Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins #Recipe by @LibbyKlein

 Libby Klein Back in the day, before I knew I had Celiac, I would visit my local coffee shop chain when the weather turned chilly and order one of these with a caramel macchiato.  They were heavenly even if they did use up an entire day's calorie allotment. #WorthIt! After going gluten-free, a trip to Starbucks - I mean - my local coffee shop chain, would result in me feeling sorry for myself that I could not have my special treat. Well, where there's a craving, there's a recipe. And this is one of about four copycat recipes that I make. Although, I have zhushed it up a bit with a crumbly topping that includes toasted pecans and pumpkin seeds.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

Yield 12

FOR THE FILLING:

6 oz cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

FOR THE MUFFINS:

1 ½ cups gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum (You can use AP Flour if you're not gluten-free)

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 large eggs

1 cups sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

2/3 cups vegetable oil

FOR THE TOPPING:

¼ cup sugar

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 ½ tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon ground pumpkin pie spice

2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds

¼ cup chopped pecans

4 tablespoons cold butter

Instructions

Prepare the Filling. Combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Chill until ready to assemble.

 

Prepare the Topping. Combine topping ingredients in a small mixing bowl and blend until crumbly. Set aside.

 

Prepare the Muffin Batter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. Add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

 Assemble the muffins. Fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). I added too much to my muffin cups and the cheesecake is at the top of the muffin instead of in the middle. 

Place a scoop of the cream cheese mixture in the center of each muffin well. I use a small cookie scoop, but you can use a teaspoon if you want. You want to put the cream cheese lower than you think because it will rise a lot during the baking process. Top the cream cheese with the remaining batter, covering the cream cheese completely. Divide the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells evenly. Press down slightly.

Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving or the cheesecake filling will run all over. 

Poppy McAllister discovers that gluten-free Halloweens can scare up another case of murder in the latest installment of this delightful culinary B&B mystery series! - 

Poppy is none too pleased when her B&B is coerced into participating in the Cape May Haunted Dinners Tour during Halloween season. Though her knack for finding dead bodies has given the place a spooky reputation, the Murder House is a completely undeserved nickname. At least it used to be . . .
 
While Poppy wrangles with some guests who can’t stop squabbling with each other—including a paranormal researcher, a very quirky pet psychic who freaks out her portly Persian, and an undercover tabloid reporter eager to catch her staff in a lie—one of them winds up facedown in a plate of tiramisu. And now she has bigger worries than getting her house TP’d . . .
 
Includes Recipes from Poppy’s Kitchen!
 

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/

Make-Ahead Vegetable Salad by Maya Corrigan

When I have a crowd for dinner, I like to prepare as much as possible ahead of time. The veggies in this salad marinate for a day, giving me one less dish to make at the last minute. 

This marinated vegetable dish was always a favorite at my family’s holiday dinners. I’ve modified my mom’s recipe from the 1970s, just as the sleuth in my Five-Ingredient Mysteries updates her grandmother’s recipes from the same era. The original recipe relied on  canned items because fifty years ago fresh vegetables were hard to find out of season. Now you can buy summer crops like zucchini and green beans all year round. 

Customize this recipe by substituting different vegetables depending on the time of year and your own tastes. For the recipe here, I’m using raw zucchini instead of the blanched cauliflower from my mother’s recipe. During the December holidays, add red peppers for seasonal color. For Thanksgiving, throw in some carrots. This make-ahead dish is helpful when you are cooking for a family gathering, a dinner party, or a potluck meal.

Yield: 10-12 servings

Preparation time: 30 minutes 

Wait time: 24 hours (with occasional stirring)

Vegetables

2 cups uncooked zucchini sliced in 1/4-inch rounds  

1 pound green beans cut into one-inch lengths (if canned, drain the beans; if fresh, blanch them for two minutes and plunge them into ice water)

1 can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered, or substitute another vegetable

4 oz fresh white mushrooms sliced ¼ inch thick

1 cup pitted and halved Kalamata or other black olives        

1 medium onion thinly sliced 

1/2 cup chopped sweet (bread & butter) pickles

Ingredients for the dressing

Dressing

½ cup vegetable oil (not olive oil)

½ cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp dried dill weed (3 tsp if using fresh dill weed)

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground pepper

1. Combine all the vegetables in a large bowl and stir them.

2. Mix the oil, lemon juice, and cider vinegar. Shake in a container or stir. Add sugar, dill weed, salt, and pepper. Mix well and pour over the vegetables.

