read more

My Blog's First Birthday - Birthday Disaster!

Image
Where on earth to begin with this absolute failure... Well... MY BLOG IS 1! Exactly one year ago today I started writing down my little thoughts about my little bakes! And to celebrate I decided I'd attempt a recipe that I've had my eye on for quite some time, this Peach Bellini Cake! Well... says it all... You don't need to go back for a second look to notice that this cake has collapsed. Honestly, I'm laughing when I write this, as this disaster is, ironically, one of the freshest tasting cakes I've eaten for a long time (if ever!), but it has also given me the chance to do something I'm usually too embarrassed to do, write about my failures. A first for a first birthday! This cake consists of 3 three layers of vanilla sponge brushed with a prosecco syrup, and is filled with both a vanilla and orange blossom honey crème Chantilly, and a peach and prosecco compote! The cake is (was, before it collapsed!) decorated with extra crème Chantilly, sliced peaches and
Read more

Botanicals Week Revisited!

Image
Now, I've already said that my Botanicals Week showstopper was a shocker, and I couldn't just move on from the week without trying to redeem myself! With that in mind, here's a little bit of bonus content!  Enter then this Lemon and Thyme Ring Cake, inspired by the Botanicals Week technical challenge. I had to make a couple of alterations to the recipe though. I didn't have a proper bundt tin, which meant decorating the cake according to the recipe on the Bake Off website just wasn't going to happen. And as ever, my oven remains a thorn in my side, so I had to experiment with the temperature a little bit!  Preparing the cake batter was very simple, by creaming together butter and sugar, then adding self raising flour, baking powder, eggs, lemon zest and juice, and fresh thyme. Once baked, the still warm is brushed with a lemon and thyme syrup to boost the flavour. With the decoration problem I simply decided to go with a "flood" of lemon glace icing, toppi
Read more