Chocolate Macarons

Hello all,
Some weeks ago I made chocolate macarons, after not having baked macarons for over two years. I was worried that I had lost my touch, but alas it was fine!

That proves that this recipe is an easy one, and that really, you have to be really unlucky to fail with it. The macarons may not have been perfect (I think I would've needed another minute of beating the batter), but they were very tasty. That's really all anyone can ask for!

Chocolate macarons

INGREDIENTS

• 100 g almond powder
• 3 egg whites (about 100-110 g)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 185 g powdered sugar
• 15 g cocoa powder
  

DIRECTIONS

I like to prepare my egg whites by leaving them in room temperature for a day before I start baking. It yields better macarons in my opinion.
 
Preheat the oven to 150°C.
Sift the almond powder and throw away the large pieces.
Mix the almond powder with the powdered sugar and the cocoa and sift again.

In another bowl whisk the room tempered egg whites until it starts to foam. Then gradually add the tablespoons of sugar. Whisk the egg whites until thick and shiny. You should be able to hold the bowl upside down without anything pouring out.

Add the almond-powdered sugar-cocoa mix to the eggs and mix. This is where it can get a bit tricky. Obviously the almond-mix should get completely incorporated within the egg whites, however you usually need to mix it a bit more. I usually pick up a bit of the batter with a spatula and if it falls down in a ribbon like shape it is ready and should not be mixed anymore. Mix it too much and you get flat macarons.

Pour the batter into a piping bag with a round tip and pipe the batter onto baking trays prepared with baking sheets. Now it is important to let the piped to-be macarons rest on the baking trays in room temperature for about an hour. I know you're eager to see how they turn out, but the resting of the macarons is super important, because the surface dries a bit and that makes them not loose their shape when they are baked, and it enables the feet to come out when baked (if the anatomy of a macaron is a mystery to you, I highly recommend googling it, but below a photo follows to explain some things).

After the macarons have rested for about an hour in room temperature, bake them at 150°C for about 14 minutes.

Let the macaron shells cool completely before you fill them with ganache. For my ganache recipe click here.

I also painted my macaron shells with a bit of edible gold, just so that they would look a wee bit more luxurious.

And that, my friends, is really all there is to it!
I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Much love,
Mona

3.14 Day

Hello everyone and Happy Pi Day!
I come to you on this special day with another recipe, this time (of course) for pie!

This apple pie is adapted from a recipe by the Hummingbird bakery. I personally love my apples to be a bit on the sour side, so I chose Granny Smith apples, but you could use any juicy apples.

The wonderful apron and dress that I am wearing are both from Olga Valeska's Etsy shop. And my ring is from Femme De Bloom.

Without further ado...

Apple Pie

INGREDIENTS

• 520 g flour
• 220 g butter
• 4-5 tablespoons cold water

• 150 g butter
• 5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 kg apples
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg + a tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Whisk the 220g butter with the flour, until you get a grainy consistency. Add cold water, tablespoon by tablespoon until the dough comes together. Leave to rest in clingfilm for an hour.

Divide the dough into two equal parts (one part for base, and one for the pie lid). Roll out one part of the dough until half a centimeter thick and line the pie tin with it.

Peel and slice the apples in fairly thick slices.
Put the 150g butter and cinnamon in a saucepan and melt the butter, then add the sugar followed by the apples slices. Make sure all the apple slices are covered with the butter-cinnamon-sugar mixture and let cook for a couple of minutes until the apple slices soften a bit, but are not completely cooked. Spread the apple slices on a plate and leave to cool.

Fill the dough covered pie tin with the cool apple slices. Roll out the other part of the dough, and place it on top of the apple slices like a lid. Cut a couple of slits in the pie lid (so that the steam can leave) and add any decorations.

Beat the egg and add a tablespoon of milk to it, then brush this mixture over the pie lid. Sprinkle on some sugar and bake for 30-40 minutes.

So there you have it, my apple pie. I hope you like the recipe and I hope you spend this Pi Day eating lots and lots of pie. I like to eat my pie with ice cream or custard, but I prefer Pie à la mode. How do you like to eat your pie? Please tell me in the comments.

Much love,
Mona

Galos de Joanie

Hi there you,

Long time no see. I'm back for a blog post, you guys.

I want to start by asking you how you are all doing.

What's going on in your life and how's the weather where you are?

Here it's just about getting a bit warmer. Last week it snowed basically every day, but finally the sun is out and you only need a regular spring jacket.

I wanted to write this post and let you all know about a brand that I only recently discovered (not sponsored though). I might have been late to the party (it's amazing that I even arrived at the party at all), as it seems to be a pretty popular brand on instagram.

The brand is called Joanie Clothing and wow!

I want everything they make. They have vintage and retro inspired clothes that have a south European feel to it, with French-inspired tops and this lovely dress that I'm wearing with a Portuguese Galo de Barcelos print. About this dress, I adore the warm summery colour and the detailed print. The little bow is like icing on a cake. It has become my favourite dress and I got plenty of compliments when wearing it this weekend.

