Muffins with Carrot, Oats, and Walnuts as Served at Victoria-On-Sea from Vicki Delany

In the Tea by The Sea series, not only does pastry-chef Lily Roberts work hard in Tea by the Sea, her Cape Cod afternoon tea room, but she also makes the breakfasts at Victoria-on-Sea, her grandmother’s B&B.

Muffins are always popular at the B&B and Lily can easily whip up extra batches when she has time and freeze them until needed.  Sometimes the extra baking comes in handy when the police pay a call.

This recipe is one of the ones included in the latest book in the series, Bubble, Bubble Tea & Trouble.

Walnuts can be omitted if you’re baking for someone who might be allergic.

Muffins with Carrot, Oats, and Walnuts

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

•  1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
•  1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
•  1/2 cup packed brown sugar
•  1 tablespoon baking powder
•  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
•  1/4 teaspoon salt
•  1 cup milk
•  1 egg
•  1/4 cup vegetable oil
•  1 teaspoon vanilla
•  1 large or 2 small carrots , grated
•  1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method

1.       Preheat oven to 375°F 

2.       In large bowl, whisk together flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

3.       In separate bowl, whisk together milk, egg, oil and vanilla; pour over dry ingredients. Sprinkle with carrot, and walnuts; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon into 12 paper-lined or greased muffin cups.

4.       Bake in centre of oven for about 20 minutes Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; let cool.

Follow Vicki at www.vickidelany.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor. You can sign up to receive Vicki’s quarterly newsletter at Vicki Delany – Canadian Author of Mystery Novels and Suspense Novels » Contact. She’s on Bluesky at @vickidelany.bsky.social

Now Available: Bubble, Bubble Tea & Trouble, the Seventh Tea by the Sea mystery from Kensington Publishing.

 Coming September 6: 'Tis the Season to be Scary, A Year-Round Christmas mystery 

 

Atholl Brose

It seems that Scottish poet Robert Burns’ birthday was last week. You know, the one who wrote one of my favorite quotations:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

This is a date that is important to the people of Scotland, and some celebrate it each year with a Burns’ Night supper.

Atholl Brose

As it happens, I have a college friend who has lived in Scotland much of her life since college. We drifted apart for a while (decades!), then reconnected at a gathering a few years ago, and now we’re FB friends. We compare notes on the size of appliances in the UK and Ireland versus the U.S., and how to heat very old buildings and the like.

Haggis

On Burns’ birthday, she mentioned that she was making haggis. You may relax, dear readers, for I do not plan to make anything that involves finding a sheep’s stomach and stuffing it with the sheep’s heart, liver and lungs. But she also mentioned making “athole brose” as a part of the celebration. Of course I had to ask, what the heck is that?

It’s a very Scottish alcoholic beverage that includes only four ingredients: oats, water, honey, and whisky. Easy to make. Think of it as Scotch eggnog.

In case you’re wondering, I’ve read that the “Atholl” part refers to whoever first popularized the drink, and “brose” is kind of a porridge involving oats. Anyway, I persuaded my friend to give me her recipe, and it’s very flexible.


Atholl Brose

First, in the morning or even night before, you soak a good 2 cups of oatmeal (rather than rolled oats, but they will work too) in about 4 cups of cold water; stir every now and then. You find the oats eventually exude a thick extract.

When you are ready to start making the brose, strain the liquid into a glass/measuring jug. 

Take about a pint of this oat water, add about a pint of thick cream, and about a cup of runny honey. Stir, and add more honey to taste if you wish. 

Then add about half a cup of whisky; that's just for the mild base. When you’re serving it, you can add more whisky to taste! 

I ended up with two quarters of atholl brose. Of course, I used Irish oats and Irish whiskey, and County Cork has plenty of cattle producing a lot of cream. I will say that the honey you choose, wherever it comes from, has a significant effect on the flavor of the drink, so pick a honey whose flavor you like, or pick one with a pleasant neutral flavor.

