Guest Emmeline Duncan whips up Ground Rules Peppermint Mocha Brownies #Recipe and a #Christmas #Giveaway

Please welcome my friend, Emmeline Duncan, to the Kitchen with her delicious and festive recipe for Ground Rules Peppermint Mocha Brownies. Yum!

Like her Ground Rules Mystery series, Emmeline Duncan is based in Portland, Oregon. Her series includes Fresh Brewed Murder, Double Shot Death, Flat White Fatality, and Death Unfiltered, plus Fatal Brouhaha, which comes out in March 2025. She’s also the author of the Halloween Bookshop Mystery Series, which launched with Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop in 2024 and includes Mayhem at a Halloween Wedding in 2025.

When not writing, she spends her time seeking out new coffee shops and hiking trails to explore, frequently accompanied by her Great Pyrenees. You can track her online at emmelineduncan.com

Granted, I'm biased, but one of the best recipes in the Ground Rules series is the espresso brownie recipe in Flat White Fatality. Most of my baking is dairy-free, unless I'm not planning to eat it, and then I'll use butter. You can't tell from the taste of these fudgy brownies that they’re made with oil.

To celebrate the holiday season, I've added a festive peppermint frosting.

If you're a fan of peppermint mochas, add espresso powder to the frosting. If that sounds like too much coffee flavor, leave it out, and you'll have a festive peppermint brownie.

I used a dairy-free dark chocolate chip for the frosting, but white chocolate fans could consider subbing in white chocolate chips with an optional dark chocolate drizzle. For additional holiday flare, add crushed candy canes to the top, which you can make yourself by putting a candy cane in a zip lock bag and relieving holiday frustration by pounding the candy cane with a meat tenderizer, or you can buy already crushed candy canes.

If you use dairy-free chocolate chips, these brownies will be dairy-free but not vegan. You can sub butter in for oil if desired. One added bonus of baking with oil is that baked goods tend to stay moist longer. I prefer canola oil when baking because the flavor is very neutral.

Ground Rules Peppermint Mocha Brownies

 

 

Brownie Ingredients

· 1 cup chocolate chips

· 8 tablespoons canola oil

· 3 tablespoons cocoa

· 1 teaspoon of espresso powder

· 1¼ cups sugar

· ½ teaspoon salt

· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

· 3 eggs

· 1 cup all-purpose flour

 

Peppermint Frosting Ingredients

· 1 cup chocolate chips

· 2 teaspoons oil (coconut, canola, etc—butter or vegan butter work as well), or more if needed

· 1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional!)

· ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract

· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

· Crushed candy canes (optional)

 

Preparation

First, bake the brownies.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (or, if you use a Breville smart oven like me, 325°F. But when I make this in my regular oven, 350 works best). Line an 8"-by 8" pan with parchment paper.

Mix the chocolate chips and canola oil in the top of a double boiler. Melt over medium-low heat, stirring regularly.

Once the chocolate has melted, remove it from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder and espresso powder. Put aside.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Once it's combined, whisk in the chocolate mixture. Once it's mixed, add the cup of flour, taking care to incorporate the flour without over-whisking the mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35–40 minutes. Keep an eye on the baking time since some ovens might bake this faster. When a toothpick comes out mostly clean, your brownies are ready.

Let the brownies cool for about an hour before removing them from the pan.

Once the brownies are cool, make the peppermint frosting by melting the chocolate chips in the top of the double boiler with the oil (or butter/vegan butter) you've chosen. If it's too dry, add a splash of more oil. You want the chocolate to be spreadable but not too liquid. You can always toss a few more chocolate chips in to thicken the frosting while melting it if needed.

Once the chocolate chips are melted, stir in the peppermint, espresso powder, and vanilla extract.

Spread the frosting on the brownies, and top with crushed candy canes (if using).

Cut into squares, and enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea. Store any leftovers in an airtight container and consume them within a day or two.

Emmeline is giving away a copy of a Ground Rules Mystery or a Halloween Bookshop Mystery of choice to a lucky winner, so leave her a lovely comment below.

