Macaron madness!

I have tried to make macarons once before...and well...they didn't turn out so well..But this time, oh my gosh, let me tell you! They were close to perrrfection!

yumyum...

The original recipe can be found from Not So Humble Pie and there's also a Finnish version at Jauhot Suussa.


The macarons that I made were the Italian version.


MaCaRoN (Italian Meringue)


150g almond flour
150g powdered sugar
120g egg whites (about medium sized 4 eggs, put the egg whites in a container and keep in the fridge at least one day..)
185g granulated sugar
50g water
food coloring paste (I used icing colors from Wilton)


Stuff that you'll need and you might not have:
a scale, a thermometer, pastry bag/piping bag (you can always use a plastic bag - just cut off one of the corners. But be careful not to cut a too big hole..better to start with a small one) lots and lots of little bowls.


1. Take out the egg whites and let them cool to room temperature. Sift the almond flour and the powdered sugar in a bowl and set aside.
2. Measure 60g of the egg whites to another bowl and measure also 35g of the granulated sugar in small bowl and set aside.
3. Leave the rest (60g) of the egg whites to wait for its turn.
4. Take the remaining 150g of the granulated sugar and put it in a small pan, add the 50g of water. Now you need the thermometer! Place the pan over medium heat and set the thermometer so that it will alarm you when the temperature reaches 110 C (230 F.) The is no need to stir the syrup.
5. Beat the egg whites (60g) with medium speed until foamy. Slowly add the 35g of granulated sugar while beating the egg whites. !Don't forget to keep an eye on the thermometer!  Beat the egg whites and sugar to soft peaks (when you lift up your mixer the foam forms soft peaks.)
6. Now when the syrup has become 110 C, switch your mixer on high speed and pour the in to the foam very slowly (thin line.) Keep on beating after you have poured the syrup so that the mixture will cool down (about 8 minutes.)


*phew* not the hard part is over :) Heat the oven to 160C (320F)


7. Now mix the remaining egg whites (60g) into the almond flour and powdered sugar mixture. Also add the color at this point if you are planning to use coloring.
8. Now fold in the cooled meringue to the almond/sugar/egg white/coloring paste mixture with a spatula. Use as few strokes as possible! The batter will get thinner with each stroke. The batter is ready when you lift your spatula and a thick ribbon slowly cascades off back into the bowl.
9. Fill your piping bag. Pipe 3cm macarons on the baking sheet (about 2cm apart) Knock the full pan gently on the counter (this will make all those nasty air bubbles to rise..pop them with a toothpick if needed.)
10. Let the macarons be for about 15-30 minutes before putting them into the oven.
11. Bake at 160C (320F) for about 14 minutes.
12. When they are ready allow them to cool completely. This is a good time to make the filling while they are cooling ;)


For filling you can use sooo many things! There are great recipes at Not So Humble Pie. I made the filling using this Marshmallow Fluff Icing Recipe (the amount in the recipe is for icing a cake so you'll have to only make like 1/3 or 1/4..) I also put some pink coloring in the icing ♥ cuute! After filling these darlings you should place them in a container and put them in the fridge for a day..I know...what madness after all that hard work! But They will taste sooo good the next day! But I totally understand if you want to eat them right here and now!



 I wish you all fun times making these sweeties!


..hmmm which colors should I use next time...and there are so many fillings to choose from...hmmm..

Apples apples..soo many apples

Oh so Yummy Apple Muffins
(makes about 9 big ones)


Da Muffin


1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar (if you prefer white sugar I suggest 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar mixture)
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup runny margarine or vegetable oil
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg
2/4 cup buttermilk (if you use milk then it's 1/3 cup)
1 - 2 cups of fresh apple, chopped (you can also use peaches, pears, blueberries, raspberries..you name it!)


Topping


½ cup brown or white sugar, which you prefer :) in the pic is a version with white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, room tempereture
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon


¤ Preheat oven to 400 F ( 200 C ). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
¤ Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Then add egg, runny margarine or vegetable oil, vanilla extract and the buttermilk in the flour mixture. Mix with a fork or if you are making a larger batch use an electric mixer.
¤ Fold in the chopped apples..nom nom
¤ Fill the muffin cups right to the top and don't forget the topping!
¤ Topping: Just mix together the sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon. Mixing can be done with a fork. Then sprinkle over the muffins before baking.
¤ Bake for 18 minutes in a preheated oven, yum yum...


Make yourself a cup of tea and enjoy!

Garden ♥

These cuties...

Have now become these sweeties..

