Welcome guest author Peggy Ehrhart + book #giveaway.

 

 

Please welcome our guest Peggy Ehrhart, a former English professor with a doctorate in Medieval Literature. Peggy currently writes the Knit & Nibble mysteries for Kensington. Her amateur sleuth, Pamela Paterson, is the founder and mainstay of the Arborville, New Jersey, knitting club. Knit & Nibble #6 is Knit of the Living Dead and #7, Knitty Gritty Murder, will appear in the spring of 2021. Death of a Christmas Card Crafter, a Knit & Nibble novella, will be included in Kensington’s 2020 Christmas anthology, Christmas Card Murder. Her Maxx Maxwell mysteries, Sweet Man Is Gone and Got No Friend Anyhow feature a blues-singer sleuth.

Take it away, Peggy!  And readers, don't forget to leave a comment to enter the GIVEAWAY.  See below.

*

I’m always on the lookout for recipes that fit the homey world of my Knit & Nibble mysteries. Characters spend a lot of time cooking, and each book includes at least one recipe. When I came upon the recipe for Strawberry Spoon Cake in the New York Times recently, I was interested. But I was even more interested when I read in the introduction to the recipe that this “spoon cake” was actually a simpler version of “spoon bread.” A dish that had “bread” in its name but was served with a spoon seemed as homey as a recipe could be.

Spoon bread, I learned in researching it, is usually a side dish, not a dessert at all. The key ingredient is cornmeal and it always features beaten egg white folded into the batter right before baking. It’s a very old Southern recipe. I even found a few versions in a collection of recipes from the Great Smoky Mountains—alongside moonshine, raccoon stew, and campfire bread baked on slabs of birch bark.

This is my version of spoon bread, a dessert that exploits the late-summer bounty of peaches.

Make sure that they are very ripe.

Summer Peach Spoon Bread or something similar might show up in a future Knit & Nibble mystery.

SUMMER PEACH SPOON BREAD

Ingredients:

 

1 ½ cup flour

½ cup cornmeal

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup sugar plus 2 tbsp. (for the peaches)

1 cup half and half

2 eggs, separated

4 oz. butter (one stick)—melted

4 or 5 medium peaches

 

Peel and slice the peaches. You will have about 4 cups worth but you don’t have to be exact. Sprinkle them with 2 tbsp. sugar and set them aside.

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder.

 

Mix in the sugar.

 

Whisk the egg yolks into the half and half.

 

Mix the result into the dry ingredients, using a large spoon or an electric mixer on medium.

Mix in the melted butter using a large spoon or an electric mixer on medium. The batter will be very buttery but that’s what makes the spoon bread amazing.

 

In a small bowl use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites until stiff.

 

Fold the egg whites into the batter using a rubber spatula.

 

Scoop the batter into a buttered 1 ½-quart or 2-quart baking dish. I use a fancy deep-dish pie pan. It’s fun to use a attractive baking dish if you plan to present your spoon bread with a flourish after dinner and serve it at the dinner table. (Don’t use a regular pie pan because your spoon bread will overflow.)

 

Scoop the peaches on top.

 

Bake the spoon bread at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. The fruit on top will still look juicy but at the edges of the baking dish the “bread” will be slightly brown.

 

Use a big spoon to serve your spoon bread. It’s delicious warm with vanilla ice cream. Leftovers should be refrigerated after a day or so.

 

GIVEAWAY

Today, Peggy has offered to give away not one but 2 books. A copy of KNIT OF THE LIVING DEAD as well as an ARC of the CHRISTMAS CARD MURDER, a Kensington anthology.  Leave a comment to enter Peggy's giveaway and remember to include your email so she can contact you if you win.  What kinds of crafts do you do?

Peggy does not do a lot of social media. Go to her website to learn more about her wonderful books.  https://peggyehrhart.com