3. Stir to combine the vegetables with the dressing. Cover the bowl and refrigerate it. Stir the vegetables three or four times over the next 24 hours.

Drain the vegetables before serving. 

The most time-consuming part of this recipe is cutting the vegetables.

Once you've mixed the vegetables together and added the dressing, you'll need to stir the mixture three or four times at intervals before you serve the dish. Drain the dressing before serving. For a festive look, spoon the veggies into a lettuce-lined bowl.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Maya (Mary Ann) Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manager Val Deniston and her grandfather, who solve murders in a historic Maryland town near the Chesapeake Bay. Each book includes five suspects, five clues, and Granddad’s five-ingredient recipes. Maya has taught university courses in writing, American literature, and detective fiction. Check out her website for trivia about mysteries and easy recipes: mayacorrigan.com.

Five-Ingredient Mysteries in order, bottom to top

In the latest Five-Ingredient Mystery, Crypt Suzette, cafe manager Val caters the Halloween party and costume contest at a bookshop. The contestants include the Fictionistas, a creative writing group started by the secretive Suzette, who rents a room from Granddad. When she's found dead of an apparent accident, Val and Granddad suspect foul play, especially after reading Suzette's manuscript for a murder mystery in which the suspects resemble the Fictionistas. Did one of them kill Suzette or was her death rooted in the past she tried to escape?

Crypt Suzette is currently sale priced on Amazon.


Wishing you a wonderful 2020 full of good reading and eating! ~Maya

Caramel Almond Cookies #Christmas Week + book #giveaway from Maya Corrigan

From MAYA:

GIVEAWAY BELOW!

🎄

For Christmas Week I'm sharing a easy recipe that makes yummy holiday cookies. At my house we bake a lot of cookies in December. Every year, in addition to making our traditional holiday cookies, we try one new cookie recipe, and the whole family votes on whether it’s a keeper. Last year the vote in favor of caramel almond cookies was unanimous. They will be part of our holiday baking from now on. With only five ingredients, they are quick to make.

The cookies bake in a standard size muffin pan. The recipe makes enough to fill two 12-cup muffin pans. You can use either a nonstick pan or foil cup liners in a regular muffin pan.

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients

8 ounces (2 sticks) of unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup heavy cream

4 ½ cups sliced and skinless (or mostly skinless) almonds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan.

Add the sugar and honey. Stir until the mixture is smooth.

Stir in the heavy cream and continue stirring over low-to medium heat until the mixture turns a light caramel color.

Add the almonds and stir until they are evenly coated.

Fill the muffin cups about 1/3 of the way up and flatten the mixture by pressing down on it with a spoon.

Bake the cookies on the middle rack of the oven until the contents of the cups are bubbling and golden brown, about 8-10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and cool the cookies in the muffin pan for 8-10 minutes. Use a knife around the edge to loosen each cookie from the cup. The bottom may be soft and the cookie a little floppy. No worries. Transfer to wax paper to cool and, once it’s set, it will be flat.

If using foil cup liners, take the cups from the pan. When cool, remove the cookie from the foil.

Note: Using foil cups may result in caramel spikes sticking up from the top of the cookie. I broke them off once the cookie cooled.

If using only one muffin pan and the foil liners, put in new liners for the second batch.

Adapted from a recipe for Florentines by Bettyanne Hershfield (Winnipeg, Manitoba) via Washington Post recipe columnist Bonnie S. Benwick.

Melted butter with sugar and honey

Butter, sugar, and honey cooked until light caramel color appears

Almonds added to mixture

Cookies ready for baking

Cookies after baking

Note the spikes at the top of cookies baked in foil cups.

Cookies with spikes broken off, ready to serve

 MERRY GIVEAWAY

Leave a comment and you could win 

any of my Five-Ingredient Mysteries.  

Are cookies part of your holiday celebration?

Remember to leave your email address 

so I can contact you if you win. 

Giveaway ends Wednesday, December 18 at 6 pm Eastern time.

Have a wonderful holiday with lots of reading and eating!