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Salty Honey Pie

November 12, 2018 By Korena in the Kitchen 1 Comment

The Beatles said it best:

“Honey pie,
Honey pie,
Honey pie,
Honey pie,
I love you.”

I first made this salted honey pie from Four and Twenty Blackbirds back in the summer and we loved it so much I made it again for Canadian Thanksgiving in October. Initially our dinner guests were a bit disappointed there was no pumpkin pie (not my favourite, and one of the perks hosting is you get to choose the menu 😉 ) but after the first bite of this salty-sweet confection, all complaints were erased.

Salty Honey Pie | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Cakes & Pies, Recipes Tagged With: baking, dessert, flaky salt, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, honey, pie, recipe, salty sweet, Thanksgiving

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!).

Maple Pecan Shortbread Bars | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Cookies & Squares, Recipes Tagged With: baking, dessert, maple, pecan, recipe, shortbread, Thanksgiving

Spiced Pumpkin Roulade with White Chocolate & Mascarpone

October 15, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

Nate and I usually host our families for Thanksgiving dinner, but with my bum elbow making it a little difficult to stuff a turkey – let alone maneuver it in and out of the oven – my parents took on the hosting duties this year, and I brought dessert. Pumpkin pie is traditional of course, but I don’t actually like it all that much. The slightly wet, heavy filling manages to make even the flakiest pastry soggy and just doesn’t get me excited about eating it. However I was very excited about eating this pumpkin roulade the minute I saw the recipe.

Spiced Pumpkin Roulade with White Chocolate & Mascarpone | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Cakes & Pies, Recipes Tagged With: baking, caramel, dessert, fall, mascarpone, pepitas, pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin spice, Thanksgiving, white chocolate

Chocolate-Bottomed Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie

November 14, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Chocolate-Bottomed Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie | Korena in the Kitchen

I made this chocolate, bourbon and maple syrup-laced pecan pie about a month ago for Canadian Thanksgiving after finally admitting that I don’t like pumpkin pie all that much – I mean, it’s OK, but I can think of probably a dozen other desserts I’d rather eat. And after tasting this pie, all I can ask myself is, “why was I holding on to pumpkin for so long?!” Gooey maple custard, crunchy pecans, a good dose of bourbon, and some dark chocolate to cut through the sweetness: now THAT is a pie worth making every year. It sounds like a lot of things going on in one pie, but they are all the perfect complement to one another. The only thing that could have used some work was my pie crust, which – to be honest – has never been the tender, flaky masterpiece I’ve always wanted it to be.

Chocolate-Bottomed Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, bourbon, chocolate, dessert, maple syrup, pecan, pie, pie crust, recipe, Thanksgiving

Apple Strawberry Custard Tart

October 6, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

Apple Strawberry Custard Tart | Korena in the KitchenI’m going to say it: fall is my favourite season. I know everyone loves summer because SUNSHINE, but I love fall because SWEATERS, and SOUP, and CRISP MORNINGS, and FIRES IN THE FIREPLACE. Fall fees like a relief after a long, hot, parched summer – at this time of year, the weather is still pretty gorgeous but we’ve had a bit of rain so everything is green again, just in time for the riot of fall colours as the leaves start to turn. Not to mention the absolute bounty of fall produce. I’ve been at the local farmers market every Saturday for the past three weeks, just soaking in the gorgeous fall veggies, filling my cloth bags to the brim with massive heads of broccoli and cauliflower, big orange squash, peppers, kale, chard, and salad greens. Of course there are apples, but to my surprise, there is also one stand that is still selling local strawberries in October!

