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Sourdough Danish Pastries

May 20, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 76 Comments

This is the first post in a series of three – click to read Part II and Part III.

In my last post, I was extolling the virtues of making something simple from scratch. Now I am going to extol the virtues of making something rather complicated from scratch: Danish pastries using sourdough starter. Yes, we are doing this!

At the end of April, I wrote a list of stuff I wanted to make for this blog over the summer, and Danish pastries was on it. I had my first taste of making laminated dough when the Daring Bakers made croissants a while back, and I wanted to try it again. But I was kind of putting it off because it’s a lot of butter and a lot of work: all that rolling and folding and rolling and folding and resting and waiting. Then, during the Daring Bakers reveal last month, I came across Sourdough Surprises, which is another baking group that a few Daring Bakers members have created to bake together once a month using their sourdough starters. And their recipe for May was sourdough Danishes! Well, it seemed like fate. I was in….

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Filed Under: Bread, Breakfast & Brunch, Other Baked Goods & Sweets, Recipes Tagged With: baking, breakfast, brunch, Danishes, fruit, laminated dough, pastries, recipe, snacks, sourdough starter, Sourdough Surprises

Spiced Plum and Strawberry-Vanilla Jams

September 20, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 1 Comment

After the success of the peach butter I made a little while ago, I have become seriously enamoured with making jam, inspired mostly by Food in Jars. I think what I like about this whole canning/preserving thing is that I get to make something delicious and sweet but don’t have to feel bad about eating it, because you don’t eat an entire batch of jam at once. I’ll admit that sometimes I feel a bit guilty after making a bunch of cookies, because it means I will be on a sugar binge until they’re all gone – because you gotta eat them while they’re fresh, right? But jam is different. I feel so thrifty and satisfied looking at the filled jars on the shelf – plus there’s all this fantastic fruit around right now, and what better way to use it than to save it for later!

Be sure to follow the proper procedure for canning to ensure that the food is shelf-stable and safe to eat. I follow the canning instructions from Canadian Living.

Spiced Plum Jam

Inspired by the Honey-Sweetened Skillet Stonefruit Jam on Food in Jars. I didn’t have any honey but I did have a bowlful of prune plums from the tree in our backyard and this seemed like the perfect thing to do with a small amount of fruit before it went bad! The cinnamon comes from the plum coffeecake with cinnamon struesel that my mum used to make.

Makes slightly more than enough to fill 2 half-pint jars.

Combine and let macerate over night:

2 2/3 cups pitted and chopped prune plums

2/3 cups granulated sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

The next day, pour the macerated fruit into a skillet and add:

2/3 cups granulated sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon (or a cinnamon stick)

juice of 1/2 lemon

(If you want, you can skip the macerating step and just combine all the ingredients in the skillet.)

Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until it starts to thicken, get syrupy, and turn a deep reddish-purple. You know it is done when it reaches 220˚F or when you can draw a line with you finger through the jam on the back of the spoon. Remove the cinnamon stick, if using (or break it in half to put in each jar). Pour the jam into two sterilized half-pint jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Sit back and listen for the “ping” as the jars seal :).

Strawberry-Vanilla Jam

Again, inspired by the Small Batch Strawberry Vanilla Jam on Food in Jars. I knew I wanted to try this recipe and I just happened to find these local strawberries on sale – end of the season! I only had one and a half vanilla beans in the cupboard, so I added a little vanilla extract as well (feel free to use more vanilla beans instead).

Makes exactly enough to fill 4 half-pint jars.

Combine and macerate over night:

2 cups hulled and chopped strawberries (about 2.5 lbs)

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 vanilla bean pods (split and scraped) and seeds

The next day, pour the macerated fruit into a large heavy pot and add:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

juice of 1 1/2 lemons or limes

(If you want, you can skip the macerating step and just combine all the ingredients in the pot.)

Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until it starts to thicken, get syrupy, and turn a darker red. You know it is done when it reaches 220˚F or when you can draw a line with you finger through the jam on the back of the spoon. Pour the jam into four sterilized half-pint jars, with a piece of vanilla bean in each jar, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Sit back and listen for the “ping” as the jars seal :).

