Spring is here!

Spring is here – finally! I like winter if there is cold outside and everything is covered in snow … but last years we don’t get as much snow as we used to when I was little. And snowdrops and primroses in the middle of January? Not OK 🙂 But I like spring flowers now in the middle of March … and fresh air, warmer days, sunshine … Even our oven is happy with weather and finally works fine 😉 I am really happy that I can finally bake light-colored shells and I’m in love with recent photos of macarons that I have taken during past weeks.

Pomlad je tu – končno! Zimo imam rada, če je zunaj mrzlo in je vse prekrito s snegom … ampak zadnja leta je snega manj kot ga je bilo včasih, ko sem bila še majhna. Zvončki in trobentice sredi januarja pa niso ok 🙂 Pomladne rože imam rada sedaj, sredi marca … ter svež zrak, bolj tople dneve, sončno vreme … Še naša pečica je vesela lepega vremena in končno deluje tako kot je treba 🙂 Zelo sem vesela, da lahko končno spečem svetlo obarvane ploščice. Zelo so mi všeč tudi zadnje fotografije makronov, ki sem jih naredila v preteklih tednih.

Lemon, chocolate, coconut, vanilla and strawberry chocolate macarons / limonin, čokoladen, kokosov, vanilijev in jagodno-čokoladen makroni.

Coconut, vanilla and strawberry chocolate macaron / kokosov, vanilijev in jagodno-čokoladni makron.

Lemon, coconut, vanilla and strawberry chocolate macarons / limonini, kokosovi in jagodno-čokoladni makroni.

I have finally find out what causes strange feet or even cracking of macaron shells – humidity and hygroscopic sugar (some brands of sugar aren’t ok). Fortunately they taste the same even if they are not so beautiful 🙂 (Sometimes I complicate too much, I know 🙂 )
If you have problems with cracking you can try using double pan. It worked for me at my beginning, but now I use only one pan and if the macaronage is ok, shells won’t crack.

Končno sem ugotovila, kaj je vzrok za čudne “nogice” in včasih celo pokanje školjkic – vlaga in higroskopni sladkor (nekatere znamke niso v redu). Na srečo so kljub temu enako okusni, čeprav niso tako lepi. (Včasih preveč kompliciram, saj vem 🙂 )
Če imate probleme s pokanjem, lahko poskusite uporabiti dvojni pekač. V začetku mi je to zelo pomagalo, sedaj pa uporabljam samo enega, saj sem ugotovila, da če je masa v redu, potem školjkice ne popokajo. Več o peki makronov si lahko preberete tukaj.

Banana, apricot and strawberry vanilla macarons with not-so-beautiful feet / bananini, marelični in jagodni makroni z ne-tako-zelo-lepimi nogicami.

I still want to “develop” new tastes of fillings. I made forest fruits curd a while ago but I didn’t like it, it didn’t taste like forest fruits at all … Perhaps I will experiment with Swiss meringue buttercream which is still less sweet than ordinary buttercream.

Še vedno želim narediti nove okuse polnil. Nekaj časa nazaj sem naredila “curd” (kakšen je slovenski izraz za to? Gre za kremo, ki jo zgostimo s pomočjo rumenjaka) iz gozdnih sadežev, ampak mi ni bil všeč, saj ni imel nikakršnega okusa. Mogoče bom začela eksperimentirati s švicarsko masleno kremo, ki je še vedno manj sladka kot navadne maslene kreme.

Mixed macarons / mešani makroni

Mixed macarons in gift boxes for women’s day / mešani makroni v darilnih škatlah za materinski dan

Gift box with 20 macarons / darilna škatla z 20 makroni

If you are freak like me and enjoy seeing pretty macaron photos, I’ve got two mobile phone wallpapers for you 🙂

Če je mogoče kdo od vas tak “frik” kot jaz in rad vidi lepe fotke makronov, imam za vas 2 ozadji za telefon.

