Vienna Waffle and Almond Shortcrust Bars with Apricot Jam

Put the cold butter together with the flour into a Bowl and rub the two together between your hands. Once there are no more butter lumps, add the remaining dry ingredients – including the salt – and mix briefly. Finally add the beaten whole egg. Knead everything into a smooth dough, wrap it in cling film and chill it for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 °C fan. Take the dough out of the fridge, halve it and knead it briefly. Roll out the first half on a lightly floured work surface to 3 mm thick and to a size of 17 × 30 cm – ideally using 3 mm rolling guides and the baker's ruler to check. Repeat with the second half. Then prick one of the two sheets with the Mini roller docker.

Lift the pricked sheet onto a baking tray lined with baking paper using a Cake tin, and bake it for approx. 12 minutes at 180 °C fan. After baking, the base must cool completely.

With the Dough divider, first score the second half of dough into 4 cm wide strips and then divide it crosswise into 4 cm pieces. Important: only score, do not cut through – the lines later serve as a cutting guide.

Mix up some Royal icing – ideally with our Royal icing mix – fill it into a cornet and draw thin diagonal lines across the scored sheet. Then draw the same lines from the other direction: this creates the classic diamond pattern. Bake this sheet too for approx. 12 minutes at 180 °C fan, and let the lid cool as well.

Spread the cooled base evenly with the apricot jam – make sure it lies equally thick everywhere. Then place the cooled lid on top. And now comes the most important part: leave the waffle sheet to stand overnight. The shortcrust pastry draws moisture from the jam and becomes tender – freshly assembled, it breaks when cut.

The next day, cut the sheet into squares – following the lines scored into the surface. Finally, dust the waffles with a little icing sugar.