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 ❤ 🙂

Valentine’s day

Valentine macarons

Tomorrow is Valentine’s day … I’m not celebrating it but I just want to share these raspberry and choconut white chocolate macarons with you. I think they would make a perfect gift! I especially love white ones – I can not believe that I finally managed to make them so bright.

Jutri je Valentinovo … jaz ga ne praznujem, sem vam pa želela pokazati te makrončke, polnjene z malinovim in kokosovim polnilom z belo čokolado. Mislim, da bi bili idealno darilo! Še posebej so mi všeč beli – še vedno ne morem verjeti, da mi je končno uspelo narediti tako svetle.

Valentine macarons

Valentine macarons

Happy new year!

First of all – happy new year to all of you! I hope all of you spent your holidays surrounded by your family, good food and drinks and had a great time!

Najprej naj vam vsem zaželim srečno novo leto! Upam, da ste praznike preživeli v krogu družine ob dobri hrani in pjači ter se imeli lepo! 

Gift box with 4 different macarons / darilna škatla s 4 različnimi makroni

I was very busy in December because I decided to make small gift boxes with 4 or 5 different macarons in each. I think the whole idea turned out great. I managed to make some photos of boxes and macarons.

Decembra sem bila zelo zaposlena, saj sem se odločila, da bom naredila praznične darilne škatle s 4 ali 5 različnimi makroni v vsaki in mislim, da je ideja zelo dobro izpadla. Uspelo mi je tudi narediti nekaj fotografij teh paketkov in makrončkov.

The making of … / Izdelava …

Gift box with 10 macarons / škatla z 10 makroni

Gift boxes / darilni škatli

Gift boxes / darilne škatle

Chocolate, raspberry, coconut and hazelnut-vanilla macaron / čokoladen, malinov, kokosov in lešnikov makron z vanilijo

Chocolate, raspberry, coconut and hazelnut-vanilla macaron / čokoladen, malinov, kokosov in lešnikov makron z vanilijo

I hope I will continue with baking this year and that I will improve my macarons even more. I have problems with our oven again – my macarons started browning and their feet are not OK (more about this in another post), but I hope I will find a solution in the nearest future. I am planning to post my recipe and tips for baking on a blog, because I often get questions how I make them (and this is not a secret because you can find on the internet gazillion posts with recipes and tips for baking :)). I will see how much time I will have in the future.

And this is current wallpaper on my laptop (click to see the full image, you can download it too :)).

Upam, da bom v novem letu nadaljevala s peko in da mi uspe moje makrone še bolj izboljšati. Ponovno imam namreč probleme s pečico – makroni mi rjavijo, njihove “nogice” pa niso OK (več o tem v drugi objavi), ampak upam, da mi kmalu uspe najti rešitev. V načrtu imam objaviti recept in navodila za peko makronov, saj pogosto dobivam raznorazna vprašanja o peki (sam recept in postopek pa seveda nista skrivnost, saj na internetu obstaja nešteto objav z recepti in nasveti glede peke makronov). Bom videla, koliko časa bom imela 😉

To je pa trenutno ozadje na mojem prenosniku (klik za ogled celotne fotke, lahko pa jo tudi preneseš :)).

My new wallpaper / moje novo ozadje na računalniku

Kljub težavam, s katerimi se zadnje čase soočam, še vedno nastajajo zelo lepi in seveda okusni makroni, le izkoristek glede na pekač je manjši. 🙂

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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 ❤ 🙂

Chocolate chip cookies recipe

(slovenski recept se nahaja na dnu objave)

I was searching for a perfect (for me) chocolate chip cookies recipe for a long time now and I think I came really close yesterday. I really like the texture of store-bought chocolate chip cookies because they aren’t so soft like all of the cookies that I have made in the past years and I am very pleased with the texture of cookies that I baked yesterday.

Ingredients:

• 150 g brown sugar
• 30 g white sugar (I have already reduced the amount of sugar (- 20 g))
• 100 g butter (I used margarine with the taste of butter because I didn’t have enough butter)
• 70 g cream cheese
• 250 g flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda (I used 1,5 tsp baking powder because I didn’t have baking soda)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 200 g chocolate (chopped)
• coarsely ground salt