Apple Strawberry Custard Tart | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Fruit, Recipes Tagged With: apple pie, baking, custard, dessert, fall, pastry, pie, recipe, strawberries, Thanksgiving

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples

November 14, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples | Korena in the KitchenNow that fall is here, ’tis the season for everything pumpkin-pie-flavoured – but I have a confession to make: I don’t actually like pumpkin pie all that much. I make it every year for Thanksgiving because tradition, yo, but it’s probably my least favourite kind of pie. I’d much rather eat cheesecake, so this year for Thanksgiving (which in Canada was back in October), we ate both. I made this maple-flavoured beauty and topped it with thin slices of maple-cinnamon roasted apples. It was a big hit at our family dinner, and judging by how quickly the leftovers were eaten versus how long the remaining pumpkin pie languished in the fridge, it was the clear winner of that dessert battle.

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples | Korena in the Kitchen…

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Filed Under: Fruit, Other Baked Goods & Sweets, Recipes Tagged With: apples, autumn, cheesecake, cinnamon, fall, maple, recipe, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Turchetta, Etc – aka The Best Turkey Ever

October 19, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Turchetta, Etc | Korena in the KitchenThanksgiving here in Canada has come and gone, and with it came time with family and lots and lots of food. After the success of last year’s de-boned, rolled, and stuffed turkey, I knew wanted to try something equally – if not more – amazing. Enter the turchetta: a rolled turkey breast prepared in the style of porchetta, which is a roasted pork loin of infinite deliciousness. I’ve got to say, the turkey version is also pretty infinitely delicious, and less work than removing all the bones from a turkey!…

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Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: Canadian Thanksgiving, celebration, holiday, recipe, Thanksgiving, turchetta, turkey, turkey porchetta

A New Kind of Thanksgiving Turkey

October 18, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 22 Comments

Last weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving, which meant turkey, turkey, turkey (I finally froze the leftovers because I just couldn’t face them any more!). We hosted my parents for dinner and again, I cooked the turkey… but not just any turkey. This year, I took the opportunity cross an item off The List by de-boning*, stuffing, and rolling the turkey. The results were amazing!

While the prep for a de-boned, stuffed, and rolled turkey is a little more time consuming than a regular stuffed bird (it took me forty-five minutes to de-bone it, and another thirty minutes to stuff, roll, and truss it), it pays off in ease of cooking. No estimating cooking times based on weight/stuffed/unstuffed/previously frozen/fresh, etc – just two to two-and-a-half hours! No basting! No specialty gigantic unwieldy roasting pan!

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Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: celebration, dinner, meat, recipe, stuffing, Thanksgiving, turkey

Thanksgiving

October 10, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

This past Thanksgiving weekend was full of turkey and family and more turkey. We had a wonderful dinner at our house on Sunday night with Nate’s parents, my parents, and my Aunt, who is visiting from California. Our families had never met before but they got along like a house on fire. There was lots of laughter, much of it due to Nate’s Dad’s hilarious stories. I cooked the turkey, and I now I know that a fresh turkey takes a considerably longer time to cook than a previously-frozen one. I am thankful for my mother’s expertly-honed turkey-cooking skills and advice, thankful for the dinner guests who did not mind waiting an extra two hours for the turkey to be done, and thankful that somehow, the turkey was still moist and delicious (the secret is bacon!).

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Filed Under: Drinks & Condiments, Fruit, Recipes, Soups, Sides & Snacks Tagged With: family dinner, honey and spice cranberry sauce, napking folding, recipe, roast turkey, Thanksgiving, turkey stuffing, wild rice sausage and apple stuffing

Maple Coconut Pumpkin Pie with Spelt Shortbread Crust

October 10, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I still can’t believe it’s October and, according to all the store displays and lifestyle/cooking magazines, the beginning of the holiday season. Where the heck did summer go so quickly?

I’m enjoying fall though – I love the cooler weather, the coloured leaves, and the abundance of delicious, harvest food – and maybe I’m okay with the holiday season starting. Heck, I’ve bought my first holiday cooking magazine and I’m already thinking about Christmas baking. Yeah, I’m totally okay with it ;). For me it’s mostly about the food anyway, and a Thanksgiving meal is a great way to kick it all off.

