Korena in the Kitchen turned 10 years old in January! It’s amazing to think that this little blog has been with me through an entire decade, chronicling my life in food. It’s fair to say much has changed in that time – three jobs, two post-secondary credentials, a boyfriend turned fiancé turned husband, home ownership, and now parenthood – but the thing that hasn’t changed is my love of making delicious things and sharing them here.
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Inma of la Galletika was our Sept. 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and WOW did she bring us something decadent and delicious! Pastel de Tres Leches or Three Milk Cake, creamy yet airy, super moist but not soggy… just plain delish!
The first time I made a pastel de tres leches, or “three milks cake”, I honestly thought there was a mistake in the recipe when I read the part instructing me to pour close to three cups of milk over the beautiful sponge cake I had just taken out of the oven. But since it was a recipe from my trusted friend Martha, I took a deep breath and poured that milk over that cake… and was amazed to see it all soak in within minutes, resulting in one of the moistest, most delicious cakes I’d ever had. Consequently, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to make another one!
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Pinterest is a dangerous place. I was browsing through some of the hundreds of recipes I have pinned (I know some people also pin, like, fashion or crafts or home decor or whatever, but 98% of my pins are food) and these toffee espresso cookies just spoke to me. I’m not a regular coffee drinker, but I can’t say no to a coffee-infused baked good, especially when it is talking so loudly (must be the caffeine).
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Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.
Traditionally, a Battenberg cake is pink and white and covered in marzipan (and perfect for a tea party, I might add!). Nothing wrong with traditional, but when given the chance, it’s pretty fun to switch things up. Mandy gave us a recipe for the original pink-and-white cake as well as a walnut and coffee version with coffee buttercream, which sounded amazing, plus, as a substitute for marzipan, a recipe for something called “chocolate plastique”, which is chocolate mixed with corn syrup so that it can be molded or rolled out. Moldable chocolate? That had my name all over it.
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… these chocolate-mocha-nut cookies will satisfy it. And if you’re like me, you crave chocolate on a near-daily basis. (This is why I exercise every day!) I was reminded of the awesomeness that are these cookies the last time I was on Salt Spring and Lynette’s mum, Elaine (of banana bread fame), made them… and I knew I had to make them myself, and soon! Luckily I already had the recipe, it just took me nearly two weeks to get my act together and actually make them! But the wait was worth it. They are SO GOOD.
These cookies are super chocolatey, with a chewy, fudgy texture, a good hit of mocha, and a nice crunch from the nuts. One batch gave me 18 large cookies, and they barely lasted past the first day. Seriously, if they last longer in your house, I take my hat off to you and your iron-clad will power!
The original recipe calls for walnuts, but I’ve had these cookies with almonds, and I made mine with pecans, so use whatever you prefer. The only changes I made to Elaine’s recipe were to toast the nuts and reduce the sugar by a little bit. I used chopped chocolate because I had a massive bar of dark chocolate in my baking cupboard, but chocolate chips are fine too. Now go make these!…
Christmas cookie overload!
For me, the Christmas Season begins when I buy my first Christmas cookie magazine of the year. Usually it is Martha Stewart or Canadian Living, but whatever it is, it results in me hauling out my large stack of past years’ Christmas cookie magazines and creating lists of what I’m going to bake this year. This list drafting usually takes me a few tries before I am satisfied with the selection: old favorites, new additions, chocolate, shortbread, dried fruit, nuts, something spicy… the criteria changes a bit every year. The staples for the last few years have been White Chocolate Cranberry Almond Biscotti, Chocolate and Black Pepper Cookies, Sparkly Ginger Cookies, and Lemon White Chocolate Pistachio Sandwich Cookies. Obviously, all this baking results in a profusion of Christmas cookies, which I package up and give to my family and friends as gifts. I figure it’s a win-win situation: I get to bake to my heart’s content, and they get to eat the fruits of my labour.
(Apparently it’s not as much of a win-win for those living with me during this baking mania. Both my roommate and my boyfriend have told me that it’s torture seeing and smelling all these cookies, and but not being allowed to eat any until the leftovers after I have divided them all up into cookie tins for gifting!)
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