Kyuuto ^____^

Between studying and working there hasn't been much time for knitting or crocheting BUT there has been some time for shopping :) especially online shopping! There is a shop called ModeS4u that is filled with cute stuff!! Here's what I bought ♥

...and the delivery took only 5 working days! From China to Finland, not bad :)

By the way, have you heard about KIP? KIP = Knit In Public is celebrated from 11th of June to 19th of June. Check out the site - you never know there might be a KIP near you ;)

Happy knitting everyone!! 

Triple Choco Brownie Time!

I admit I'm a bit of a chocaholic and there I was going through my little archives of sweet sweet recipes and guess what I found!

Triple Choco Brownies

200 g butter

200 g Premium dark chocolate 70%

1.5 dl flour

1 dl unsweetened cocoa powder

50 g white chocolate, cut into large chunks

50 g milk chocolate,  cut into large chunks

3 eggs

3 dl caster sugar

♥ Preheat the oven to 175C and line a approx. 20cm x 20cm tin with a parchment paper.

♥ Put the dark chocolate and butter in a large bowl, place over a pan of simmering water and allow to melt. Keep stirring until smooth. Set aside and let it cool.

♥ Beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed for about 7-8 minutes or until mixture has thickened and turned a very pale yellow. Pour in the melted chocolate and butter mixture and stir it gently (not too much!!) 

♥ In a separate bowl mix the flour and the cocoa powder together. Sift the flour mixture into the eggs/chocolate and again very gently fold it in. 

♥ Last but not least add the chocolate chucks.

♥ Bake for 30 minutes. Let it cool before slicing.

♥ Serve with whipped cream and raspberries....drool...

I only had frozen raspberries so I tossed 200 g of frozen raspberries in a pan and added somewhat (maybe 1 dl..some like it sweeter than others so I suggest tasting it during the process ;) Agave Syrup. Bring it to boil and remember to stir it all the time!

Nomnomnomonomon...

Egg Warmers! Happy Easter!!

Ah! It's spring! There has been so much stuff going on this year! Starting with my sisters wedding and me going studying at the university. Time has just flown by and it has been so much fun! Only downside has been that I haven't had much time to crochet or do other crafty thingies! Evenings have been filled with lots and lots of never ending homework! But now it's Easter (little holiday!!!) and my hands have been craving for some crafting so I thought to myself what would be a fun project and came up with Egg Warmers :)..especially egg warmers with bunny ears!

Happy Easter to everyone!

♥

Melting!

I stumbled across this awesome idea while I was googling for a snowman cupcake recipe :)

The original can be found at The Decorated Cookie and there are very detailed instructions on how to make these funny cookies :) My only problem is that because I live in Finland I can't usually get my hands on all the ingredients mentioned in the recipes I have to improvise a bit.


I had some gingerbread cookie dough in the freezer which I ended up using as the "base" for the snowman. For the frosting I used royal icing (which I made!) I got the recipe from Kinuskikissa. Unfortunately her blog is in Finnish but here is the recipe for the royal icing in English:

Royal Icing (Basic recipe)

1/4 dl egg white (approx. 0.11 cup)

1.5 dl powdered sugar (approx. 0.63 cup)

3 drops of lemon juice

1. Mix together the egg white and 1 dl (0.42 cup) of the powdered sugar in a medium sized bowl with a electric mixer for about 3 minutes.

2. Add the lemon juice and the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until nice and smooth 1-2 minutes.

3. If needed add some color (gel paste etc.)

For the head and the carrot I used white sugar paste and for the orange and black color I used the icing colors from Wilton. The little twig arms are made of chocolate.

Now the only problem is that no one has the heart to eat these little fellows :D

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue ♥

The wedding was sooo nice ♥ Everything went well and most of all the two cuties got to say  ♥ I do ♥ 

As I was telling before I had a secret crafting mission for this special occasion ;) You know those little wedding favors (boxes, little organza bags etc.) which are filled with sweets...well I crocheted 150 of those. I must say it was quite a project and I think I'm not going to do it again any day soon ;) but it was well worth it! The wedding color themes came from snow, ice and the forest and I think the little crocheted favor bags looked like small snowballs.

Quite cute if you don't mind me saying ;) The satin ribbon was icy blue and the tiny crystal like bead made them perfect!

I also had the privilege to make "the bride and the groom" on top of the wedding cake. I knew that a beautiful pair of swans would be just the thing for this couple :) I bought a swan silicone mold and started experimenting..thank goodness I started it wayyy before the big day..

The swans are made of white gum paste (or sugar paste or candy clay...many names for a super versatile stuff!) and they are coated with pearl white edible spray. As soon as I get a pic of these on top of the wedding cake I will post it ♥