Dorie’s Cocoa Linzer Cookies

April 19, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

I should really bake more cookies.

They are basically the perfect baked good: portioned as a single serving (not that it stops me from eating five in one sitting), endlessly variable in flavour, texture and shape, and they can be a simple or as complicated as you could possibly want. Yet other than the annual Christmas cookie madness and the occasional (and necessary) batch of chocolate chip, I don’t actually bake cookies very often. So I set out to remedy this, and my solution was these pretty little cocoa linzer cookies.

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Rhubarb Jam with Vanilla and Earl Grey

June 8, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

Rhubarb Jam with Vanilla & Earl Grey | Korena in the Kitchen

Every year I get so excited about rhubarb season, and then often don’t actually get the chance to make anything with it. I have a rhubarb plant in my garden but I’ve moved it ever single year since I got it three years ago (I keep planting it in less-than-ideal places), so it’s never really had a chance to get itself established, and I’ve never gotten a rhubarb harvest from it. But this year I was determined to do something with rhubarb – so I made jam.

Rhubarb Jam with Vanilla & Earl Grey | Korena in the Kitchen

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Strawberry Balsamic Black Pepper Jam

September 1, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 4 Comments

Several weeks back, my Mum and I did an informal little “Cowichan Valley food tour”: we stopped by Teafarm, had lunch at Merridale Cider, bought spelt bread at True Grain Bread, enjoyed some Udder Guys ice cream, and did a wine tasting at Venturi-Schulze Vineyards. Of the six or seven other wineries that we drove past on our tour, we chose Venturi-Schulze because in addition to wine, they also make traditional balsamic vinegar.

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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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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 :).