Crescia al Formaggio {Italian Easter Cheese Bread}

April 14, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

Every Easter for the past six years, I’ve posted a recipe for hot cross buns, so rather than post version number seven this year, I decided to branch out and explore another kind of Easter bread: the Italian Crescia al Formaggio, an egg-rich bread loaded with parmigiano reggiano and spiced with cracked black pepper.

I’ve been on a bit of a bread baking kick lately (by which I mean I’ve made bread twice this month, but that’s twice more than I have any other month in the past year) and I’m reminded of why I love it so much. Homemade bread rocks. Taking flour, yeast, and water (and in the case of Crescia al Formaggio, some butter, eggs, and about $10-worth of imported Italian parmesan cheese – it’s a special occasion bread for sure) and turning it from raw ingredients into a gorgeous loaf of delicious bread is like having a super power. And no, I’m not hyperbolizing (much).

Crescia al Formaggio in particular is pretty spectacular: instead of kneading the high hydration dough with a dough hook, you beat it with the paddle attachment of an electric mixer until it is shiny and stretchy, giving it an amazing light and fluffy yet chewy and shreddable texture. Combined with the savoury, umami-rich parmesan, the end result is a loaf of bread that slices like a dream and makes the best toast imaginable. And though I’m still going to make a batch of hot cross buns this year (I have my eye on Aimee’s maple version), if you were to present this bread at your Easter breakfast table instead, I am quite sure that no one would be complaining….

Three-Cheese Tomato and Sausage Pasta Sauce

December 4, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 20 Comments

Happiness is a bowl of pasta.

Top it with rich, cheesey tomato sauce spiked with homemade Sicilian sausage and you’ve got euphoria, as far as I’m concerned.

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Daring Bakers: Going Crackers!

July 27, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 38 Comments

Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

Homemade crackers are one of those things I’ve seen recipes for and thought, “I should make those!” but never got around to actually doing it. Maybe because they’re not loaded with sugar or chocolate? (That seems to be what attracts me these days…) Or maybe because I don’t eat a lot of crackers on a regular basis? Whatever the reason, it’s now moot, because Dana’s challenge was to make not one, but two kinds of crackers, by two different methods: rolled by hand, by pasta machine, or by the slice-and-bake/icebox method….

Blue Hawaiian Pizza

June 16, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

We’re moving in almost exactly two weeks and so far I have managed to do very little in the way of packing. I have also managed to neglect this blog, so I wanted to quickly share this “Blue Hawaiian” pizza I made for dinner last night. No recipe needed – just make your traditional Hawaiian pizza with sauce, ham, and pineapple, plus the secret ingredient: crumbled blue cheese.

(Don’t forget the mozzarella.)

Nate and I both love this combination – definitely a grown-up twist on a kid favorite, especially if you like blue cheese.

I’ve discovered a really awesome pizza crust recipe and baking method which I will share here eventually… in the meantime, try this on your next pizza!

Apple, Cilantro & Pecan Quesadillas

May 30, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Sometimes the weirdest-sounding combinations turn out to be much better than expected. I once had a pizza topped with cilantro pesto, apples, pecans, and smoked mozzarella, which I thought would be totally weird, but was actually very very good. The other day I happened to have corn tortillas, cheese, and cilantro in the fridge, an apple in the fruit bowl, and pecans in the baking cupboard, and I figured that a quesadilla is sort of like a Mexican pizza, right?…

Roasted Mushroom Pesto for Pizza

April 14, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 16 Comments

One of the truly great taste combinations is mushrooms and cheese, so it is a no-brainer to put them together on a pizza. What is not a no-brainer is making mushroom pesto to put on the pizza instead of tomato sauce. That is brilliant. Another brilliant thing is to roast the mushrooms in the oven before making them into pesto. How have I never roasted mushrooms before? The smells coming out of the oven while they were roasting were just incredible….

Really Easy Crepes, aka “Leathery Pancakes”

June 23, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

I was in Vancouver overnight last week to see “Wicked” with some friends, and the next morning we went out for crepes for breakfast. They reminded me of the crepes my Mum used to make, only she called them “leathery pancakes”, because… well, they are kind of thin and leathery.

