Blue-Barb Custard Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust

February 23, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

From the depths of winter, I am particularly grateful to my past self for having cut up and frozen the bag of rhubarb that I recently unearthed from the back of my freezer. My normal go-to for rhubarb is a crisp or crumble of some kind, but I remembered the custard-topped rhubarb pie I’d seen Julie make. Rhubarb and custard are a classic pairing, and this particular pie combines them with a cinnamon and brown sugar-kissed oatmeal cookie crust. So basically all the best parts of a rhubarb crisp with vanilla ice cream – aka frozen custard – composed in a such a way that when you cut slices you end up with these lovely layers.

Blue-barb Custard Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust | Korena in the Kitchen

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White Chocolate Blueberry Bars

September 2, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 16 Comments

Remember the amaretti that I made accidentally? When I made them, what I actually meant to make was amaretto cookies to turn into crumbs for the base of these white chocolate blueberry bars (which I made a few weeks back but am only just getting around to posting about).

My oven was being a beast and the amaretto cookies came out sort of burnt, and there was nothing particularly spectacular about the homemade version, so next time I’ll just use store bought (I don’t say that often – maybe I just needed a different recipe?). However, regardless of the provenance of the cookies in the cookie crumb base, these bars are fantastic and perfect to make in the summer because they are no-bake (especially if you don’t do anything silly like baking your own amaretto cookies) and they feature delicious summer berries. Press a cookie crumb base into a pan, scatter over some blueberries, top them with a white chocolate ganache, and chill….

Daring Bakers: Cream Puff Swans!

August 27, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 41 Comments

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pâté à choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

Challenges like this are the reason I joined the Daring Bakers: ridiculous, whimsical, finicky, cream-filled pastries. I LOVE IT!

Seriously though, why NOT make cream puff swans? They are super tasty and anyone who sees them will be very impressed. They won’t be able to help it….

Daring Bakers: Fresh Fraisier

July 27, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 21 Comments

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

A fraisier is a French pastry consisting of two layers of cake soaked in simple syrup with strawberries and pastry cream sandwiched between. Essentially, it is a free-standing trifle, but the special thing about a fraisier is the exposed fruit around the sides. To make a true fraisier, you have to use strawberries (fraise = strawberry), so I’m not really sure what to call my strawberry-raspberry-blueberry combination – a baies mélanger-ier doesn’t really have the same ring to it. But whatever you want to call it, it was tasty!

I did this challenge while I was in California visiting my aunt and uncle, and it was extra challenging because I was baking in an unfamiliar kitchen and also contending with a wheat and corn allergy. But it turned out beautifully and just proves that you don’t need fancy equipment or lots of space to make a spectacular dessert. …

Amazing Struesel-Topped Muffins

June 14, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

These muffins are so good I made them twice. Once for myself, and again the next day for my friend Heather, who just had a baby girl. For the last seven and a half months of her pregnancy, Heather was sick every single day, and obviously had a really hard time eating anything. This would be my own personal hell. Thankfully, now that the baby is out, she can actually enjoy eating again. I visited her and baby Zephyra on the weekend, and when Heather told me to “bring food!” I was more than happy to oblige with these muffins.

The original recipe from Smitten Kitchen is for rhubarb struesel muffins, and I came across it about a week after I posted the recipe for strawberry rhubarb coffee cake made with whole wheat pastry flour – I had been dreaming of a muffin incarnation, and then this recipe appeared, using whole wheat pastry flour to boot! The first time I made them I used (frozen) rhubarb, and they were delicious: not too sweet, with a delicate, springy texture, a crunchy golden struesel layer on top, and a good tang from the rhubarb. Not to mention the fact that they smelled HEAVENLY while baking. The second time around, I used fresh strawberries and frozen blueberries, because Heather has two older kids and I figured berries might be more kid-friendly than slightly sour rhubarb. I also played around with yogurt instead of sour cream, and switched it up with the flours, using a combination of whole wheat and all purpose in place of whole wheat pastry flour. Both times, they came out perfectly, and I think I may have found my new favorite muffin recipe. I’m fairly confident that you could put any kind of fruit in these – fresh or frozen – and they would be fantastic. Thank you Deb at Smitten Kitchen for this recipe!!…

Perfect Pancakes with Fruit

May 29, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

I am constantly on the search for the “best” or “perfect” recipe for certain things – among them, pancakes, pie crust, and chocolate chip cookies. My go-to pancake recipe has been one that I got from TV quite a few years ago, and it has never failed me… however it calls for buttermilk, which is not something I usually have hanging out in my fridge, especially on random weekend mornings when the pancake urge hits. I end up making sour milk with a dash of white vinegar and subbing it for the buttermilk, but the fact that the recipe contains an inconvenient ingredient sort of subtracts from the “perfectness” of the recipe for me (yeah, I’m a weirdo). (Also, I’ve never really understood what makes a buttermilk pancake any better than a regular pancake, so I’ve never really seen the need to use buttermilk.) Anyway, the quest continued…

I came across this recipe, aptly named “Perfect Pancakes”, on a food blog about a year ago, and wrote it down in my little recipe notebook without noting the source, which I though I would never again find in the bowels of teh interwebz. However, through the magic of Google, I found it, so I can give credit where credit is due for what really is the perfect pancake! I finally made them for the first time the other week, and I will definitely be making them again. They were beautifully light and fluffy and they cooked up perfectly, and they didn’t require any ingredients other than those normally found in my kitchen (ie, no buttermilk). I added frozen blueberries and strawberries and bananas and served them with maple syrup (don’t even talk to me about that Aunt Jemima crap!). Please try these. They actually are perfect 🙂…

Daring Bakers: Cream Puff Swans!

Daring Bakers: Fresh Fraisier

Amazing Struesel-Topped Muffins

Perfect Pancakes with Fruit

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