I’ve been in charge of holiday desserts in my family ever since I can remember, so this is the pumpkin pie I took to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving dinner. By the way, my mum is a turkey super-star – it is always juicy and awesome. And it has bacon on it. That’s all you really need to know.

The real turkey bacon

Anyway, back to pie. This recipe comes from my trusted friend Martha, and this is the second year I’ve made it. What sets it apart from other pumpkin pie recipes is the crust, which comes out tasting more like a shortbread cookie than regular pie pastry. Rather than rolling out the pastry, you just press the crust right into the pie plate and then blind bake it. This is definitely the easiest and best recipe/method I have come across for blind-baked pastry, because it doesn’t shrink or bubble up like other pastry often does.

The pumpkin filling, while quite tasty and nicely spiced, was not particularly special or unique as far as I could tell the last time I made it, so I cut out the regular white sugar and used maple syrup and brown sugar instead. I also added a splash of maple syrup to the whipped cream – because what’s pumpkin pie without whipped cream?

Because my mum can’t eat wheat or dairy, I used whole spelt flour in the crust and coconut milk instead of cream in the pumpkin custard filling (she missed out on the maple whipped cream though – next year I might try this coconut whipped cream recipe). The spelt flour gives the crust a slightly toasted flavour, and the coconut milk (which might sound weird) actually pairs really well with the pumpkin, maple, and spices. You can substitute heavy cream if you want, but I would recommend trying it with coconut milk even if you don’t have a dairy allergy!

Maple Coconut Pumpkin Pie with Spelt Shortbread Crust

Modified from Martha Stewart; makes one 9-inch pie

Spelt Shortbread Crust

A note on baking with spelt: spelt flour is a cousin of wheat flour, but is lower in gluten so it behaves a little differently in baking – basically, it absorbs less liquid and often turns out a bit crumblier. I usually think of it as similar to cake and pastry flour, but I’m not sure how accurate that actually is. In most cases, to substitute spelt for wheat flour, just increase the amount of flour by 25% (or, you can decrease the amount of liquid by 25%, but this sometimes also decreases the volume of whatever you’re making, so I usually go with the other method). However in this recipe, because there is no liquid added to the crust, a straight one-to-one substitution works.

Preheat oven to 375ËšF.

In a bowl, cream together:

4 tbsp unsalted butter or margarine, softened (I used dairy-free margarine to accommodate a dairy allergy)

3 tbsp white granulated sugar

Stir in:

1 large egg yolk

Add:

1 cup whole spelt flour (or all purpose wheat flour, or 1/2 cup each all purpose and whole wheat flours)

1 tsp coarse salt

Stir until the mixture is uniformly crumbly – it should clump together easily when squeezed between your fingers. Press it evenly into the bottom and just over an inch up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Freeze until firm (20 minutes – I forgot to do this and it turned out fine), then bake in a 375ËšF oven for 15-20 minutes, rotating half-way through, until golden brown. Let cool while you prepare the pumpkin filling.

Maple Coconut Pumpkin Filling

Preheat oven to 325ËšF.

In a medium bowl, whisk together until smooth:

1 14-0z/398 ml can pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

3/4 cup coconut milk with a high fat content (ie, not light – the one I used had 14 grams of fat per 1/3 cup – and make sure you shake the can well)

1/3 cup pure maple syrup (the darker the better – darker = more flavour)

2 eggs, beaten slightly

2 tbsp dark brown sugar (demerrara if you can find it)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust. Bake the pie at 325˚F  for 65-70 minutes, until the filling is slightly puffy and just set (it should still jiggle a bit). Cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 6 hours. Serve with maple whipped cream (1 cup whipping cream + 1 tbsp maple syrup).

Filed Under: Cakes & Pies, Recipes Tagged With: baking, coconut, dessert, food, holiday, maple, pastry, pie, pumpkin, recipe, Thanksgiving

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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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