Pumpkin Muffins @MaddieDayAuthor #Halloween #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here with a yummy pre-trick-or-treating snack. When my sons were much younger, I always tried to get some kind of healthy, non-sweet early supper into them before they ventured out to collect massive amounts of candy. 

These muffins aren't too sweet, are fast to throw together, and can be eaten on the run. Plus, pumpkins are the essence of Halloween, aren't they?

Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

The alert reader will notice I forgot to include rolled oats in the photo, but they are in the muffins!

Ingredients

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour

⅓ cup old-fashioned oats

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup oil

½ cup maple syrup or honey

1 cup pumpkin purée

¼ cup milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a standard muffin tin.

Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Break eggs into the dry mix and stir with a fork.

Add other wet ingredients and stir in with a fork until just mixed.

Spoon into the prepared muffin tin. Bake about 20 minutes until tops are golden brown. Cool on a wire rack, then remove from pan. 

Enjoy with your breakfast or as an afternoon snack! 

Readers: What's your favorite kind of muffin? Look, I found one more ARC of Deadly Crush to give away, and it even has an orange cover!

🍁🍂🍁

Murder at the Rusty Anchor is out and available wherever books are sold!

My other recent releases are A Case for the Ladies.

And Deep Fried Death, #12 in the Country Store Mysteries.

Murder Uncorked, Cece Barton Mystery #1, which released in late October in hardcover and is now in mass market paperback.

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.

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins #Recipe Peg Cochran/Margaret Loudon #Thanksgiving

 

 

This is an especially thankful Thanksgiving--we are grateful for our first grandson due to arrive at the beginning of February!  We are heading to the Chicago area for our daughter's baby shower this weekend so I made a batch of pumpkin streusel muffins she can stash in the freezer and grab for a quick pick-me-up after the baby is born.

I must have filled my muffin tins fuller than the recipe called for because the muffins took longer than 17 minutes to bake.  Be sure to check before you remove them from the oven.  I also used walnuts instead of pecans because my husband bought an industrial-sized bag at Sam's Club and I wanted to put a dent in it!  Feel free to omit the nuts if you or yours has a nut allergy.

According to the recipe, this makes 12 muffins but I had enough batter left over to fill a mini loaf pan. Alternatively, you could bake another batch of muffins.

This recipe comes from BromaBakery.com.

For the pumpkin muffins

 

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

For the streusel

 

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

1 teaspoon maple syrup

 

To make the streusel, combine all streusel ingredients in a bowl Stir together until the mixture resembles wet sand

 

 

 

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Line muffin tin with muffin liners and spray with non-stick spray.

 

Combine sugars, pumpkin, eggs, vanilla extract, vegetable oil and milk in a bowl and mix well.

 

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt.  Stir to combine.

 

Add flour mixture to wet mixture and mix well.

 

 

Fill muffin cups ¾ full.  Top with streusel.  Bake 15 to 17 minutes until the tip of a knife inserted in the side comes out clean.  Let cool.  

 

 

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOURS 

AND MAY YOU HAVE MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR! 

 

 

OUT NOW!

When murder taints writer-in-residence Penelope Parish’s charming British bookshop, she must follow the clues to catch a killer before tempers boil over.

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

Penelope Parish thought she’d turned the page on her amateur sleuthing days but when the owner of Upper Chumley-on-Stokes’ proposed first high-end gourmet shop is poisoned, the American novelist starts to wonder if she and her quaint British town are in for another rewrite. It turns out that not everyone was a fan of Simeon Foster’s farm-sourced charcuterie and imported pastries—many of the locals were outraged by the potential new competition.
 
With a full menu of suspects on her hands, this just might be Penelope’s toughest case yet. Luckily, her friends at the Open Book are there to help with every twist of the poisoned pen.

AND...

 Family fireworks lead to murder in the new Cranberry Cove Mystery from USA Today bestselling author Peg Cochran!

The Fourth of July always means endless celebrations in Cranberry Cove, and this year Monica and Greg have the added pleasure of spending it with Monica’s college roommate, Kelly Cargill. When they join Kelly and her family to watch the fireworks, it’s all very exciting—until the elderly matriarch of the family dies on the spot. Then evidence comes to light that she was poisoned, and Monica promises to do what she can to catch the culprit.

Just about everyone in Kelly’s family wanted to get their hands on what was sure to be a sizable inheritance. But Monica also discovers that one of them was trying to hide a messy love affair the older woman had discovered, and that the victim’s caretaker may have wanted revenge for enduring years of mistreatment. And just as more secrets surface and the clues begin to fall into place, Monica realizes that as she’s closing in on the killer, the killer is closing in on her . . .

