Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: gingerbread

Showing posts with label gingerbread. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Gluten-Free Gingerbread Madeleines #Recipe by @LibbyKlein #Christmas

Libby Klein I'm back with another great recipe from Silent Nights Are Murder. My candied gingerbread madeleines. These are addictive. And madeleines can be eaten for breakfast or as a tasty snack any time of day. If you don't have a madeleine pan just turn these into muffins and bake for 18-22 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Ginger is one of my favorite holiday flavors. What are some of yours? Let me know in the comments.

Candied Gingerbread Madeleines

Yield: 24

Gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are looking forward to a quiet, homey Christmas at their B&B in Cape May, but unfortunately, death isn’t taking a holiday this year . . .

Ever since Thanksgiving, Poppy and her pals have been left with an unsolved mystery of the romantic kind. But at least this mystery isn’t the kind that involves murder. That all changes when the body of a fish supplier is discovered in the kitchen of her ex’s restaurant—and he’s frozen, not fresh.

For once, it’s not Poppy who tripped over the corpse, yet she can’t escape being drawn in since the victim has a note taped to him reading Get Poppy. Figures—an engagement ring isn't labeled, but the dead guy is addressed to her. Now, while Aunt Ginny plans a tree-trimming party and pressures Poppy to decode a mysterious old diary, the amateur sleuth is asked to “unofficially” go undercover at the restaurant to help the police. Until then, the only crime Poppy had been dealing with was Figaro’s repeated thefts of bird ornaments from the tree; now it looks like it’s going to be a murder-y Christmas after all.

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her
classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Friday, April 14, 2023

Nineteenth-Century Gingerbread @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, except today I'm wearing my other name tag, which reads Edith Maxwell. Yes, we are the same person!

As Edith, the name I've had my whole life, I've written seven historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries set in my northeastern Massachusetts town in the late 1800s. Five were nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel, and Charity's Burden (#4 in the series) won that prestigious award in 2020.

In addition to the novels, I wrote a number of short stories that were published in various anthologies and magazines. I'm delighted to announce that a collection of those stories, A Questionable Death and Other Historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries came out last week! It opens with a brand-new story, which precedes the books. "In Pursuit of Justice" shows Rose as an apprentice midwife in her first sleuthing adventure.

Two of the included stories were nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Short Story. The Kitchen's own Leslie Budewitz offered some lovely words:

Edith Maxwell’s Rose Carroll is more than a Quaker midwife in late 19th century New England. She’s a moral compass, an astute observer, and a staunch advocate for women in a time when women’s rights were more trampled than honored—and a fine detective who uses her ability to go where the police can’t to work tirelessly for justice. The compact, compelling stories in A Questionable Death will satisfy the mystery lover and the history lover alike.

I'd be delighted to give away a copy of the book to a commenter here today.

So what would Rose Carroll have cooked and eaten when she wasn't catching babies and hearing secrets? She baked in a wood stove, which makes creating desserts and breads a little tricky. You have to remember to turn the pan regularly so it doesn’t burn on one side. Luckily our modern ovens are more forgiving.

One of the reference books I like to use is Miss Parloa’s New Cook Book and Marketing Guide from 1880. It includes all kinds of tips for kitchen hygiene and equipment. For example, in the section on Cooking Utensils, Miss Parloa tells us this: “The essential qualities in a utensil are that it shall be substantially made; be smoothly finished and without grooves or joinings; and that it shall be free from deleterious substances.” I agree.

But when you get to the recipes, they are all really large. “Pluck two chickens,” starts one. A cake might have a pound of butter in it. Her recipe for Soft Gingerbread reads, “Six cupfuls of flour, three of molasses, one of cream, one of lard or butter, two eggs, one teaspoonful of saleratus, and two of ginger. This is excellent.” I suppose it would be – but I don’t have any saleratus around the house, and if the end product turns out not to be excellent, I’ve just wasted a heck of a lot of flour, molasses, and butter.