Had you heard of Joanie?

Dress: Joanie Clothing (here)
Lipstick: Besame Cosmetics (here)
Necklace: Edblad

I wish you all a happy rest of the week. Take care.

Much love,

Mona

Once in a Blue Moon

Hello all you lovely souls!
The weather is warming up nicely. It is quite hot here, and all the trees are finally green and lush.

These photos were taken in the beginning of May when it was just starting to get warmer and the trees were still bare.

I wore this when I was holding a speech for a group of biomedicine students (I studied biomedicine myself), talking about what they can expect of life as a PhD-student and giving some advice. I prepared, and was pumped up, but was met by a small group of uninterested students. Some international students that sat way back in the lecture hall even pointed at me and laughed for themselves, thinking I won't notice.

The whole experience made me realise what a hard job teachers have, that have to stand in front of students every single day!

Funny thing, this outfit was actually unintentionally inspired by a fictional teacher. As soon as I put on the blue cardi over the dress I felt like I recognised the outfit, but it wasn't until afterwards that it struck me! Jess Day from New Girl, wore a lovely green dress with a blue cardigan in the episode Fancyman Part 1 (1x17). Like I told you previously, Zooey Deschanel is a big style inspiration for me.

Dress: Swinging Chicks Shop (here)

Cardigan: La Redoute (old)

Flats: ModCloth (old)

Anyway, my experience with holding an inspirational speech for the students didn't quite go as I had hoped or planned. The whole thing was a bit disappointing, but there was one super interested student that came and talked to me after, so even if I only reached the one person, at least I did that!

Any teachers out there? How on earth do you amazing people do it day after day?

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I had a very rough week at work, so I am doing some major relaxing.

Also a quick reminder, there are still some days left on the giveaway that I am hosting together with Book of Deer. For more info check this post here.

Much love,

Roman Holiday

Hello lovelies!

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend.

Roman Holiday from 1953 with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck is one of my favourite films. Two of my favourite actors are in it (Hepburn and Peck) and the story is lovely, happy, sad and perfect all at the same time. I always wish it would end differently, still after seeing it countless of times.

It's about a royal princess named Ann (Hepburn), that sort of elopes and goes around Rome by herself, while pretending to be someone else. A journalist (Peck) ends up helping her without knowing who she is, but later on figures it out. Naturally the pair go on to have exciting and funny adventures in the beautiful city of Rome. I really don't want to give anything away, so I'm going to end there, but it really is a lovely film and I most definitely suggest it.

Today's look is inspired by Ann while she is incognito. The film is black and white so I've tried for years to figure out what colour Ann's skirt was, finally settling on it probably being sand/beige, but I went for a full red skirt from Vivien of Holloway.

I've been a fan of Vivien of Holloway since I was in high school. I remember finding their web store and falling in love with their dresses. Well, 10 years later I finally got some items from Vivien of Holloway and I could not be happier with them. The skirt is fantastic in every way. I love the bright red colour (and Audrey wears a red skirt on the poster of Roman Holiday, so it was meant to be!), the volume and the twirlability of it!

Top: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Skirt: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Scarf: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Gloves: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Flats: Asos (here)

The top is also from Vivien of Holloway, and even though Ann wears a short sleeve (or actually it appears to be a long sleeve rolled up) I felt like the top had the same vibe to it. I added a pair of white gloves and black ballerina flats to give the outfit the right Audrey Hepburn feeling!

I felt ridiculously elegant in this outfit, and almost didn't want to take it off. I tired to channel the elegance and poise of Audrey. I've mentioned previously (here) how she is one of my number one style icons, and also one of my idols and heroes. So a belated Happy Birthday to the wonderful, elegant, excellent and amazing woman, Audrey Hepburn. You inspire me!

Much love,

Etsy Love: Crochet Days

Hello everyone!
Hope you are all doing well. I am super busy at work at the moment, so I haven't had a lot of time for blogging, but I wanted to update real quick with a new instalment in the Etsy Love series.

I adore Etsy. I think the idea of Etsy is brilliant and I am constantly finding new shops that are amazing! Today however, I wanted to introduce you to a favourite shop of mine, that I have known of for almost exactly a year - Windram Design.

Dress: ModCloth (here)

Collar: Windram Design (similar here)

Tights: Primark

Those of you who have been with the blog since the start will perhaps remember that Helen Windram of Windram Design was the first person I collaborated with on this blog, here. I wore a limited edition rust coloured and twirl-worthy handmade dress by Helen then.

And the talent of the creator of Windram Design doesn't stop at sewing. When I saw this crocheted collar I just knew I had to have it, because it can make a dress look completely different.
Which it did.

I added the crocheted collar to a trusty comfy black dress from ModCloth, and voilà - it's like a new dress! And adding it to black gives it a particularly lovely Wednesday Addams vibe!

This post is not sponsored like the rest of my Etsy Love posts. I just wanted to show you my cute crocheted collar.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!
Much love,