LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Last year at Left Coast Crime in Denver, the mystery fan convention, a group of readers and I made a delightful visit to
Savory Spice, the Denver-based spice company with locations across the country. We had a wonderful time and each of us took home spices, blends, and recipes to enjoy. I shared one, for
Scallops and Snow Pea Salad earlier this year.
If you were lucky enough to buy their Saffron Salt, available only in February, then I’ve got another wonderful treat for you from the Savory Spice recipe box. If not, never fear! Any large-crystal salt will do nicely. You can use ground cardamom or grind up a few seeds.
As a friend said when she saw the shop’s historic building, you half expect my Pepper Reece to greet you!
I’ve rewritten the directions to make this a one-pan, no-bowl recipe. Not what the pictures show, but it's not the first recipe I've made several times but only photographed once!
The chopped apricots are a treat for the tongue, just like the shop itself is a treat for the senses!
PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing.
Scroll down to the 💕 for the link.
Salted Apricot Blondies, adapted from Savory Spice
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon Saffron Salt, plus more to sprinkle, or any good crystal salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8" square pan with parchment paper.
In a small saucepan on medium-low heat, melt butter with salt and cardamom.
Stir in the brown sugar. Remove from heat.
Add the egg and stir until well-blended, cooling mixture briefly first if necessary to avoid scrambling the egg!
Stir in flour, apricots, and pecans. The batter will be very thick.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Spread mixture evenly and sprinkle generously with Saffron Salt or crystal salt.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the blondies comes out clean. Let cool completely in the pan before cutting and serving.
Enjoy!
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?
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.
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