Poached Plum Pavlova with Spun Caramel

September 4, 2016 By Korena in the Kitchen 4 Comments

I have majorly fallen off the Daring Kitchen challenge bandwagon (the last challenge I did was in May!), and even now, my attempt to jump back on is a week late. But better late than never, right? August’s challenge, set by Marcellina, was the pavlova: a crisp meringue base filled with whipped cream and fruit. While both New Zealand and Australia claim to be the originator of this dessert, it is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, because the billows of meringue and cream are supposed to resemble her tutu. That might be a bit of a stretch, but I completely understand why Australia and New Zealand are fighting over it, because DANG, pavlova is delicious! I’ve made several in the past, and for a while the header image on my blog was a pavlova, but somehow I’ve never actually posted a recipe. So finally, here it is….

Serbian Katmer Pie

March 1, 2016 By Korena in the Kitchen 1 Comment

I’ve made a lot of different kinds of flaky pastry, and this month with the Daring Kitchen challenge, I made yet another. This version, shared by Milkica of Mimi’s Kingdom, comes from Serbia where it is used to make a dish called katmer pie. The pastry for katmer pie falls into the same sort of category as phyllo or strudel: thin sheets of dough brushed with butter, wrapped around a sweet or savoury filling.

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Gingerbread Cottage

January 7, 2016 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

The twelfth day of Christmas was yesterday and now technically the holidays are really over, but I’m nothing if not always slightly behind the 8-ball when it comes to seasonal posts. So bear with me on this one.

The holidays at our house left a slick of butter, a cloud of sugar, and a trail of cookie crumbs. SO MANY cookie crumbs. I went hog wild with baking Christmas cookies two weeks before Christmas, so by the time Christmas actually happened, we absolutely didn’t need any more baked goods in the house. But I needed a baking project to take on between Christmas and New Year’s, and I decided on a gingerbread house. I know, I know – it’s a baked good, but I wasn’t planning on eating it. Gingerbread houses are generally made of “construction grade” gingerbread and royal icing glue, both of which are rock hard and not exactly prime snacking material. Plus, I just really wanted to make a gingerbread house, and one of the perks of adulthood is that sometimes you can do what you want!

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Jamie Oliver’s Charming Eccles Cakes

November 24, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

We recently upgraded our cable TV situation and we now get a channel that plays a lot of Jamie Oliver shows, which is just fine by me. A little while ago we watched the Jamie’s Great Britain episode where he visits Yorkshire and makes eccles cakes: little puff pastry rounds traditionally filled with currants. Normally this kind of thing doesn’t appeal to me – too mincemeat-y – but I remembered back to the tiny delicious eccles cake I had at Abkhazi Garden and how it tasted exactly like Christmas, and suddenly I was consumed by the desire make Jamie’s eccles cakes, which include apples and a good dose of spice and citrus zest.

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Daring Bakers: French Meringue Macarons

October 27, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

For the month of October we got to take on one of many bakers’ deepest, darkest kitchen nightmares: macarons. Our talented bakers Korena from Korena in the Kitchen and Rachael from pizzarossa made the intimidating task of mastering these French beauties a breeze.

I’ve fallen off the wagon with the Daring Bakers challenges over the past few months, but I jumped right back on this month to co-host a macaron challenge with my blog-pal Rachael. It was really fun to come up with this challenge together, capturing all our collective macaron wisdom into a Word document that we passed back and forth (I think we ended up on version eleven!), and deciding to create videos showing our macaron-making techniques (mine is here – recorded on my iPhone because my DSLR ran out of batteries, d’oh! – and Rachael’s is here).

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Turkish Delight

May 15, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

Turkish Delight | Korena in the Kitchen

For the Month of May, Rachael from Pizzarossa challenged us to make candy but not just any candy! She challenged us to make Turkish Delight, or Lokum.

This month, I joined the Daring Cooks (counterpart to the Daring Bakers) to make Turkish Delight, the jelly-like, powdered sugar-coated squares of rose water candy. If it sounds a little weird, that’s because it is. Weird, but good, and the homemade version is pretty close to the Turkish Delight I remember eating in the holiday candy boxes that my teacher parents usually received around Christmas.

Turkish Delight | Korena in the Kitchen

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Daring Bakers: Peperkoek

December 27, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

Peperkoek | Korena in the Kitchen For the month of December, Andrea from 4pure took us on a trip to the Netherlands. She challenged us to take our taste buds on a joyride through the land of sugar and spice by baking three different types of Dutch sweet bread.

I very nearly didn’t do this challenge, but last night I re-read the recipe and realized that it was incredibly simple and also that I’ve really liked every other Dutch baked good I’ve ever made, so I baked it first thing this morning and now here I am juuuuuust squeaking in under the deadline. Turns out that ontbijtkoek, or Dutch breakfast bread, is the perfect thing to nibble on while you sip tea, contemplate your Christmas holidays, and forget what day it is.

Peperkoek | Korena in the Kitchen …

Daring Bakers: Paris-Brest

November 29, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 14 Comments

The November Daring Baker’s challenge took us for a ride! Luisa from Rise of the Sourdough Preacher challenged us to make Paris-Brest, a beautiful pastry celebrating the Paris-Brest bicycle race.

My favourite Daring Bakers challenges are the ones where I get to pretend to be a fancy-pants pastry chef, so despite being several days late with this post, I was actually pretty excited about this month’s challenge: a very French pastry called the Paris-Brest. This pastry, which is a ring of choux pastry filled with praline crème mousseline, commemorates the famous bicycle race between Paris and Brest, and its circular shape is supposed to represent a wheel. Apparently it was created because the riders needed a high calorie snack to refuel them after their 1,200 kilometer race – the early 20th century equivalent of a PowerBar!

Paris-Brest | Korena in the Kitchen …

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples

November 14, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples | Korena in the Kitchen Now that fall is here, ’tis the season for everything pumpkin-pie-flavoured – but I have a confession to make: I don’t actually like pumpkin pie all that much. I make it every year for Thanksgiving because tradition, yo, but it’s probably my least favourite kind of pie. I’d much rather eat cheesecake, so this year for Thanksgiving (which in Canada was back in October), we ate both. I made this maple-flavoured beauty and topped it with thin slices of maple-cinnamon roasted apples. It was a big hit at our family dinner, and judging by how quickly the leftovers were eaten versus how long the remaining pumpkin pie languished in the fridge, it was the clear winner of that dessert battle.

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples | Korena in the Kitchen …

Blackberry Cream Cheese Ensaimadas

August 29, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Blackberry Cream Cheese Ensaimadas | Korena in the Kitchen Ensaimadas, a coiled Spanish pastry of enriched yeasted dough, were the second half of August’s Daring Bakers Challenge, and I’m happy to share that these blackberry and cream cheese filled babies are probably the best thing I’ve made in a long time. Thank you Swathi for this recipe!

Blackberry Cream Cheese Ensaimadas | Korena in the Kitchen …