As the owner of Portland, Oregon’s popular Ground Rules coffee cart, hard-working young master barista Sage Caplin is excited to expand her business with a brick-and mortar store. But not everyone gives her a warm welcome . . .

Ground Rules isn’t the only newcomer set to open in Portland’s grand new Button Building. Fortunately, most of the fellow micro-restaurant owners and patrons are great—with two exceptions. There’s Rose, a true-crime podcaster and active TikToker who’s pestering Sage for an interview about her estranged con-artist mother; and Bianca, the familiar and perpetually unpleasant owner of Breakfast Bandits. Bianca is abrasive to everyone, so Sage doesn’t feel singled out. . . . Until Bianca falls dead at the building’s grand opening—a to-go cup of Ground Rules coffee in her hand. Laced with Ketamine, also known as Special K.

It doesn’t help that just before she collapsed, Bianca was publicly rude to Sage. Or that Bianca’s boyfriend points the police toward Sage. Or that Rose, still hung up on investigating Sage’s mom, has declared she’ll solve the murder. Now it will be up to Sage to sift through a complex blend of motives, blackmail, and old and new rivalries to get to the truth of a very bitter brew . . .

 

Peppermint Mocha Muffins from @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here to get you into the holiday spirit even before our #Christmas recipes launch into full swing! I bring you a delicious recipe from Candy Slain Murder, last year's Christmas mystery. 

The muffins are easy and tasty and festive, and Robbie Jordan offers them in her country store restaurant.

I hope you love these muffins while you're wrapping or sharing a coffee with a friend. I'll send one commenter a signed copy of the book!

Peppermint Mocha Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons instant espresso granules

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar or light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup crushed peppermint candy canes or candies

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Crush the peppermint canes or candies by putting them in a bag on a cutting board and whacking them with a rolling pin until they are all broken. (It's fun, too!)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, coffee, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugars. Mix well.

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

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fold in the chocolate chips and peppermint bits.

Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups three-fourths full.  Sprinkle a few peppermint bits on the tops. 

NOTE: The batter was a bit too much for a standard muffin pan. Not sure why!

ANOTHER NOTE: The bits on top melted and lost their color. Try sprinkling them on just after the muffins come out, instead.

Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes. Without opening the oven, lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for an additional 12 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the muffins comes out clean.

Allow to cool before removing from the pan . Enjoy with a good mystery!

Readers: What's your favorite kind of muffin?

My most recent release is Murder at the Lobstah Shack, the third Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery, is up for preorder and releases at the end of November.

The next up is Batter Off Dead, Country Store Mystery #10, to release in February 2022.

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 north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM PIE WITH CHOCOLATE CRUST

When I attended college (in another millennium) my dorm had a great kitchen, with some memorable dishes (and a few I’d rather forget). One of the most popular was peppermint ice-cream pie. It rarely appeared on the cafeteria menu, and the following day people would line up well before the kitchen opened for lunch, hoping there were a few leftover pieces.

My daughter is here visiting for Christmas, and together we watched a cooking show I’d never heard of, much less watched (we think it was the Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship). In one segment each contestant made multiple pies, and for one of the pies, one cook used a chocolate pie crust.

I’d never seen one or even heard of one, but it was lovely to look at, dark and shiny. While the college pie used a chocolate crumb crust, I thought this traditional pie crust looked much more elegant. Why not try it?

Peppermint Pie

Ingredients:

Crust

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tblsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tblsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 Tblsp vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
1 large egg yolk
2-3 Tblsp ice water

Instructions:

In a food processor, combine the flour, cocoa, sugar and salt and blend. Add the butter and shortening and pulse until the mixture looks like large crumbs (a few seconds).

Add the egg yolk and ice water and pulse until the dough forms a ball.

Press the dough into a ball and flatten into a round disk about 1/4 inch thick. Roll it out on a lightly floured board (working out from the center of the disk).

Lightly oil your pie pan (I used my mother’s vintage Pyrex pan). Press the dough into it, then trim the edges and make a decorative edge.

Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork. Bake in a 425-degree preheated oven until the crust is lightly browned (if you can tell, with a chocolate-colored dough!), about 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool, because . . . You’re going to fill it with ice cream!