Colorful spring macarons / pisani spomladanski makroni

Heart shaped macarons / srčkasti makroni

You can get them in full size here / v polni velikosti jih lahko dobite tukaj:

Macarons wallpaper #1: click
Macarons wallpaper #2 (hearts/srčki): click

I think that heart macarons deserve their own post, so see you soon! 🙂

Mislim, da si srčkasti makroni zaslužijo lastno objavo, tako da se beremo kmalu! 🙂

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All macarons and boxes on my blog are handmade with love ❤ 🙂

Vsi makroni in vse škatle na tem blogu so izdelani ročno z ljubeznijo ❤ 🙂

Last two months

Although I wasn’t posting a lot about macarons in the past two months, I made quite a lot of them. Let the photos talk (you will find more details in the description below photos if you click on the gallery).

Čeprav v preteklih dveh mesecih nisem pogosto objavljala o makronih, sem jih kljub temu naredila kar nekaj. Naj več povedo fotografije, podrobnosti pa boste našli v opisu, če boste kliknili na galerijo.

 

Heart macarons / srčkasti makroni

Heart macarons / srčkasti makroni

Chocolate and lemon macarons / čokoladni in limonini makroni

Mixed macarons / mešani makroni

Making of … / Izdelava …

Mixed macarons / mešani makroni

Colorful macarons / pisani makroni

Colorful macarons / pisani makroni

Lemon macarons / limonini makroni

Coconut macarons / kokosovi makroni

Lemon ice cream recipe

(Slovenski recept se nahaja na spodnjem delu objave)

Searching for different recipes on foreign sites and blogs can sometimes be really difficult because Americans often use ingredients that are hard or impossible to find here in Slovenia. For example condensed milk is in Slovenia only availible in E.Leclerc which is located only in Ljubljana and Maribor. And I had to google what does “half and half” mean 🙂 But I managed to find great lemon ice cream recipe with usual ingredients (for us, Slovenians). And I am extremely happy with the result – smooth and delicious ice cream! I adopted the recipe from here.

You need:

• grated zest from 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar and egg yolks and mix well. Add milk and vanilla extract and mix well. Cook the mixture over low heat and stir all the time (you do not want curdled eggs) till the mixture thickens. Strain though a sieve to remove zest and possible cooked egg particles. Cover and refrigerate until cold. Meanwhile whip the cream into soft peaks. Fold whipped cream into the lemon mixture. Freeze in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s conditions.

Lemon ice cream scoop.

Ice cream after freezing in the ice cream maker.

Lemon ice cream straight from the ice cream maker.

Lemon ice cream after freezing in the freezer.

 

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Iskanje različnih receptov na tujih straneh in blogih je lahko včasih prav težavno, kajti Američani pogosto uporabljajo sestavine, ki jih je pri nas težko ali celo nemogoče najti. Na primer kondenzirano mleko je pri nas na voljo le v E.Leclercu, ki se nahaja v Ljubljani in Mariboru. Prav tako moram včasih prav pogooglati kaj določeni izrazi  sploh pomenijo (npr. “half and half”). Kljub temu sem uspela najti super recept za limonin sladoled z nam, Slovencem, običajnimi sestavinami. Z rezultatom sem zelo zadovoljna, saj je sladoled zelo okusen in gladek, popolnoma brez kristalčkov. Priredila sem recept, ki sem ga našla tukaj.

Potrebujemo:

• limonino lupinico 1 limone
• 1/2 skodelice limoninega soka
• 1/2 skodelice sladkorja
• 3 rumenjake
• 1 1/2 skodelice smetane za stepanje
• 1 skodelico polnomastnega mleka
• 1 žličko ekstrakta vanilije

V posodi združimo limonino lupinico, limonin sok, sladkor in rumenjake ter zmešamo. Dodamo mleko in ekstrakt vanilije in zopet dobro pomešamo. Mešanico kuhamo na majhnem ognju ter vseskozi mešamo, ker ne želimo, da bi jajca zakrknila (pomagamo si lahko tako, da kuhamo nad vodno paro). Ko se mešanica zgosti, jo precedimo ter damo v hladilnik, da se ohladi. Stepemo sladko smetano, ki jo nato vmešamo v limonino mešanico. Zmes zamrznemo s pomočjo aparata za pripravo sladoleda po navodilih proizvajalca.