In a bowl mix together butter and cream cheese until creamy, add sugar, mix well until fluffy and light in color. Mix in egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and cornstarch. Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients and add chocolate. Cover dough and put it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Take the dough out and let it on the room temperature for 10 minutes. Meantime preheat oven to 180 °C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Roll dough (about 1 tablespoon at a time) into balls and put them on a baking sheet. sprinkle them with coarsely ground salt if you like (I forgot to do this but I will definitely do this next time because salt+chocolate = yummy!) Bake until brown if you like your cookies like I do (not so soft), but if you like them softer, bake until brown around the edges. Cool them or if you are like me – taste them when they are still warm 🙂

Note to myself: next time use butter instead of margarine, chop chocolate on bigger pieces, make cookies smaller (you know –  less guilt if you eat two or three) and bake them even longer. And don’t forget to sprinkle them with salt! 🙂

 

Že nekaj časa sem iskala tisti “pravi” recept za piškote s koščki čokolade, takšnega, ki bi piškotke kar najbolj približal tistim, ki jih lahko kupimo v trgovini. Sama namreč ne maram mehkih piškotov, kakršne sem do sedaj “pridelala” doma. Vendar pa mi je včeraj uspelo speči takšne, ki so se po teksturi do sedaj najbolj približali “trgovinskim”.

Sestavine:

• 150 g rjavega sladkorja
• 30 g belega sladkorja (količino sladkorja sem zmanjšala za 20 g glede na osnovne recepte, ki sem jih združila in “modificirala”)
• 100 g masla (sama sem uporabila margarino z okusom masla, saj le-tega nismo imeli doma)
• 70 g kremnega sira
• 250 g moke
• 2 žlički Gustina
• 2 žlički ekstrakta vanilije
• 1 žlička sode bikarbone (sama sem uporabila 1,5 žličke pecilnega praška, ker nismo imeli sode bikarbone)
• 1/2 žličke soli
• 1 jajce
• 200 g nasesekljane čokolade
• grobo mleta sol

V posodi zmiksaj maslo in sir, dodaj sladkor in mešaj dokler se masa ne posvetli. Dodaj jajce in ekstrakt vanilije. V posebni posodi zmešaj moko, sol, sodo bikarbono in Gustin. Počasi dodaj suhe sestavine k mokrim, dodaj čokoladne koščke. Pokrij testo in ga postavi v hladilnik za najmanj 1 uro. Testo nato vzami iz hladilnika in ga 10 minut pusti na sobni temperaturi. Ta čas segrej pečico na 180 °C in pripravi 2 pekača (obloži ju s papirjem za peko ali silikonsko podlogo). Iz testa oblikuj kroglice in jih postavi na pekač (približno 1 žlica testa za 1 kroglico). Posuj jih z grobo mleto soljo (sama sem jih žal pozabila, vendar jih naslednjič definitivno posujem, saj je sol+čokolada = njam!). Peci dokler ne porjavijo, če želiš bolj trše piškote. Če želiš mehkejše piškote, peci dokler ne porjavijo na robu. Ohladi (ali pa poskusi že kar tople :)).

Opomba zame za naslednjič: uporabi maslo namesto margarine, sesekljaj čokolado na večje koščke, naredi piškotke manjše (manjši piškotki – manj slabe vesti, če poješ dva ali tri :)), peci še malce dlje. In ne pozabi na grobo mleto sol!

One year

Exactly one year ago I made my first macarons. They weren’t tasty, they were completely overbaked, too sweet and they didn’t look good. I told everybody around me that I would never make them again … But next day I tried again … and then again … and again. And they finally turned out O.K. 🙂

Natanko eno leto nazaj sem spekla prve makrone. Bili so preveč pečeni, neokusni, presladki in tudi izgledali niso lepo. Vsem sem dejala, da jih ne bom nikoli več pekla … ampak naslednji dan sem poskusila ponovno … in nato ponovno … in ponovno. In končno so uspeli 🙂

And here am I now, still baking them almost every week, trying new flavors and combinations. You can read more about macarons in one of my posts (click).

Eno leto kasneje jih še vedno pečem skoraj vsak teden ter preizkušam nove okuse in kombinacije. Več o makronih si lahko preberete v eni izmed prejšnjih objav (klik). 

 

Chocolate, banana and raspberry dark chocolate macarons / čokoladen, bananin in malinov makron s temno čokolado

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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 ❤ 🙂

Coffee chocolate macarons

My friend had a birthday last week and as a gift I made her coffee macarons filled with dark chocolate ganache. I have already made ganache with added instant coffee in the past, but this time I tried to add a teaspoon of grounded coffee in shells. And it worked!