Includes a mouthwatering cookie recipe!

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

 

My article on the Enduring Appeal of Cozy Mysteries  

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Guest Darci Hannah Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins #Recipe #Halloween #Giveaway

Libby Klein: Please join me in giving a warm kitchen welcome to our guest chef and my delightful friend - Darci Hannah.

Darci Hannah: Hi Libby, thanks for inviting me to be a guest on Mystery Lovers Kitchen today! Being a food lover, I’m so excited to be here to share a recipe. I think it’s pretty awesome that we both have Halloween cozy mysteries out now, and both of our books contain delicious recipes. I don’t know about you, but I always have a lot of fun testing out recipes for my novels. Since my main character, Lindsey Bakewell, is a baker and owns a bakery in a lighthouse, I feel some pressure to include truly delicious recipes for baked goods that can hopefully be replicated and enjoyed at home. Sometimes the recipes I try flop or seem too difficult to bother making at home. Those get booted out early in the process. Then there are those recipes that are not only delicious but easy to throw together. Those are the ones I enjoy the most—a great recipe that doesn’t take all afternoon to make!

Since Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant is a Halloween mystery, I really wanted to include some of my favorite recipes for pumpkin baked goods. The one I’m sharing today is for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and they are one of my favorite go-to fall recipes. This particular recipe came from a little muffin book my mom gave me for a wedding shower gift back in the late 1980s. My mom is a huge cookbook collector and always loves to find interesting or regional recipe books to give as gifts. Lucky me! There were a lot of great muffin recipes in the book for not only sweet muffins but savory ones as well. However, I quickly homed in on the recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and I’m not sorry I did. They’re perfect for breakfast, a late afternoon snack, or even dessert. And they go really well with a mug of hot, rich black coffee. My family loves them, and I hope you do too.

I'm giving away a copy of Murder At The Pumpkin Pageant today! For a chance to win, tell me your favorite Halloween treat in the comments with your email address.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Prep time: 15 minutes. Bake time: 20-25 minutes. Makes 12 regular-size muffins.

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar, and more for sprinkling
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Directions:

Heat oven to 350° F. Grease or line muffin pan. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

 

Whisk all the dry ingredients together.

In a smaller bowl, add pumpkin puree, eggs, pumpkin spice, and melted butter.

   

Whisk until blended.

 

 

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently fold in with a rubber spatula just until all the batter is combined. Do not overmix. Stir in the chocolate chips.

.   

 

Place about ¼ cup of batter in each muffin cup.

 

Sprinkle a little sugar on the top of each one.  Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until done. 

 

 Cool and serve. Enjoy!

It’s Halloween weekend and Beacon Harbor, Michigan, has a packed schedule of events, including the Pumpkin Pageant, featuring humans and their canine counterparts. For treats, there’s plenty of pumpkin goodness from bakery/café owner and local lighthouse resident Lindsey Bakewell. But someone wants to spoil the fun with a deadly trick . . .

Lindsey prefers to keep her bakeshop’s Halloween decor light and autumnal, rather than gruesome and ghoulish. But everyone knows her lighthouse home is haunted. Some intrepid teens have even tried to break in to witness the resident ghost themselves. Dreading Halloween night, Lindsey reluctantly allows her influencer and podcaster best friend, Kennedy, to host a live ghost-hunting investigation in the lighthouse, conducted by a professional team. Protective of her ghost, Lyndsey is understandably nervous about what they might uncover . . .

The segment is uneventful—until things take a terrifying turn. The team freaks out. As Kennedy joins the mad dash outside, she bumps into what looks like the prankster teens’ creepy clown costume hanging from a tree. But when Lindsey’s dog, Wellington, begins to whine, they make a grim discovery: the clown is no dummy. It’s a corpse.

Now Lindsey and company will need to keep their cool if they want a ghost of a chance to solve the murder—and see another Halloween . . .

Darci Hannah is the bestselling author of the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, the Food & Spirits Mystery Series (to be released in 2024), the Very Cherry Mystery Series, and two works of historical fiction, The Exile of Sara Stevenson, and The Angel of Blythe Hall. Darci grew up in the Midwest and currently lives in a small town in Michigan with her husband and two dogs. Darci is a lifelong lover of the Great Lakes, a natural wonder that inspires many of her stories. Passionate about family, dogs, food, baking, history, books, lighthouses, laughter, good conversations, coffee, and the paranormal, Darci feels especially blessed to have found a way to combine her interests in the stories she writes. It brings her great joy to be able to share them with you.