So I turned to the Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book (reissued in 2011).

Her recipe for gingerbread is somewhat more restrained in the amounts. And who doesn’t love a nice moist piece of gingerbread – with whipped cream or ice cream on top, of course!

Here’s the recipe, adapted slightly.

Hot Water Gingerbread

Ingredients:

1 cup molasses

½ cup boiling water

2 ¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons ginger

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

Butter a square pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Add the water to the molasses. Mix the dry ingredients.

Combine the mixtures, add the butter, and beat vigorously.

Pour into the pan and bake thirty-five minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

(The original recipe includes this tip: “Chicken fat tried out and clarified furnishes an excellent shortening, and may be used in place of butter.” Not in my kitchen!)

Top with ice cream and enjoy with tea, coffee, or a spot of sherry.

Readers: What old-fashioned recipe do you like to use? Do you have one that’s been handed down in your family? Include your email address so I can contact the lucky winner of A Questionable Death.

My most recent releases are Four Leaf Cleaver, which came out in January, 2023,

and A Questionable Death and Other Quaker Midwife Mysteries, out in April 2023.

The next book out will be Murder at a Cape Bookstore, releasing in August, 2023.

Following that in quick succession will be "Murderous Mittens" in Christmas Mittens Murder and Murder Uncorked, both featuring my new wine bar manager Cece Barton.

Check out all my writing!

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Cleo Coyle's Iced Gingerbread Cookie Sticks (Edible Coffee Stirrers for #Christmas)

From Cleo Coyle: Gingerbread cookies are a classic Christmas treat, and I've made several versions over the years. Today I'm sharing one of my favorites (and Marc's too). I'm also sharing a quick and easy holiday decorating tip. Scroll down to the end of the recipe for that.

But first, let's bake some

Christmas cookies!

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

☕ A Note from Cleo

These Iced Gingerbread Cookie Sticks are deliciously different. A clever addition to holiday parties yet comfortingly cozy for an evening in front of your virtual fireplace. (Click the link to see one of our favorites on YouTube.)

Marc and I love these cookies so much, we wrote them into our 14th Coffeehouse Mystery, Once Upon a Grind. If you haven't read it yet, it's also one of our favorites.

The book opens on a beautiful autumn morning in New York's Central Park where the city's first annual Fairy Tale Fall Festival is about to begin—and our first crime scene will be discovered by our intrepid amateur sleuth, coffeehouse manager and master roaster Clare Cosi....

Before finding a body in the oldest (and spookiest) section of Central Park's woods, Clare leads her merry band of baristas in giving their shop's coffee truck a "Jack-in-the-Beanstalk" makeover for the Fairy Tale festivities. They also serve these "beanstalk" cookie sticks, a huge hit with the crowd. Unfortunately for Clare, her coffee hunter ex-husband Matt brings his own "magic beans"—coffee beans sourced from a legendary and very real area of Africa. And they bring Giant trouble.

These cookies, on the other hand, are designed to bring joy. Drizzle them with melted white chocolate or make your own vanilla glaze (recipe included). A final sprinkling of white (coarse) sparkling sugar will create a treat as pretty as a winter snowfall. May you bake them with love and eat with holiday joy!

~ Cleo

To download this recipe in a free
PDF document with additional
step-by-step photos, click here.
Print, save, or share it.

Click for free recipe PDF.

Cleo Coyle's
Iced Gingerbread Cookie Sticks

☕ Elegant, Edible Coffee Stirrers for Holiday Trays

Makes about 4-5 dozen cookie sticks, depending on size

For cookies:

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (or 1⁄8 teaspoon ground cloves)
10 tablespoons (1-1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature*
2/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup molasses (unsulphured, not blackstrap)
1/3 whole milk (or brewed coffee)*

To finish:

Vanilla Glaze (see recipe below) and
Coarse finishing sugar (about 1/4 cup)

*Note: To make this recipe dairy free replace butter with non-dairy margarine and the whole milk with coffee or almond milk.