Prejšnji teden je imela prijateljica rojstni dan in za darilo sem ji naredila kavne makrone s čokolado. V preteklosti sem že naredila čokoladni ganache z dodatkom instant kave, tokrat pa sem poskusila dodati mleto kavo v školjke … in je delovalo! 

Coffee chocolate macarons

The flavour of coffee is not so strong but it is still noticable. So if you like combination of coffee and chocolate, you should try it!

Okus kave ni tako močan, ampak je še vedno opazen. Tako da če imate radi kombinacijo kave in čokolade, jih poizkusite!

Coffee macarons with chocolate / kavni makroni s čokolado

Coffee macarons with chocolate / kavni makroni s čokolado

Coffee macaron with chocolate / kavni markon s čokolado

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

Chocolate hazelnut tart

(slovenski recept se nahaja na dnu objave)

I’ve made this tart several times till now (even yesterday for my mother’s birthday), because it is really easy to make and doesn’t last long in our house (we are all huge fans of chocolate). I have decided to share the recipe with you.

Ingredients / sestavine

Crust:
1 cup ground cookies
1 cup ground hazelnuts
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 tbsp confectioner’s sugar
5 or 6 tbsp butter – melted

Preheat your oven to 180 °C. Mix together cookies, hazelnuts and cocoa powder, sugar. Add melted butter and mix. Grab mixture in your hand, press and if the shape holds it is ready for spreading into the tart pan. Press the mixture down and up on the sides of the pan and then bake for 10-12 minutes.

Crumbled mixture has to hold shape / osnova mora po stisku držati obliko

Filling:
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
250 g dark chocolate
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat heavy cream and pour it over chopped chocolate, leave for a minute and then mix till all of the chocolate is melted. Add eggs, vanilla extract and salt. Mix well. Pour onto baked crust and then bake for 20-25 minutes.

Glaze:
3 tbsp heavy cream
75 g dark chocolate
1 tbsp warm water

Preheat heavy cream and pour it over chopped chocolate, leave for a minute and then mix till all of the chocolate is melted. Add water and mix. Pour over baked tart.

Crust – filling – baked filling – tart with glaze / osnova – nadev – pečen nadev – pita z glazuro

Leave tart to cool completely before decorating.

Chocolate hazelnut tart

Chocolate hazelnut tart

A slice of chocolate hazelnut tart

Chocolate hazelnut tart

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Do sedaj sem to pito že večkrat naredila (nazadnje še včeraj, ko je imela mami rojstni dan), saj je res enostavna za pripravo. Vedno jo zelo hitro pojemo, saj imamo prav vsi zelo radi čokolado. Odločila sem se, da bom z vami delila recept.

Osnova:
1 skodelica zmletih piškotov
1 skodelica zmletih lešnikov
1/4 skodelice kakava v prahu
3 žlice mletega sladkorja
5-6 žlic stopljenega masla

Ogrej pečico na 180 °C. Zmešaj piškote, lešnike, kakav in sladkor ter dodaj stopljeno maslo. Premešaj. Z roko zagrabi nekaj mešanice in stisni; če se oblika obdrži (se ne drobi), je osnova pripravljena. Razporedi jo v pekač ter jo pritisni ob njegovo dno in rob. Peci 10-12 minut.

Nadev:
1 1/4 smetane
250 g temne čokolade
2 jajci
1 žlička vanilijevega ekstrakta
1/4 žličke soli

Segrej smetano in jo polij po nasesekljani čokoladi. Počakaj minuto, nato pa mešaj dokler se vsa čokolada ne stopi. Dodaj jajca, vanilijev ekstrakt in sol, dobro premešaj. Polij po pečeni osnovi ter peci 20-25 minut.

Glazura:
3 žlice smetane
75 g temne čokolade
1 žlica tople vode

Segrej smetano in jo polij po nasesekljani čokoladi. Počakaj minuto, nato pa mešaj dokler se vsa čokolada ne stopi. Dodaj vodo in premešaj. Polij po pečeni piti.

Pred dekoriranjem pite počakaj, da se le-ta popolnoma ohladi.

Blueberry muffins recipe

(Slovenski recept se nahaja v spodnjem delu objave)

I haven’t posted anything new on a blog in a while now because I didn’t have time and conditions to take photos of macarons and other things I have made. Weather here is really bad these days, it feels like evening all day because it is cloudy or is raining all the time.

Yesterday I tried a new recipe for blueberry muffins and I wasn’t satisfied at all! Lesson learned – if you have a perfect recipe for something, stick to it! So, I want to share my favorite recipe with you 😉 It is adopted from here. These muffins are soft, moist and delicious!