Filed Under: Drinks & Condiments, Fruit, Recipes Tagged With: canning, cooking, food, fruit, jam, preserving, recipe

Smitten Peach Butter

September 13, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 1 Comment

As soon as I saw the post for peach butter on smitten kitchen, I knew I was going to be making some (actually, I think that for most of the recipes she posts). My mum used to make peach butter when I was little and I could practically devour a whole jar in one sitting. So good. Okanagan peaches are in season here (88 cents a pound!) so I came home with 4 lbs the other day and got down to preserving. I’ve never actually canned anything on my own before, but I managed pretty well: I have a good collection of half pint jars (great for shaking up a quick salad dressing), I bought some canning lids and rings, and I used a large stock pot for the boiling water bath. I got a “home canning kit” as well, which included a jar funnel, rubberized jar tongs, and a handy magnetized lid picker-upper. I had to turn some of the jars on their side in the water bath because the stock pot wasn’t quite tall enough to cover them in water, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to the final product, which is DELICIOUS. Pure peach flavour, not too sweet… yum. Make this and eat it on toast – or better yet, banana bread ;).

Smitten Peach Butter

Recipe from smitten kitchen. Makes about 4 cups – I ended up with three half-pint jars and two slightly smaller jars. If you don’t want to can this, you could always freeze it à la freezer jam. To purée the peaches, you can use a food mill if you have one (in which case, skip the peeling/blanching steps and leave the skin on the peaches, then process through the food mill after they have simmered into softness) or you can use an immersion blender, which is what I did. It means you have to peel the peaches but it’s not hard, I promise!

For this recipe, you will need:

4 lbs peaches (about 7 or 8 peaches)

2 cups granulated sugar

juice of 1 lemon

To peel the peaches, cut an X in the bottom of each peach. Submerge the peaches in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then remove to a bowl of cool water for about 1 minute. Peel off the skins – they should come off fairly easily. When your peaches are naked, pit them and cut into eight pieces (cut into quarters, then cut each quarter in half lengthwise). Place them in a large pot with 1 cup of water. Bring the peaches and water to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally to ensure all the pieces cook evenly, until the peaches are tender, 20-30 minutes. When the peach chunks can be easily squished with a wooden spoon against the side of the pot, remove the pot from the heat and purée the peaches with an immersion blender until very smooth. Add the sugar and lemon juice and stir. Return the pot to the heat and bring to a vigorous simmer. Let the peach purée bubble happily, stirring occasionally so nothing sticks on the bottom of the pot, until it is thick and deeply peach-coloured and the bubbles start to look syrupy. This could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour (or more). I knew it was done when a ribbon of purée sort of held its shape for a few seconds when drizzled on top of the rest of the butter. When the peach butter is done, either can it (instructions below) or let it cool, then store in airtight containers in the fridge (up to 2 weeks) or freezer.

To can the peach butter:

I got my canning tips from Canadian Living. If you’re a newbie canner like I am, definitely read up on the proper canning procedure – it’s a science and can be dangerous if done improperly. Nobody likes botulism poisoning! Also check out Food in Jars for great canning advice and recipes.

My canning setup

Sterilize 4-5 half-pint canning jars by boiling them in a water bath for 10 minutes. Divide the hot peach butter between the jars, leaving about 1 cm of head space. Wipe the jar rims and top each with a canning lid, then screw on the ring and tighten. Process in a boiling water bath (water covering the jars by at least 1 inch) for 10 minutes. Remove the jars and let them cool completely (overnight) on a towel. Listen for the “ping” of the jars sealing as they cool (this is very satisfying!). Store any jars that don’t seal properly in the fridge and eat them first. Store the sealed jars in a dark cupboard at room temperature.

Filed Under: Drinks & Condiments, Fruit, Recipes Tagged With: canning, cooking, fruit, peach butter, preserving, recipe, summer

Banff Cobbler

August 23, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

Yesterday was my first day back at work after four months off, and in answering the inevitable “what did you do this summer?” question several times, I realized that I had a jam-packed summer: a ten-year high school reunion, a trip to California, a concert in Vancouver, a stagette and two weddings (the wedding cake post is coming, I promise!!), and a road trip to Banff, Alberta, with Lynette – not to mention a ton of cooking and baking in between it all. No wonder it’s been a while since my last post!

The Banff road trip was an almost-2000 kilometer round trip across British Columbia and into the Rocky Mountains to visit our friend Tangle and her boyfriend Tyler.

Banff is really beautiful, even without the fancy iPhone camera filter

It was a beautiful drive (but looooong), and the visit was full Disney musical singalongs, mountain climbing, picturesque views, and great food courtesy of Tyler.

Dinner one evening

Breakfast the next morning (notice the icing sugar heart!)

On our last day there, we picked up some raspberries and blackberries at the Farmer’s Market, and the fruit guy threw in a slightly bruised peach for free. Another friend gave us some more raspberries from his garden (of both the red and pale yellow “Champagne” variety), and we decided that we needed to make some kind of berry dessert. Quite frankly, I was dying to get into the kitchen myself, and my uncle had sent me a link for a berry cobbler that I wanted to try, so I eagerly volunteered to make a raspberry-blackberry-peach cobbler as the dessert course to our meal of elk and bison steak.

