Black Sesame-Espresso Shortbread Pinwheels

December 2, 2019 By Korena in the Kitchen 1 Comment

I first made and loved these black sesame-espresso shortbread pinwheel cookies months and months ago and knew I’d be including them in my 2019 Christmas Baking, which, now that it’s December, has begun! I made these as part of the Food52 Holiday Swap – swirly cookies have a special place in my heart at Christmas (see these chocolate peppermint pinwheels), as does shortbread (see here, here, and here), and these are a sophisticated take on both with their smoky black sesame and espresso flavours and perfectly crisp, light texture.

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Raspberry Almond Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

March 30, 2019 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

A few years ago I bought a humble little sandwich cookie at the cafe in the building where I used to
work, and its almondy-raspberry-crumbly-shortbreadiness has been in my head ever since. I meant to finally re-create this cookie and post it in time for Valentine’s Day (hence the hearts), but, well, it’s the end of March now, so you can see how that went. But these are definitely better late than never, and like most good cookies, are much more than the seemingly simple sum of their parts: two almond shortbread cookies perfumed with lemon zest, sandwiched with tart yet sweet raspberry jam, drizzled with creamy white chocolate.

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Tahini Chocolate Shortbread Bars

December 15, 2018 By Korena in the Kitchen Leave a Comment

Shortbread is one of those quintessential Christmas cookies, and while traditional shortbread is always delicious, I like finding recipes with interesting flavours. I came across these tahini chocolate shortbread bars in this year’s Canadian Living Holiday Baking magazine while searching for some delicious-yet-study cookies to send in the mail for the Food52 Holiday Swap (I also made a dark-chocolate-almond-orange version of my favourite biscotti, because biscotti ships well). I love that tahini is showing up in baked goods everywhere (tahini swirl brownies, anyone?) – it’s like peanut butter but a little more grown-up – and I had a feeling it would be excellent in shortbread. Spoiler alert: it is!

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Maple Pecan Shortbread Bars

November 22, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 4 Comments

Our American neighbours have a certain important holiday involving turkey and pie coming up tomorrow, and I wanted to share these maple pecan shortbread bars because they would make the perfect last minute addition to a Thanksgiving (or other) dinner menu. I actually made these for Canadian Thanksgiving back in October (along with this pumpkin roulade) because I wanted something like pie but I couldn’t manage rolling out a pie crust with my busted elbows (which have both now healed and I’m back to full force in the kitchen – now there’s something to be thankful for!).

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Classic Molded Shortbread

December 21, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

Classic Molded Shortbread | Korena in the Kitchen I’ve had this post “on deck” for about two weeks now but just haven’t been able to find the time to add the pictures and actually publish it. I remember when I was posting three times a week on this here blog – now I’m lucky if I can manage three posts a month! However, with it being the 2014 Christmas Baking Season, and with all the blog-worthy baking that has been coming out of my kitchen, and fact that I’m off work for a few weeks over the holidays, maybe I’ll actually be able to get it together to post a few more times before this month is over…

Classic Molded Shortbread | Korena in the Kitchen …

Christmas Baking 2013: Almond Roca Shortbread Squares

December 16, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

At my staff Christmas party on Friday, three of my gentlemen co-workers made it clear that they were extremely disappointed in the amount of Christmas baking that I had brought in to work this holiday season, ie: zero. Sensing that my reputation as “the girl who bakes” was in jeopardy, I got down to it in earnest this weekend.

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Shortbread, Two Ways

December 17, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 14 Comments

Shortbread, 2 ways Every year at Christmas, I go a little bit cookie-crazy. This year is no exception, so here comes Christmas Cookie Post Numero Uno. Stay tuned for many more.

Shortbread is kind of synonymous with Christmas. I don’t have one shortbread recipe that I re-make every year (unlike this biscotti), but I always make shortbread in some form or another. In the past this has included piped coffee kisses and hazelnut shortbread, both of which are totally delicious, but I wanted to emulate the more traditional chunky rectangles of Walker’s shortbread this year.

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Cocoa Shortbread Cookies

August 11, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 18 Comments

There has been an absence of chocolate around here lately, which is kind of surprising because I’ve found myself craving it often. I somehow have no chocolate in the house (probably because I ate it all the last time I was craving chocolate) other than the unsweetened baking kind and cocoa powder. Anyway, my point is: more chocolate….

Afternoon Tea at the White Heather Tea Room

March 19, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 18 Comments

My friend Lynette and I are secretly little old ladies at heart. One of the defining things about our friendship is our undying love of tiny sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, and tea, and we often celebrate the milestones in our lives by going out for afternoon tea. Heck, we don’t need a milestone – any occasion is a good excuse. We have even gone so far as to dream up a “Tea Tour” of the English countryside, wherein we would travel from tea shop to tea shop, sampling afternoon teas and writing reviews to publish in a book (who knows how realistic this is, but a dream is a dream, right?). In preparation, we have been to nearly every afternoon tea-serving establishment in Victoria, from the quintessential (and expensive) Fairmont Empress Hotel to the more-British-than-Britain (and now defunct) Blethering Place, but we have not yet written any reviews.

This is about to change. Prepare yourself for the first Tea Party review.

(This means we will have to revisit all the local places we have previously had tea at – darn! 😉 )…

Christmas Baking 2010 – Part II

February 10, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen Leave a Comment

Hazelnut Shortbread – triangular cookie on the left

As promised is Part I, here is the recipe for Hazelnut Shortbread. As I said previously, this cookie has a beautiful crumbly texture, great hazelnut flavour, and is not overly sweet at all. It may have been my favorite cookie this year.

Again, when baking shortbread, using real unsalted butter is a must. Because there are so few ingredients, butter really plays a starring role, and the flavour will be worth it.

The original recipe directs you to press the dough into two 8-inch cake pans and then score into wedges. I wanted to yield more, smaller cookies, so I shaped the dough into a triangular log, stuck it in the fridge until firm, cut it into slices, and sprinkled each one with raw sugar. The baking time was shorter as well, but I can’t remember exactly how long I baked them for. I would start checking for doneness after about 10 minutes.

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