I’m not sure what the shelf-life for this stuff is (or maybe nobody expects it to last long!). I’d keep it in the refrigerator, to be safe, and you may need to shake it up a bit before you pour.

I’ll leave you with the Scottish toast to your health, slàinte, which looks a whole lot like the Irish version, sláinte. But what’s an accent between friends?

And may I add that this week saw St. Bridget's Day in Ireland? She doesn't get the attention that St. Patrick does, but she was a busy woman anyway: she was the patron saint of babies, blacksmiths, boatmen, cattle farmers, children whose parents are not married, children whose mothers are mistreated by the children's fathers, Clan Douglas, dairymaids, dairy workers, fugitives, Ireland, Leinster, mariners, midwives, milkmaids, nuns, poets, the poor, poultry farmers, poultry raisers, printing presses, sailors, scholars, travelers, and watermen. Good person to have on your side! 

Tradition has it that the ewes in Ireland are about to produce spring lambs--would that I were there! But in Cruel Winter you can join Maura Donovan at Sullivan's Pub, where she and several other people--staff, friends and strangers--are snowed in for a long night--and they solve an old murder.

Cruel Winter, coming March 14th (before St. Patrick's Day!), and available for pre-order at Amazon (where it's on sale for 1/3 off at the moment, but I don't know for how long) and Barnes and Noble (for the same discounted price).

www.sheilaconnolly.com

St. Brigid's Oat Bread

by Sheila Connolly (or maybe Síle ní Conghaile for this week)

Ah, and who would this St. Brigid be? Only the female patron saint of Ireland. Early on, she was a Celtic goddess of fertility, and over time she came to be associated with the beginning of spring, which falls halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. That’s when the spring lambs are being born, you’re readying your fields for planting, and you’re doing your spring cleaning (in Ireland, not Massachusetts!). Her feast day, also known as Imbolc, falls on February 1^st.

My publisher wisely chose to issue the books in my County Cork series in the first week in February. May I have your blessing, St. Brigid?

I’ve read that chewy oatcakes are often given to children on St. Brigid’s Day (to strengthen their jaws). Having heard that, I went hunting for a recipe. I found two—that bore no resemblance to each other, other than the basic ingredients. They differed in cooking temperature, proportions of ingredients, and how they were shaped. So much for tradition. I improvised.

For mysterious reasons I was out of regular oatmeal, but I had a full can of Irish steel-cut oats, and I figured they would meet the “chewy” requirement. One recipe suggested soaking the oats in buttermilk overnight. I figured a few hours would do it, so I put the oats and the buttermilk together and let them sit.

Anyway, here’s the basic recipe, more or less:

3/4 cup steelcut oats (Irish, of course)

3/4 to 1 cup buttermilk

The oats

The soaked oats

Mix these together and set them aside for several hours or even overnight (add the extra buttermilk if all the liquid has been absorbed quickly).

The dry ingredients

3/4 cup flour

1 Tblsp sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

3 Tblsp butter, in small pieces

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and mix.

Add the butter bits and cut in until the mixture is crumbly (okay, I used my hands).

Add the oat/milk mixture and mix.

Beat the egg and add that, and mix again with a fork until the dough holds together. Form a ball and transfer it to a floured surface. Warning: this will be sticky, so feel free to add flour. Knead 20-25 times.

Pat the dough into an 8" round and transfer to the baking sheet. Score a deep cross in the top (do not cut through).

Ready to bake

Bake 23-28 minutes until brown, and a tester comes out clean. Break into quarters to serve.

I was happily surprised by the results. The bread was lighter in texture than I expected, and still had a bit of crunch from the oats. Usually the bread is served with butter and jam (I’m addicted to Irish black currant jam, which is hard to find around here), but it could also go well with soup.

This bread should be eaten quickly--it's best fresh.

I hope I’ve done St. Brigid proud. Brid agus Muire dhuit! And bless this book!

