Vanilla Langues De Chat

This is a quick little bake today and it's something from my baking to do list. One of my New Year's resolutions was to bake from this list more often. I actually made these in November with some egg whites left over from making my Crème brûlée. I really need to have a good look at the list to decide what I'm going to make next. In fact if you want to suggest something for me from the list then that might get me started on it. 

These biscuits are called Langues de Chat and the literal translation from French is cat's tongues because that's kind of what they look like. They're quite good for serving with a dessert or just for nibbling on. I increased the quantities from the original recipe due to the number of spare egg whites I had in the fridge and I used vanilla sugar instead of caster sugar. I had a bit of a disaster when piping though, as I only have one shelf in my oven I had to bake these in 3 batches of 20 and on the third batch the nozzle shot out of the piping bag and dolloped batter all over the baking tray. But instead of admitting defeat I spread the mixture thinly over the tray and baked it as one giant tuile type biscuit and broke it into pieces to serve. I forgot to take a picture of the wonky biscuits though so you just get a picture of the pretty ones.

Ingredients - makes about 60 - adapted from Baked & Delicious magazine issue 7

75g butter
75g vanilla sugar - make your own by infusing a pot of caster sugar with a vanilla pod
3 egg whites, lightly beaten
75g plain flour

• Preheat the oven to 220C and line baking trays with greaseproof paper or use a non stick silicone baking tray liner (I love mine!)
• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and gradually beat in the egg whites a little at a time then gently fold in the flour.
• Spoon the mixture into a large piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle and pipe straight lines about 6cm long and leave a 2.5cm gap between each one as they will spread in the oven. Tap the tray to release any air bubbles and then bake for 4-5 minutes until just golden and the edges are turning brown. Cool on a wire rack.