Filling:

You’d be surprised how many different recipes there are available for this pie filling. Some involve gelatin and/or heavy cream, or white chocolate, or crushed peppermint candies.

I took the easy way out: I bought peppermint ice cream. Many of the recipes using ice cream seem to end up with a pink variety, but I found one that’s white with red and green minty bits—a perfect idea for the holiday season.

So, let your ice cream sit out until it’s soft enough to spread in the crust (don’t let it melt!). Spoon it into your now-cool pie crust and smooth out the top. Then put in the freezer to let it harden again (for several hours, or even overnight).

When it’s closer to time to serve, retrieve the pie and decorate it with piped whipped cream (you can add a dash of peppermint extract to the cream if you want) and add some peppermint candies or candy canes. Then it goes back into the freezer until it’s time for dessert. 

And now I’m dreaming up other combinations to try out with that lovely chocolate crust. Marzipan, maybe? A white chocolate filling? Endless possibilities!

MAY 2019 BRING YOU WONDERFUL THINGS!

www.sheilaconnolly.com

Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes #Recipe and #Book giveaway from @DarylWoodGerber

Welcome to Mystery Lovers Kitchen's Christmas Week...a week filled with recipes for the holidays and good cheer!


I love this week. We all come up with some of the most fun meal and dessert items. I've made many of the recipes shared by my blogmates.

By the way, do you know there will be at least 7 books out by all of us between December and March? Actually, it might be 8…or 9...hmmm.

Krista, Cleo, and Victoria (MaryJane) all just had a release in December. Krista hit the New York Times paperback with her Murder, She Barked. Congrats, Krista!!!

Sheila, Lucy, Peg/Meg, Avery/Daryl will have books out in February and March. We're hoping we can have some of that magic rub off on us.

No matter what, we all need our sugar and/or chocolate to keep us going!

By the way, I'm having a giveaway today, so remember to read to the end. :)

When it comes to Christmas, I like getting the kids involved. How else can you build memories? 

It's important to me that kids like to cook. It helps them with chemistry (measuring); math (learning those fractions); and art (they have to make masterpieces with the sprinkles). They learn what flavors they like. They learn how lo-o-o-ong it takes to cook something and, thus, appreciate you more when you do slave over a hot stove. 

Sometimes we put on Christmas music and sing. Most importantly, we laugh. 

CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT-FILLLED CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix (regular or gluten-free)

1 pkg. chocolate instant pudding

4 eggs

¾ cup safflower oil

¾ cup milk

1 teaspoon peppermint oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Dump all the ingredients into a bowl. Mix. How easy is that?!! 

Pour into cupcake holders, about 2/3 full. Do not overfill or the batter will rise out the top. Cook  12-15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. The top should spring back if pressed lightly with your finger.

Cool 10 minutes.

To fill with icing:

Cut out the center top of a cupcake. Fill a pastry tube (or you can make your own by using a large baggie and cutting a small tip at the end) with the icing. Squeeze about a tablespoon of icing into the hole. Put the top of the cupcake back on.

Frost as you normally would. Sprinkle with peppermint or colored sugar.

Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.

Peppermint icing

Ingredients:

(Frosts 2 dozen cupcakes)

1/2 cup butter (8 tablespoons)

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon peppermint oil

Directions: Mix all the ingredients until creamy using a mixer, whipping on high. I made mini-cupcakes, as well, but I didn't put frosting in the middle. Perfect size for little mouths! I'm sure you could. To print this recipe, you can get them from my website (click the pictures): Giveaway: What's your favorite holiday food?? For one commenter today, I'm giving away a stocking stuffer book!  Your choice of one of the first four Cheese Shop Mysteries or the first in a Cookbook Nook Mystery.  For one other commenter, I have a special sneak preview Advanced Reader Copy of Inherit the Word, the second in the Cookbook Nook mystery series. REMEMBER TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL IN YOUR POST SO I CAN CONTACT YOU!! Merry, Merry!

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TWO NEW BOOKS COMING IN EARLY 2014!!

Days of Wine and Roquefort Feb 2014, preorder here

Inherit the Word March 2014, preorder here

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