Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: muffins

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Guest Peggy Ehrhart #Giveaway #Recipe Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Butter

Peg Cochran: I am thrilled to welcome Peggy Ehrhart as our guest today on Mystery Lovers Kitchen. The first book in her new series, The Quilt Whisperer Investigates, will be out in September and I can't wait to get my copy of what sounds like a charming cozy read!

Please give her a warm welcome.

In September The Quilt Whisperer Investigates, featuring museum curator and quilter, Caroline Platte, will launch my new cozy mystery series. The series takes place in the charming (invented) town of Banburyport, Massachusetts, where the locals gather every morning at Farrow Square Coffee for gossip, cappuccino, and treats from the bakery case. Among the treats described and eaten in The Quilt Whisperer Investigates are Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Butter.

Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Butter

Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

For the muffins:

2 cups flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 egg

1 cup milk

4 tbsp. butter

1 Granny Smith apple

For the cinnamon butter:

4 oz. butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Insert paper liners into the cups of your muffin tin. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg and milk together.

Melt the butter

Core, peel, and chop the apple.

Add the egg and milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Stir in the melted butter and then the diced apple.

Transfer the batter to your muffin tin, filling each cup about two-thirds full. A large spoon and a rubber spatula make it easier to control the amount that goes into each cup.

Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean.

To make the cinnamon butter, blend butter, sugar, and cinnamon until smooth. A rubber spatula can be helpful.

Serve muffins warm with cinnamon butter for spreading.

Peggy Ehrhart is a former English professor with a doctorate in Medieval Literature.

Her Maxx Maxwell mysteries, Sweet Man Is Gone (2008) and Got No Friend Anyhow (2011), were published by Five Star/Gale/Cengage and feature a blues-singer sleuth.

More recently, Peggy has written the Knit & Nibble mysteries for Kensington Books. Book #12, Last Wool and Testament, was released in May, 2025; An Eggy Way to Die appeared in Kensington’s 2026 Easter novella anthology, Easter Egg Murder. In September Peggy will be launching a new cozy series with The Quilt Whisperer Investigates, also from Kensington.

Peggy herself is an avid crafter, dating from her childhood as a member of the 4-H Club in rural Southern California. She now lives in Leonia, New Jersey.

Visit Peggy at www.PeggyEhrhart.com

“Solid character development, a well-crafted plot with history and art pointing the way, and a heartwarming side-story make this a satisfying and enjoyable read.”—FirstClue

“The kickoff to a new series perfect for readers who love crafts and history.”--Kirkus

GIVEAWAY!

Because The Quilt Whisperer Investigates won’t be out until September, I’m giving away a copy of Book #12 from my Knit & Nibble series, featuring Pamela Paterson, founder and mainstay of the Arborville, New Jersey, knitting club, nicknamed Knit and Nibble.

Craft cozies are very popular now. What crafts do you most enjoy featured in craft cozy series? Are there any crafts that you feel are under-represented?

Leave your comment to be entered to win!

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

COFFEE SHOP DOUGHNUT MUFFINS & New Release Countdown from @CleoCoyle

From Cleo Coyle: Tender and sweet, these muffins are dusted with cinnamon sugar and one bite will remind you of an old-fashioned cake doughnut, the kind you might order at a coffee shop counter with a hot cuppa joe.

These babies are always on the menu at our fictional Village Blend, the century-old Greenwich Village coffee shop that serves as the setting for our Coffeehouse Mysteries with a brand-new title, No Roast for the Weary, coming April 1st!

Pre-order at:

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

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

A Special Note from Cleo...

Marc and I are celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary today! Time has flown, and we can hardly believe that 25 years ago today we vowed to stand by each other for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad. (And so we have.) While we have never been conventionally rich, we are exceedingly rich in love and a shared creative spirit, which has given us profound joy. For that we are deeply grateful, and we thank God every day for the time we have together.

Today we are also counting down the final week to the release of our newest Coffeehouse Mystery, No Roast for the Weary. This one's a page-turner and a great deal of fun for many reasons, primarily because this murder mystery involves our own profession of writing, and we had a grand time playing with that theme.

You see, our amateur sleuth (coffeehouse manager and master roaster Clare Cosi) solves the problem of post-pandemic depressed foot traffic with a literary solution. Years ago, the second floor lounge of her landmark Greenwich Village shop was used by a group of writers. They called their caffeinated workshop the "Writer's Block Lounge," and when Clare resurrects it, a brand-new collection of coffee-craving creative types is soon packing the place.

Unfortunately, many of these poets, playwrights, and novelists wrestle with the same demons of self-doubt, envy, and free-floating anxiety that many of us writers do, and as the pages turn, this stressful soup leads to murder. There is a cold case conundrum from the past, a present-day mystery to be solved, and a duck. Yes, an adorable duck named Wacker, a borrowed moniker from Marc's childhood. We both had pet ducks as kids, which is why we had fun adding a feathered friend to our current caffeinated caper.

We hope you all enjoy No Roast for the Weary, as well as today's Coffee Shop Doughnut Muffins. May you read (and eat) with joy!

~ Cleo

For those of you who are new to us, The Coffeehouse Mysteries are bestselling works of amateur sleuth fiction set in a landmark Greenwich Village coffeehouse, and each of the 21 titles includes the added bonus of recipes.

Because our amateur sleuth (coffeehouse manager and master roaster) Clare bakes these delicious cinnamon-sugar doughnut muffins for her customers, they would make a fantastic treat for a book club meeting. Served with coffee or tea, these melt-in-your-mouth treats will make your discussion of Clare Cosi's latest case even more cozy.

ORDER UP!

🍩 ☕

To download this recipe in a free
PDF that you can print, save, or
share, click here.

Click here or on the image above
for Cleo's free recipe PDF.

☕ Cleo's Coffee Shop
Doughnut Muffins

Makes 12 standard-size muffins

For the batter:

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup white, granulated sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten with fork

1 cup milk (whole or 2%, not skim)

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spoon into cup and level off)

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the cinnamon-sugar topping:

1/2 cup white, granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Step 1—Prep your oven and pan: First preheat your oven to 350° F. This recipe should be made in a standard muffin or cupcake pan. Because it bakes up nice-sized muffins with generous tops, lightly spray the tops of your standard muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray. This will prevent the tops from sticking to the pan. Line the muffin cups with paper holders.

Step 2—Make the batter: Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs and milk and continue mixing. Stop the mixer. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg and mix only enough to combine ingredients. Batter will be thick. Do not over mix at this stage or you will develop the gluten in the flour and toughen the muffins.

Step 3—Bake: Using two tablespoons (one to scoop, the other to scrape in the thick batter), fill each cup to the top, dividing any remaining batter among the 12 cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the muffin tops spring back lightly when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. After a few minutes out of the oven, remove muffins from the pan and cool on a wire rack. (Muffins that remain long in a hot pan may end up steaming, and the bottoms may become tough.)

Step 4—Finish with cinnamon-sugar topping: Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Melt the butter, brush it lightly over the muffin tops...