A cobbler is sort of like a crumble, only the topping contains an egg and baking powder along with the flour, butter, and sugar, so you end up with a layer of cookie-crossed-with-biscuit on top of the fruit. The filling is just fruit and sugar but it thickens up during baking so that you end up with juicy (but not runny) fruit topped with a buttery, sugary, crisp pastry. The only thing that would have made it better was a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of heavy cream. My advice is to make and eat this RIGHT NOW – it’s perfect for all the fruit and berries in season!…

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Filed Under: Fruit, Other Baked Goods & Sweets, Recipes Tagged With: baking, Banff, blackberries, cobbler, cooking, dessert, eating, food, fruit, peaches, raspberries, recipe

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!!…

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Filed Under: Breakfast & Brunch, Fruit, Other Baked Goods & Sweets, Recipes Tagged With: baking, blueberries, breakfast, brunch, cooking, food, fruit, muffins, recipe, strawberries, struesel

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 🙂…

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Filed Under: Breakfast & Brunch, Recipes Tagged With: bananas, blueberries, breakfast, brunch, food, fruit, maple syrup, pancakes, recipe, strawberries

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Buying Organic (or not!)

March 6, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

I was Stumbling around the web today and I came across Dr. Andrew Weil’s website – specifically, his Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid, which piqued my interest. His position on food and health is that some foods promote an inflammatory response in the body, while others are anti-inflammatory. Inflammation is a natural process by which the body heals itself, however prolonged inflammation (think heat, swelling, redness, etc) can be harmful, and eating anti-inflammatory foods helps to reduce inflammation and promote better health. Whether or not you subscribe to this way of thinking, I like the food pyramid he sets out, and I also like his dietary recommendations. He talks about “diet” in the same way that I like to think about it: not as a quick fix way to lose weight by eating only grapefruit or cabbage soup, but the daily practice of choosing what to eat to make your body healthy – looking at food as something good for you, rather than as something bad that you need to deprive yourself of. Ultimately, we need calories from food to live, and making healthy choices to get the most out of those calories (health-wise and enjoyment-wise!) is the best way to do that. Also, I like that chocolate is right at the top of the pyramid 😉

Anyway, enough preaching about that. This article gives the dietary recommendations that go along with the pyramid.

While browsing his website, I also came across these two lists: produce that can be bought conventionally grown because it does not carry a large pesticide load, and produce that should always be bought organic (when possible) because it does carry a large pesticide load.

Foods you don’t have to buy organic, aka the Clean 15:

(Assuming that the produce is washed)

  • Onions
  • Avocados
  • Sweet Corn
  • Pineapples
  • Mangoes
  • Sweet Peas
  • Asparagus
  • Kiwi
  • Cabbage
  • Eggplant
  • Cantaloupe (Domestic)
  • Watermelon
  • Grapefruit
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Honeydew Melon

Foods you should always buy organic, aka the Dirty Dozen:

  • Celery
  • Peaches
  • Strawberries
  • Apples
  • Blueberries (Domestic)
  • Nectarines
  • Sweet Bell Peppers
  • Spinach
  • Collard Greens/Kale
  • Cherries
  • Potatoes
  • Grapes (Imported)

Looking at this list, I need to start making some more organically-minded choices at the grocery store.

I’m reading David Suzuki’s Sacred Balance right now, and in it he talks about how the pesticide and toxin loads that humans carry in their bodies are on the rise – ironically, they are highest in the least industrialized areas of the world, for various reasons (I recommend reading the book if you are interested in knowing why!). We dump pollutants into the natural environment pretty indiscriminately, and it is only a matter of time before it comes back at us. While the trace amounts of toxins and pesticides in our food might not seem like a big deal, humans are at the top of the food chain, so  those small amounts of toxins concentrate in our bodies – pretty nasty. Limiting that toxic concentration is a good argument for making organic choices when buying from the Dirty Dozen list! Again, I think it comes down to choosing your diet: balancing food choices that will make you healthy and happy.

(I know I haven’t mentioned it here, but I also think that buying locally and ethically is just as important as buying organic (and sometimes more!), not only for our personal health but for the health of our communities and the planet. However the links between organic, local, and ethical food are fascinating and complex, and that’s a kettle of fish to be saved for another post!)

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: diet, fruit, health, healthy, organic food, produce, vegetables

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I'm Korena: cook, baker, dirty-dishes-maker. My favourite things include flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate. Read More…

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All content © Korena Vezerian and Korena in the Kitchen, 2011 – 2021. Please contact me before duplicating any content, including pictures. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Korena Vezerian and Korena in the Kitchen with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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