Sourdough Plum and Almond Cream Galettes with Thyme

June 21, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

Sourdough Plum and Almond Cream Galettes with Thyme | Korena in the Kitchen As much as I love making pies, the simplicity and ease of a galette is pretty hard to beat. No fancy equipment needed, no special skills or pastry techniques – just a good pie crust recipe and some perfectly ripe fruit. It’s still pretty early in the season for local fruit around here, so I used plums from California. I absolutely love the tart, jammy flavour of cooked plums, and they are just gorgeous when baked: the gradient from yellow flesh to reddish-purple skin is so pleasing. I added a little bit of fresh thyme (plums love thyme, believe me) and some almond cream underneath the fruit, because it helps to soak up some of the fruit juices that inevitably leak out of a galette, and also, YUM.

Sourdough Plum and Almond Cream Galettes with Thyme | Korena in the Kitchen

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Sourdough Scones {Strawberry Nectarine Shortcakes with Balsamic Syrup}

May 20, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

Sourdough Scones and Shortcakes | Korena in the Kitchen

I love scones, and I love sweet baked goods made with sourdough starter. So how is it that I’ve only made scones with sourdough starter ONCE before? It was time, and the Sourdough Surprises challenge this month was to make sourdough biscuits (which I took to mean scones), so I had a good reason. I modified a buttermilk scones recipe to use mature/discard sourdough starter, which has a comparable acidity to buttermilk and therefor the action of the chemical leaveners is similar. These scones are tender and slightly springy on the inside and crunchy-crumbly on the outside. They’d be great served with butter, jam, and a cup of tea, but I decided to turn them into shortcakes for dessert with the addition of some fruit and whipped cream.

Sourdough Scones and Shortcakes | Korena in the Kitchen

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Chocolate-Dipped Vanilla-Almond Sourdough Biscotti

April 20, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

Chocolate-Dipped Vanilla-Almond Sourdough Biscotti | Korena in the Kitchen

After making a chocolate-hazelnut sourdough biscotti a few years ago, I concluded that sourdough biscotti was just a novelty and not actually a practical way to make biscotti or use sourdough. So I’m not sure what it says about me when I decided to participate in this month’s Sourdough Surprises project, which was – you guessed it – sourdough biscotti, AND decided to use the same recipe as the base. I guess maybe it says I’m drawn to novelty and prone to impracticality. But whatever: I have biscotti.

Chocolate-Dipped Vanilla-Almond Sourdough Biscotti | Korena in the Kitchen

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Chinese BBQ Pork {Sourdough} Steamed Buns

January 21, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

Chinese BBQ Pork Sourdough Steamed Buns | Korena in the Kitchen

Despite the fact that I have a notification on my phone that pops up every Sunday at noon reminding me to “Feed sourdough!!!”, I still manage not to do it for weeks on end and that poor little culture of yeasts ends up grey and lifeless in the back of my fridge. Luckily for me, I realized this while I still had enough time to revive it to use in this month’s Sourdough Surprises project: Chinese steamed buns. Sourdough isn’t a traditional ingredient in steamed buns, but many recipes incorporate “old dough”, so sourdough fits right in.

Chinese BBQ Pork Sourdough Steamed Buns | Korena in the Kitchen

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Whole Wheat Sourdough Croissants

October 21, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 38 Comments

Whole Wheat Sourdough Croissants | Korena in the Kitchen Almost a year ago exactly, David Lebovitz posted a recipe for whole wheat croissants on his blog. I have been meaning to make them ever since, and I finally found an excuse to do it for this month’s Sourdough Surprises project. I haven’t baked with the group for a few months and my poor, poor starter has definitely been suffering because of it: when I pulled it out of the fridge at the beginning of the month, knowing that I’d need to revive it after not feeding it for a very long time, the top had actually turned grey. My heart sank because I thought I’d killed for real, but upon closer inspection it smelled fine and I was able to scrape off the grey layer (which was just discolouration and not anything more sinister). A few aggressive discards and feeds later, it was back to its happy, bubbling self. Moral of the story: despite appearances, a well-established sourdough starter is actually really really hard to kill!

Whole Wheat Sourdough Croissants | Korena in the Kitchen

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Sourdough Rosette Buns

May 20, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 15 Comments

Sourdough Rosette Buns | Korena in the Kitchen After being sorely neglected the past month or so, my sourdough starter got a workout this weekend: not only did I make these sourdough buns, but I also baked Barbara’s Perfect Italian Sourdough Loaf and used a bunch of discard sourdough in a batch of waffles for the freezer. When the sourdough urge hits, it hits hard.

Sourdough Rosette Buns | Korena in the Kitchen

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Sourdough Cider Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks

April 20, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 19 Comments

Sourdough Cider Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks | Korena in the Kitchen As I pointed out last month, Christmas cookies and hot cross buns are about the only seasonal things I manage to post about with any punctuality… and seeing as today is Easter Sunday, hot cross buns are most definitely on the menu. This month’s Sourdough Surprises project was sourdough hot cross buns, which I also tackled last year with a chocolate porter version. I decided to go a similar route this time around, adapting a recipe that used hard apple cider to make an overnight sourdough levain. And, because for me, Easter is all about chocolate, I added a generous amount of dark chocolate chunks to the dough.

Sourdough Cider Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks | Korena in the Kitchen …

{Sourdough} Irish Soda Bread

March 20, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 20 Comments

I’m not so good with the holiday themed recipes here – the only things I manage to post about with any seasonal timeliness and regularity are Christmas cookies and hot cross buns – so it didn’t even occur to me until a week ago that the Irish soda bread chosen for this month’s Sourdough Surprises coincides with St Patrick’s Day. I know it’s a few days late, but that doesn’t make it any less delicious.

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Sourdough Sticky Lemon Pull-Apart Loaf

February 20, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 34 Comments

Fair warning: February is turning into a carb-heavy month around here. I personally have no problem with this – when it’s this cold and disgusting outside, I want all the comfort food I can get, and this winter I’m putting those calories to good use with some good ol’ strength training as per this idea. I guess you could say my personal fitness philosophy at the moment is eat the bread, lift the weights. For me, they balance each other out. Although when you’re baking a lemon-scented pull-apart loaf with cream cheese drizzle that’s made with sourdough to boot, the bread might have the upper-hand…

None of this is to say that all I eat is bread and carby baked goods. OK, I eat my fair share, as evidenced here, but the rest of my diet is mostly from scratch (just like the baking) and includes a good balance of leafy greens, fruit, veg, and protein – just so we’re clear about why I don’t weigh 300 pounds. 😉

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Humongous Sourdough Popovers

December 20, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 24 Comments

I interrupt the steady stream of sugary treats coming out of my kitchen to bring you these massive sourdough popovers. Seriously, LOOK AT HOW BIG THEY ARE.

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