Apple Oat Muffins -- a morning treat from @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  I love muffins crammed with fruit (or fruit and veg, like these Zucchini Muffins with raisins!). Add oats, and I’m in – an easy way to add more whole grains to your diet. 

Any crisp apple will do – I used Red Delicious fresh from our tree, since I managed to beat the bears to this year’s crop. The original called for salted butter; that’s fine, if you have it, but if you use unsalted butter, as we do, add 1/4 teaspoon salt to the flour mixture. 

Many people use paper or silicon liners for muffins; we don’t, using a nonstick pan or cooking spray. Your choice. The original recipe said this made 12-14 muffins. I suspect the baker was using an oversized muffin pan and forgot to say so. We got about 18 muffins. If you add raisins, you may get one or two more. But muffins freeze beautifully, so no worries! Cool them completely, then pack in zippered plastic or silicon bags, and take out what you need when you need it. 

What’s your favorite addition to muffins? 

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. 

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Apple Oat Muffins  

1 tablespoon butter 

1 cup diced apple (about 1 large apple)

½ teaspoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup milk 

2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

½ cup sour cream

½ cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

½ cup brown sugar

2 cups flour

½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ cup dark or golden raisins (optional)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a standard muffin tin. 

In a small pan over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the diced apples, lemon juice, and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Sauté until fragrant, about 2 minutes, and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the milk, eggs, sour cream, melted butter, vanilla extract, and brown sugar. Stir to fully combine. 

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, oats, salt, soda, and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. 

Stir in the wet ingredients until fully incorporated; do not overmix. Gently stir in the cooked apples. 

Spoon batter into the muffin tin, until each is about 3/4 full. 

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan about 10 minutes, then remove to cool completely. 

Makes 18-20. 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine. 

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.