Step 1— Assemble the dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice (or cloves). Set aside.

Step 2—Make the dough. Using an electric mixer, cream the softened butter and dark brown sugar; add the molasses and milk (or coffee) and blend again. While continuing to beat at a low speed, slowly add in your dry ingredients, blending to make a smooth dough. Do not overbeat, but be sure all of the flour mixture is incorporated.

CLEO TIP #1: The dough should be sticky and in the next step you will chill it to harden up the butter, but you may need to adjust the dough slightly, depending on your climate. If your dough seems very wet, beat in a bit more flour. But don't overdo it because too much flour will toughen up your cookie.

Step 3—Wrap and chill. Form the sticky dough into 2 balls and flatten into disks. Wrap the two disks in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour; overnight is fine, too. (If you’re in a hurry, place the dough discs in the freezer for 20 minutes instead.) The chilling will harden up the butter and make the dough easier to work with for the next step.

Step 4—Roll the dough. First, preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the chilled dough disks from the fridge and (if too hard) allow to warm just enough to become pliable. Place the dough between two sheets of lightly flour-dusted parchment paper. (This is a great method for rolling cookies because you will only need the lightest dusting of flour, which will keep the cookies from toughening up.)

Roll your dough thin, about the

thickness of a pie crust, around 1/8 inch.

CLEO TIP #2: If the dough becomes too warm as you roll it, and it sticks too much to the parchment paper, simply slip the whole thing onto a flat pan and place the pan in the fridge for 20 minutes or freezer for 15. Once the rolled-out dough is chilled, it will firm up and easily separate from the paper.

Step 5—Cut the cookies. Remove the top layer of parchment paper. Use a pizza cutter to clean up the edges of your rectangle and slice into sticks. Do not move the sticks off the bottom parchment layer. Simply slip the entire sheet of parchment onto a cookie sheet.

Step 6—Bake. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes. When the cookies are finished baking, you will need to recut them and you must do this while the cookies are still warm.

Gently slide the entire sheet of parchment paper onto a cutting board or a sturdy counter surface and use your original slicing lines as a guide. The pizza cutter will make quick work of it, roll from the top down, as you see in my photo below, so you can easily follow your lines.

Step 7—COOL: You must allow the cookie sticks to cool completely before handling. If you try to move them while they are warm, they are very likely to crack and break (ask me how I know).

Step 8—Drizzle with glaze. Once cool, you can make the glaze (recipe below) or melt white chocolate and drizzle it on the sticks. Finish with a sprinkling of coarse sugar.

Cleo's Vanilla Glaze

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon milk or cream (or almond milk)
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (for a whiter glaze, use clear vanilla)

Directions: In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add milk and whisk in the powdered sugar, a little at a time. When all the sugar is melted into the butter and milk, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

TEST ON A PLATE: Before drizzling on your cookie sticks, use a fork and drizzle a bit on a plate. If you’re having trouble drizzling it nicely, then it’s too thick, whisk in a bit more milk. If the glaze doesn’t harden fairly quickly after cooling, then it’s too thin. Add a bit more powdered sugar and continue to cook it down until it’s thick enough.

FINAL TIP: If the glaze hardens in the pan or becomes crusty, whisk it over heat and add a bit more milk, and you will be able to return it to drizzling consistency again, and...eat with holiday joy!

Easy Decorating Tip

A little reminder of a common way you can make your tables appear more festive and romantic during the holiday season. (Do you do this, too?) Find pretty glassware, making sure it's thick, sturdy glass. Fill or partially fill the containers with water and float tea candles in them.

We use plain and scented tea candles: apple-cinnamon, berry, pine, and French vanilla are all beautiful aromas for the holidays. Marc and I always have fun searching thrift stores for retro glassware of all shapes and sizes.