Welsh Tea Bread from Elizabeth Duncan and a Giveaway

We’re delighted to welcome back guest author Elizabeth J. Duncan, whose Remembering the Dead, #10 in the Penny Brannigan mystery series, has just been published by Crooked Lane Books.  She’s giving away a signed hardback copy of Remembering the Dead and since the series is set in Wales, a box of Glengettie tea to accompany it. Please leave a comment to enter the giveaway.

The people of Wales are famous for keeping a welcome in the hillside, and a visit to a Welsh home usually includes a friendly cup of tea accompanied by a little something – often a slice or two of bara brith. In Welsh, bara means bread, and brith means speckled, so Bara Brith is speckled bread. The raisins bring the speckle to this fragrant, easy-to-make quick bread.  Lightly buttered, it’s perfect with a cup of morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Bara Brith

Makes one large loaf

1 cup dried fruit (any mix of raisins, currents, cranberries)

1/3 cup chopped mixed peel

1 cup hot, strong tea (any blend)

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp apple pie or pumpkin pie spice

2 tbsp cold butter

2/3 cup soft brown sugar

1 egg lightly beaten

Put the fruit and peel into a heatproof bowl and pour over the hot tea. Cover and leave to stand at room temperature for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and mixed spice into large mixing bowl. Add butter and rub in with your fingertips until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.

Sir in the sugar, then add the fruit and its liquid, and the beaten egg. Stir well. Batter will be thick and gloppy. Transfer mixture to loaf tin and level the surface. Bake for about one hour or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack.

About the author:  A former journalist and college professor, Elizabeth J. Duncan is the author of two mystery series – Penny Brannigan Mysteries set in North Wales, and Shakespeare in the Catskills featuring costume designer Charlotte Fairfax. Elizabeth is a two-time winner of the Bloody Words Light Mystery Award (aka the Bony Blithe), presented annually for Canada’s best light mystery.  Elizabeth divides her time between Canada and Wales and is a faculty member of the Humber School for Writers.

To connect with Elizabeth, visit her web page www.elizabethjduncan.com, follow her on Twitter @Elizabethduncan or like her Facebook page facebook.com/elizabethjduncan

Leave a comment below with your email address to enter Elizabeth's giveaway of a copy of Remembering the Dead and a box of Glengettie tea.

Raspberry Almond Cake #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Last September our writer friend Elizabeth Duncan shared an apple cinnamon bread that many of us tried. Every one of us who tried it, liked it. A lot. I made it twice, in fact. So I decided to adapt that yummy recipe into something a little different that could serve as a coffee cake, or in this case, dessert featuring fresh raspberries and slivered almonds.

Ingredients

2/3 cup brown sugar, divided

½ tablespoon cinnamon

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temp

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 tsp low sodium baking powder

1/3 cup milk 

I box raspberries

½ cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 by 8 inch (glass) pan well.

Combine 1/3 cup of brown sugar with cinnamon and the sliced almonds in a small bowl and set aside. Along with the raspberries, this will become the interior stripe of the cake, and will also serve as topping.

In your food processor or a large bowl with electric beaters, cream the white sugar, the second 1/3 cup brown sugar, and butter until fluffy. Add eggs and almond extract and beat this together.

Stir together flour and baking powder. Add to the butter/sugar/egg mixture alternating with milk, starting and ending with flour. Don’t beat this too long or your batter will come out tough.

Pour half of batter into your pan. You will think it isn’t enough batter and it’s too stiff and you’ll fear you’ve forgotten an ingredient. But don’t panic: spread it to the corners the best you can. Now position 1/2 the raspberries on the batter, and top them with half of the cinnamon/almond mixture.

Spread the remaining batter into the pan. Top with remaining raspberries, followed by the last of the cinnamon/almond mixture.

Bake about 30-40 minutes until a toothpick stuck in the center of the cake comes out clean. 

This can be served as is, or dressed up with almond-scented whipped cream or ice cream.

And if you’d like to see Elizabeth’s original apple cinnamon quick bread, you can find it here.

. 
Lucy Burdette writes foodie mysteries set in Key West.



DEATH ON THE MENU, the 8th Key West food critic mystery will be out on August 7 from Crooked Lane Books. 

Here's a pre-order the book link from Amazon--and here's a link to preorder a hard copy from RJ Julia in CT, where you'll be able to get a signed copy. 

Or you can order it from Books and Books in Key West, or call Suzanne Orchard at Key West Island Bookstore ((305) 294-2904)--she'll be delighted to order you a copy! 
Or really, wherever books are sold...

Please Welcome Elizabeth J. Duncan #Giveaway

Today we welcome guest author Elizabeth J. Duncan back to the Mystery Lover’s Kitchen. The author of two series: the Penny Brannigan mysteries set in North Wales and Shakespeare in the Catskills, Elizabeth is a two-time winner of the Bloody Words Award for Canada’s best light mystery.

