Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies and my new grain mill!

November 9, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

Back in the summer when I wasn’t working full time and was actively looking for ways to fill my time, I applied to join the Grain Mill Wagon challenge. Basically, the WonderMill Grain Mill company sends you a grain mill (for free!) and in return you write three recipe posts for their blog within two months, and the grain mill is yours to keep. This is a pretty sweet deal and I was definitely interested in getting my hands on a grain mill ever since reading about Kate of Venison for Dinner milling her own flour. Talk about “from scratch”!

I didn’t hear back from the company for a few months and figured that I didn’t get chosen – but after I’d gone back to work in September, I got an email inviting me to the challenge. I was no longer in the market for a new hobby, but I also wasn’t going to turn down a free appliance! I got the grain mill at the beginning of October, and since then it’s been sitting in its box in a corner of the dining room, waiting for me to get around to reading the instructions. Seeing as it’s now November and I’m half-way to my two-month deadline, I figured I should get my butt in gear. So I made cookies. Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies made with freshly milled flour, to be exact. Head over to my post on the Grain Mill Wagon blog to hear all about them. 🙂

Full disclosure: I was compensated for my time and provided with a WonderMill Grain Mill free of charge in exchange for this post, but my thoughts and opinions are my own. 🙂

A Trio of Chocolate Cakes

November 5, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

The past few months have contained a lot of cakes – chocolate cakes, to be specific. And not for me, but for other people, which is almost more fun because I get to bake my heart out without worrying about who will eat it all. 😉

Back in August, my lovely friend Tanya asked me to make some chocolate cupcakes for a baby shower, the theme for which was the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, so I did what I could to turn the cupcakes into teacups without resorting to fiddly fondant or store-bought teacup paper liners.

I baked the Cook’s Illustrated Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes in some pretty floral cupcake papers to simulate china cups, filled the cakes with chocolate ganache, and frosted them with the rebar chocolate cream cheese frosting.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

October 13, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

The first weekend of October was another epic Girls’ Weekend on Salt Spring Island with my best ladies. This time, along with talking, stuffing our faces, and drinking a lot of sangria, we also visited Salt Spring Vineyards for a winery tour and wine tasting.

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The “Why Bother” Cake

August 19, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 23 Comments

Since I was about 7 or 8, my Mum has had food sensitivities to wheat and dairy. This was over 20 years ago, before being gluten-free and drinking soy or almond milk were “mainstream” like they are today, and food choices back then for pretty much everything were extremely limited. At some point, we started to refer to anything wheat-free and dairy-free as a “why bother?” because most often, without both wheat and dairy, whatever you were eating was barely worth it – especially when it came to dessert.

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An Afternoon at Teafarm (plus a chocolate cake!)

August 7, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. The theme for this month’s Canadian Food Experience Project is “A Regional Canadian Food Hero”, which can be broadly defined as anyone involved in food growing, production, education, activism, or the like, working to preserve local foods, skills, traditions, or to define the local terroir.

{For some reason, I had a hard time writing this post – sometimes it’s difficult to put an experience in words. I wrote several drafts, one of which accidentally got published a few days ago, so apologies to anyone who got a bunk notification in their reader or email. This is the real post!}

The Cowichan Valley is home to many farms and artisanal food producers, one of which is Teafarm, located just north of Duncan in the Westholme area. My friends Lynette, Ang, and I visited on a beautiful Sunday in July for their “tea + sweet pairings” menu, and ended up having a pretty wonderful afternoon, sipping tea, enjoying chocolate goodies, and basking in the farm’s pastoral bliss. Believe me when I say I am not at all exaggerating about the bliss part.

Welcome to Teafarm!

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Daring Bakers: Doughnuts {Choose Your Own Challenge}

July 27, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 45 Comments

In a “celebration” of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we’d like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

You hear that? The “REAL” challenge? Was it ever! For someone who becomes paralyzed with indecision when faced with life-altering choices such as which flavours to use in a cake (yeah, I’m that cool), the most challenging part about this month’s challenge was most definitely just choosing what to do. I was thinking croquembouche at first, or perhaps éclairs, or maybe something with ice cream, but eventually I decided on yeasted doughnuts. This was a decision fraught with anxiety though, let me tell you: I desperately wanted to make them (they’re on the list!) but I figured that deep-frying in the middle of July was kind of a silly move, and being that one batch of doughnuts makes over two dozen, I knew that I would have at least twenty-three more doughnuts than would ever be necessary. But I went ahead with it anyway 😉

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Chocolate and Caramel Tart with Hazelnuts (Daring Bakers: Pies, Part III)

June 29, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 20 Comments

Rachael from pizzarossa was our lovely June 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she had us whipping up delicious pies in our kitchens! Cream pies, fruit pies, chocolate pies, even crack pies! There’s nothing like pie! 🙂

As promised, the third and final installment of this month’s Daring Bakers pie challenge. I think my inner chocolate lover unconsciously saved the best for last. (Part I and Part II, for your reading pleasure.)

This tart has a buttery, crisp pastry shell, a thin layer of deeply flavoured caramel, and a thicker layer of dark and velvety smooth chocolate mousse. It is pretty decadent but so worth it. I added some ground hazelnuts to the crust and topped the finished tart with hazelnuts dipped in caramel for added drama. Not that a tart this good needs extra drama, but the fact that I lead a fairly drama-free life makes me feel the need to bring the drama sometimes – if only to dessert.

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Would you like some cookie with your chocolate?

June 18, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Reverse Chocolate Chip Cookies | Korena in the Kitchen While I’ve definitely made my fair share of regular chocolate chip cookies, the reverse chocolate chip cookie – that is, chocolate dough studded with white chocolate chips – has eluded me. Until now.

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White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Brownies {with sourdough!}

May 20, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 24 Comments

Of all the things I imagined making with a sourdough starter, brownies were not one of them. This month Sourdough Surprises showed me otherwise. Silly me.

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Chocolate Bomb Cupcakes

March 7, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 21 Comments

Chocolate Bomb Cupcakes A good friend of ours had a milestone birthday this week, and to celebrate we got together with a bunch of good people for some Neapolitan style pizza at Pizzeria Prima Strada last weekend. I offered to make Aaron a cake, but unfortunately you can’t take a homemade cake into a restaurant… so instead I made cupcakes that we devoured in the parking lot after dinner.

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