Dry ingredients:

• 250 g flour
• 3 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients:

• 1 big egg
• 130 g sugar
• 1 pack vanilla sugar
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1,5 dl yogurt or milk
• 40 g butter

200 g blueberries (you can also use raspberries, sour cherries etc.)

Preheat your oven to 180 °C. In a bowl mix together flour and baking powder. In an other bowl mix together an egg, sugar and vanilla sugar, oil, butter and yogurt (or milk). Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix lightly (not with electric mixer!). Mix in blueberries. Evenly distribute mixture into muffin pan ((you should have enough mixture for 12 muffins). Bake for 20-25 min, turn off the heat and leave muffins in the oven for another 3-4 minutes.

Here is a crappy picture of muffins that were baked in a silicone muffin molds. I have used blueberries from our garden so they are almost as big as sour cherries 🙂

Blueberry muffins / borovničevi mafini

Že nekaj časa nisem na blogu objavila ničesar novega, saj nisem imela časa in pogojev za fotografiranje makronov in ostalih stvari, ki sem jih naredila. Vreme tukaj je te dni zelo slabo, tudi čez dan imam občutek kot da je večer, saj je ves čas oblačno ali pa dežuje.

Včeraj sem preizkusila nov recept za borovničeve mafine in nisem bila zadovoljna. Lekcija naučena – če že imaš perfekten recept za določeno stvar, se ga drži! Z vami želim deliti moj najljubši recept. Osnovnega lahko najdete tukaj, sama pa sem ga malo prilagodila. Mafini, pečeni po tem receptu so mehki, sočni in odlični!

 

Suhe sestavine:

• 250 g moke
• 3 žličke pecilnega praška

Mokre sestavine:

• 1 veliko jajce
• 130 g sladkorja
• 1 zavoj vanilijevega sladkorja
• 3 žlice olja
• 1,5 dl jogurta ali mleka
• 40 g masla

200 g borovnic

Pečico segrej na 180 °C. V eni posodi zmešaj moko in pecilni prašek, v drugi jajce, sladkor, vanilijev sladkor, olje, maslo in jogurt (ali mleko). Suhe sestavine rahlo vmešaj v mokre (ne z mikserjem!), toliko, da se omočijo, na koncu vmešaj še borovnice. Maso razdeli v pekač za mafine (mase bi moralo biti za točno 12 mafinov). Peci 20-25 min, nato ugasni pečico in mafine pusti v ugasnjeni pečici še 3-4 minute.

Na (slabi) fotografiji so mafini, pečeni po tem receptu v silikonskih modelčkih. Uporabila sem borovnice z našega vrta, ki so podobne velikosti kot višnje 🙂

Heart macarons

I received 2 packages in the past week – one contained 6 Americolor food gel colors and the other one heart shaped silicone baking mat.

V preteklem tednu sem prejela 2 paketa – v enem je bilo 6 gel barv za živila znamke Americolor, v drugem pa silikonski pekač za makrone v obliki srčkov. 

New Americolor gel food colors / nove Americolor gel barve za živila

I have already tried 4 gel food colors (lemon yellow, burgundy, leaf green and electric purple) and I am happy about the yellow and the green one. Burgundy is not so vivid as I expected and electric purple is not purple at all.

Preizkusila sem že 4 gel barve za živila; zadovoljna sem predvsem z rumeno in zeleno, “burgundy” ni tako živa kot sem pričakovala, vijolična pa ni niti malo vijolična. 

Heart shaped macarons before baking / “srčkasti” makroni pred peko

As you can see on the picture, the macaronage was a bit on the purple side before baking, but baked macarons were pink.

Kot vidite na sliki, je bila masa pred peko nekoliko vijolična, pečeni makroni pa so nato bili roza. 

Heart shaped macarons / “srčkasti” makroni

Heart macarons are a little bit more difficult to make because the piping isn’t so easy. But practice makes perfect 😉 I am definitely going to bake them again in the following week. And my family and I will probably all get fat 😀

“Srčkaste” makrone je malce težje narediti, ker brizganje mase ni tako enostavno. Ampak vaja dela mojstra 😉 Vsekakor jih bom v prihajajočem tednu ponovno pekla, pri nas doma pa se bomo verjetno vsi zredili 😀

Heart shaped macarons / “srčkasti” makroni

Heart shaped macarons / “srčkasti” makroni

Heart shaped macarons / “srčkasti” makroni

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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 ❤ 🙂