The paperback edition of Ill Met by Murder (Catskills #2) will be released October 10, and the hardback edition of Much Ado About Murder (Catskills #3) on November 7.

The Shakespeare in the Catskills series is published by Crooked Lane Books.

*

Nothing says autumn in upstate New York like apples. So when Paula Van Dusen, chairman of the board of directors of the Catskills Shakespeare Theater Company, decides to give a dinner party to welcome two new British members to the troupe, an apple pie accompanied by artisan cheddar cheese and freshly churned vanilla ice cream is on the menu. After all, what’s more American than apple pie? Unfortunately, one of the guests is found dead the next morning, but that had nothing to do with the delicious dinner prepared by Paula’s kitchen staff! It was all just Much Ado About Murder!

However, if unlike Paula, you have no help, and no time to bake an apple pie, why not try this delicious quick bread that summons up all the flavours of apple pie without the bother? A perfect accompaniment to a cup of morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Apple and cinnamon quick bread

Ingredients

2/3 cup brown sugar, divided

½ tablespoon cinnamon

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter softened, or margarine suitable for baking

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup milk or buttermilk

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped

1 tbsp melted butter

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray an 8x4 loaf pan.

Combine 1/3 cup of brown sugar with cinnamon in small bowl and set aside.

Cream white sugar, remaining brown sugar, and butter until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla.

Stir together flour and baking powder. Add to egg mixture alternating with milk, starting and ending with flour. Do not over mix.

Pour half of batter into pan, sprinkle with half the chopped apples and half the remaining cinnamon mixture.

Stir the remaining apples into remaining batter and pour into pan. Top with remaining cinnamon mixture.

Bake approx. 40 minutes. Brush topping with melted butter. Continue baking an additional five to 10 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove to rack to finish cooling.

*

Cream white sugar, remaining brown sugar, and butter until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla.

Pour half of batter into pan, sprinkle with half the chopped apples and half the
remaining cinnamon mixture.

Stir the remaining apples into remaining batter and pour into pan.
Top with remaining cinnamon mixture.

Let cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove to rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

To win a paperback copy of Ill Met by Murder, or an ARC of Much Ado About Murder (publisher’s choice) simply leave a comment below. USA only. 

Connect with Elizabeth on Twitter @elizabethduncan, on Facebook http.//www.facebook/elizabethjduncan or visit her website www.elizabethjduncan.com You can sign up on the author page to receive a brief newsletter

Rhubarb Fool with guest author Elizabeth J. Duncan

Please welcome today's guest author, our friend Elizabeth J. Duncan.  A former journalist and college professor, Elizabeth is the author of two mystery series – the brand new Shakespeare in the Catskills and the well-established, multi-award winning Penny Brannigan books set in North Wales. Elizabeth is the 2013 winner of the Bloody Words Light Mystery Award (aka the Bony Blithe), a Canadian national juried award given annually for a light mystery.

Elizabeth  is launching a new series – Shakespeare in the Catskills - featuring costume designer Charlotte Fairfax. And Elizabeth’s dropping by the kitchen today with a little something that might have come right out of Mrs. Shakespeare’s recipe box.  

In Shakespeare’s day, the nobility loved their meat and sweets, while less prosperous folk had to make do with a diet of grains and vegetables. Guess who lived longer?

Anyway, there’s not much call today for suckling pig or roast swan, so we’re making a remarkably easy yet decadent sweet called a fruit fool, which uses just four ingredients. This quintessential English dessert made with a ribbon of stewed or pureed fruit and cream started showing up on Elizabethan tables in 1598, around the time Shakespeare was writing The Merchant of Venice and arranging the financing for the Globe theatre. 

Original versions of the dessert were made with gooseberries, but you could make it with it any fruit. For summer, raspberries or strawberries are lovely, blended with a complimentary flavour of yogurt.

For fall, try folding in an apple/cinnamon blend, or cranberries.

I made mine with frozen rhubarb from my garden. 

When you’ve tasted the fruit fool, you’ll be making much ado over practically nothing!

The rhubarb fool

Two cups rhubarb, fresh or frozen

¼ cup sugar

half cup of whipping cream

Individual serving container plain or vanilla Greek yogurt

Four simple ingredients make a fruit fool

Combine the rhubarb and sugar and cook over medium heat, about eight to 10 minutes, until mixture is soft and stringy, but some pieces remain. Drain and cool, reserving liquid. You can do this in advance.

Whip cream until it forms soft peaks, then gently fold in container of yogurt. Then, gently fold in drained, stewed rhubarb. 

Serve in glass containers, topped with a few spoonsful of the reserved rhubarb liquid and garnish with a sprig of mint (I used springs of rosemary here and that works too).

Enjoy and please come by and say hi to Elizabeth today!  Remember that the delicious debut of An Untimely Death is November 10th.  Don't miss out on this treat.