Oliebollen {Dutch Doughnuts}

January 9, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Oliebollen | Korena in the Kitchen

Made from a yeasted dough filled with apples, raisins, and currants, these little deep fried balls of delicious known as Dutch oliebollen were the December Daring Kitchen challenge, and yes, as per usual, I’m several weeks behind. I’m actually a little sad to be posting this challenge, because it is the very last one: participation in the Daring Kitchen has been on the decline for the past few years, so the group is shutting down and it’s time to move on. Since joining the group in 2011, I have made so many delicious desserts and baked goods that I never ever would have tried on my own, from the Mawa cake to the Esterhazy torte, homemade phyllo pastry to ensaimadas, sfogliatelle ricci and lobster tail pastries to Armenian nutmeg cake and nazooks. Not the mention the Battenberg cake, povitica, and sourdough bread, which started a whole other sourdough journey. The Daring Kitchen was one of the main reasons I started this blog, so while I understand and support the reasons for ending the challenges, it’s a little bittersweet.

Oliebollen | Korena in the Kitchen

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Maple Stroopwafels

March 27, 2016 By Korena in the Kitchen Leave a Comment

Maple Stoopwafels | Korena in the Kitchen

This post is two days late for International Waffle Day, and is not exactly your traditional Easter Sunday fodder (Happy Easter! Hot cross buns forthcoming!), however today is Daring Kitchen reveal day, and I’ve been waiting to share these babies for weeks. This month, the Daring Kitchen made stroopwafels, a sweet treat of Dutch origin in which a waffle cookie (“wafel”) is sandwiched together with buttery caramel syrup (“stroop”). Honestly, with a concept like that you can’t possibly go wrong, however if I didn’t already have such a soft spot for Dutch baked goods (see: plain and gevulde speculaas, peperkoek, and schichttorte), I might have let this challenge pass me by, because stroopwafels require the use of a rather specific cooking appliance that I do not own and didn’t really want to purchase: a waffle cookie iron or pizzelle iron. But, having been introduced to exactly how delicious stroopwafels are by my half-Dutch friend Lynette, I made the effort to take a ferry to Salt Spring Island to borrow a waffle cookie iron from her dad just so that I could make them myself!

Maple Stroopwafels | Korena in the Kitchen …

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: Schichttorte

January 27, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 19 Comments

The January 2014 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Francijn of “Koken in de Brouwerij“. She challenged us all to bake layered cakes in the tradition of Baumkuchen (tree cake) and Schichttorte (layered cake).

When I first read Francijn’s challenge, I thought I had no idea what I was getting in to. I’d never heard of Baumkuchen – a traditional German cake baked in layers on a rotating spit in front of a grill, whose final spiraling layers resemble the cross-sectional growth rings of a tree [see how it’s done] – but when I got to the Shichttorte – a layer cake made by baking very thin layers of batter one by one on top each other – I realized that I had in fact bookmarked a similar recipe in a cookbook, probably close to fifteen years ago! I thought the recipe was just an extremely complicated way to bake a cake, which is why I had never attempted to make it before – I had no idea it was a legitimate traditional method, and I was excited to finally give it a try.

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Daring Bakers: Gevulde Speculaas

January 27, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 27 Comments

Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij was our January 2013 Daring Bakers’ Hostess and she challenged us to make the traditional Dutch pastry, Gevulde Speculaas from scratch! That includes making our own spice mix, almond paste and dough! Delicious!

I had just posted about the speculaas I made for Christmas, so it was like déjà vue to read that the Daring Bakers challenge this month was speculaas. But these ones are different: they are gevulde speculass, which means they are stuffed with almond paste to make more of a dense, crumbly cake than a cookie. Interestingly, the dough for gevulde speculaas is essentially the same as the dough as for making speculaas cookies, but you end up with something completely different. And as much as I like regular speculaas, turns out that I loooooove gevulde speculaas, and I implore you to make these as soon as possible!

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Oliebollen {Dutch Doughnuts}

Maple Stroopwafels

Daring Bakers: Peperkoek

Daring Bakers: Schichttorte

Daring Bakers: Gevulde Speculaas

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