Edited to add a comment from my Mum about the origins of “leathery pancakes”: “[They are] actually from my own childhood. My mum/your Nana actually coined the name after our Swedish babysitter Mrs. Solberg made them for us when my parents were away one time and us kids raved about them. I guess “leathery” came about because they don’t rise like Mum’s regular Scotch pancakes did and we used to have them either with butter/brown sugar/lemon juice or butter/sour cream/brown sugar.” Thanks, Mum 🙂

Anyway, there was no real recipe, it was just more a matter of mixing together an egg, some milk, and some flour until the batter was the right consistency, and then cooking them in a hot, non-stick pan (the non-stick part is important!). These “leathery pancakes” were one of the things I made for myself all the time when I was younger – I’d usually eat them with butter and maple syrup, and sometimes I’d roll them around some kind of savoury filling. At the crepe place in Vancouver, the crepes were spread with whatever filling you wanted, sweet or savoury, and served folded in quarters. I had one with ham, cheese, and egg, plus a Nutella one for dessert (I’m totally OK with having dessert at breakfast!). Unfortunately, I don’t have any Nutella in the house, so I had to make do with butter, brown sugar, lemon juice, and strawberries for a sweet filling, and ham and cheese for savoury. Really good, and really easy. This amount of batter makes just enough for two 12-inch crepes – enough for one person if you’re hungry, or two people if you feel like sharing 😉…

Asparagus and Bacon Omelette

June 9, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

In middle school Home Ec, in addition to scones and boxer shorts, we learned how to make omelettes. This, like the scones, is something that has stuck with me since then, and I’ve made so many omelettes following this method that I can now do it one-handed while taking pictures ;). Obviously this is great for breakfast, but it also makes a nice lunch or quick dinner when the fridge is bare (I ate a lot of omelettes in university!). Asparagus and bacon is what I happened to have on hand, but use whatever you want as a filling – sautéed mushrooms are really good. The only thing that you absolutely must have is cheese – at least in my opinion. Eggs and cheese just go so well together!

The secret to a fluffy omelette (according to my Home Ec teacher, anyway) is adding a bit of water to the eggs. As the eggs cook, the water turns to steam, causing the eggs to puff up. It’s important to have a hot, non-stick pan (well pre-heated over medium to medium-high heat, about 6 1/2 out of 10 if your stove dial has numbers) and to have all your ingredients ready and assembled, because the omelette cooks pretty fast. The ingredients in this recipe are simple and completely customizable: it’s the technique that really makes a good omelette. But if a bunch of 12 year old Home Ec students can do it, and I can do it with one hand while taking pictures, then no one has anything to worry about ;)…

Ancho Chicken Quesadillas with Homemade Flour Tortillas and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

April 11, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

Last Thursday I had the day off work, so I decided to cross something off my “things to make” list: homemade flour tortillas. I’ve had a hankering for quesadillas ever since I read a post on the Frugal Flambé about chicken quesadillas with roasted red pepper sauce, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and make tortillas for quesadillas.

Apparently there are two main camps when it comes to flour tortillas: thicker, chewy, smaller Texas-style, or thin, crispy, larger Sonoran (Mexican)-style. After reading a post about the difficulties of trying to make the Sonoran-style, I opted for the Texas tortillas, using a recipe from the Homesick Texan blog. I also found a recipe there for Ancho-Chili Shrimp Quesadillas, which sounded so delicious that I ended up using the marinade for the chicken in my quesadillas.

Making these tortillas filled me with the same sense of accomplishment that I get when I make homemade scones – that feeling of having made something out of nothing. When the cupboards are bare of ready-to-eat foods, it’s great to be able to take basic, staple ingredients – flour, baking powder, fat or oil – and make something delicious out of them, rather than just saying that there’s no food in the house :D…

Snow and a Quiche

February 24, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen Leave a Comment

Yesterday we unexpectedly received rather a large amount of snow (we measured 21 centimeters at one point!), and in usual snowy Victoria fashion, the roads were terrible, life slowed to a halt, and neither Nate nor myself went to work. Instead, we spent the day on the couch watching season one of Mad Men, and I did some baking. Seeing as I had all day, I made a quiche, which I find inevitably ends up taking about three times as long as I think it will. I also tried to modify my usual fantastic, go-to banana bread recipe to be sugar-free, but it turned out to be not-so-fantastic sans sugar 🙁 Someday I’ll perfect the recipe and share it, but in the meantime, here’s my quiche recipe.

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