An Early Wake, third of the County Cork Mysteries, coming February 3rd.

Sure, and it's time for another trip to Ireland, isn't it?

If you're looking to order it, you'll find it here:

Amazon (print)

Amazon (Kindle)

Barnes & Noble

Welcome our Guest Gigi Pandian!

Welcome guest author Gigi Pandian with 

some culinary alchemy 

and a book giveaway

Gigi Pandian is the USA Today bestselling author of the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series (Artifact, Pirate Vishnu, and the forthcoming Quicksand) and the new Accidental Alchemist mysteries. Gigi’s debut mystery novel was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant, and her short fiction has been short-listed for Agatha and Macavity awards. A cancer diagnosis in her 30s taught her two important life lessons: healing foods can taste amazing, and life’s too short to waste a single moment. Gigi spent her childhood being dragged around the world by her cultural anthropologist parents, and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with an overgrown vegetable garden in the backyard.

Gigi’s latest novel, The Accidental Alchemist, is the first in a new cozy mystery series set in Portland, Oregon, featuring a centuries-old female alchemist and her French chef sidekick – who happens to be a gargoyle who was accidentally brought to life by a stage magician. The book involves plenty of culinary alchemy and includes recipes!

Read an excerpt here.

And read on to win a copy of The Accidental Alchemist.

***

I learned how to cook in earnest after a cancer diagnosis left me with frustrating food restrictions. I wanted to take care of myself, but at the same time I refused to eat boring food! My solution was to take cooking classes and learn how to cook delicious meals from scratch.

Through my culinary journey, I discovered that simple tricks could create the most delectable meals that had the added benefit of being healthy. Learning how to transform simple foods into something greater than the sum of their parts influenced my writing of The Accidental Alchemist, because cooking from scratch was fast becoming a central part of my life. I explored my own life transformations through the book, which was a lot of fun.

Below is my adaptation of a classic Scottish dessert, Cranachan, a rich pudding that usually gets its core flavor from heavy cream. In my version, you don’t lose any of the rich taste with a simple substitution. By putting in a little bit of effort to make cashew cream the day before you serve the dessert, you can have a mouth-watering treat that’s good for you – and it also looks beautiful to serve to guests. It was a big hit at my last dinner party!

Gigi’s Cranachan Scottish Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats (aka old fashioned oats)
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 cup homemade sweet cashew cream (see recipe below)
• 1 Tbsp whisky (a bourbon works wonderfully here)
• 1 cup raspberries

Directions

Make your cashew cream the day before, so it thickens in the fridge. When you’re ready to put together your Cranachan, mix 1 Tbsp of whisky (or more, to taste) into the cashew cream.

Toast the uncooked oats in a skillet with the honey until the mixture smells toasty, approximately 5 minutes. Once it cools, layer the raspberries, cream, and toasted oats into 4 dessert cups.

Cashew Cream

Make this the day before you make Cranachan, so the cream can thicken in the fridge.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups raw cashews
• 1 cup filtered water (plus extra for pre-soaking)
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• Dash of salt or spritz of lemon juice

Directions

To soften the cashews, soak them in cold water for 8 hours, or in hot water for 2 hours. Rinse and drain. In a blender, blend all the ingredients together. A high speed blender works best to get the creamiest consistency, but any blender should do, as long as you give it enough time. (NOTE: You only need half of this cream for the Cranachan, but making this larger amount works best in a blender, especially if you aren’t using a high speed blender. Plus it’s always nice to have extra!)

I love using cashew cream as a substitute for heavy cream in all sorts of sweet and savory dishes, from cheesecake to macaroni and cheese.

Do you have a favorite culinary alchemy trick? If you’d like to win a copy of The Accidental Alchemist, which includes recipes, include your email address in your comment below.

Find out more about Gigi and her books on her website gigipandian.com, and connect with her on Facebook facebook.com/GigiPandian ,Twitter @GigiPandian, and Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/GigiPandian/.