Connect with Darci at www.darcihannah.com. Instagram: @authordarcihannah. Facebook: Author Darci Hannah. Twitter: @darci_hannah. YouTube: @darcihannah878. You can even listen to Darci and her sons on The Motherboy Podcast @ https://rss.com/podcasts/motherboy/

Pecan Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Muffins #Halloween @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm following a new to me chef/cookbook writer whose food really hits my sweet spot. (Do you have one of those--a chef whose dishes all look good to your tastes?) Today's recipe is borrowed from her blog called Once Upon a Chef. I've also ordered her new cookbook and expect to be making a lot of food from that! This recipe has a few steps to get through, but don't be tempted to leave off the pecan streusel. It really makes the recipe.

 You could serve these to your ghouls and goblins for breakfast, but we consider them dessert worthy too. And by the way, I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin this and pumpkin that, but these muffins were delicious. I did cut down on the cloves and added the vanilla, because it didn’t seem right to go without it. The whole thing can be made in your food processor without washing extra dishes, if you start with the streusel. 

Ingredients for the topping

  4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  4 tablespoons brown sugar 

  4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

    3/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients for the muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 (15-ounce) can 100% pure pumpkin 

Chop the pecans in the food processor, while you melt the half stick of butter. Add the the pecans to the butter along with the sugar, and the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix that together and set it aside.

In one bowl, mix the dry ingredients from flour through nutmeg and set that aside. In the bowl of the food processor (no need to wash out the little bits of pecan,) beat the unsalted butter until soft, then add the sugar and beat that in. Next add the eggs one at a time and beat them into mixture until light and creamy. Add the pumpkin and pulse that in.

Add the dry ingredients and pulse until just mixed.

Divide the pumpkin mixture into 12 muffin papers. Using your fingers, divide the streusel mixture over top of the muffins. 

Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. I took mine out a few minutes before that to be sure they weren't overcooked. Cool a bit and then gobble!

The eleventh Key West food critic mystery, A SCONE OF CONTENTION, is in stores now! Lucy's first thriller, UNSAFE HAVEN, is coming on November 1... You can get a taste of the book by reading the first chapter here.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Muffins

Today's blog was going to be about beets. Yup, a nice healthy salad with oven-roasted beets fresh from the garden. But when I told my mother my idea for the salad, she wrinkled up her nose like a Shar Pei. Nothing like enthusiasm to motivate a person. So, I took the hint, and baked something not quite decadent and very seasonal. These muffins are almost healthy because they contain pumpkin.

I have to admit that I love these muffins. They're so light! And they're just as good warm as they are cold. You can whip them up in minutes for overnight guests or just for fun on a brisk fall morning. The tops crinkle up a little bit because of the cinnamon swirl in them. No matter, that crinkly look is rewarding when you bite into a bit of sweetness.

This recipe was in MURDER, SHE BARKED. My Wagtail books always come out in December, so the season is a little bit off for books set in the fall. 

In the first book, Holly Miller visits the family inn on Wagtail Mountain where an employee has been murdered. The second book, THE GHOST AND MRS. MEWER, takes place a mere month later when Holly returns to move into the inn. She hasn't even unpacked her belongings when the Apparition Apprehender ghost hunting team arrives and trouble follows them!

Sweet Dog Barkery Cinnamon-Pumpkin Muffins

Makes 12 muffins.

1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
¼ cup regular sugar
¾ cup canned pumpkin

SWIRL

½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Fill cupcake pan with liners.

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a bowl and stir with a fork to mix. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs, and add the vegetable oil, ½ cup dark brown sugar, the regular sugar, and the pumpkin. Blend well. Dump in the flour mixture and mix with a spoon until just blended. Do not overmix.

In a separate bowl, combine the ½ cup dark brown sugar with the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

Fill the liners almost full. Add 1 teaspoon or so of the cinnamon-sugar swirl mixture to the top of each muffin. Using a cake tester or bamboo skewer, sweep through the muffin to mix the cinnamon into them.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

They look a little goofy but don't worry . . .

. . . because they bake up like this!

A Writer's Breakfast: Pumpkin Muffin Tops from Cleo Coyle

A lighter, healthier alternative to fried doughnuts or syrup-laden pancakes yet just as filling and satisfying with a hot cuppa joe...

Cleo Coyle,
lover of java, pumpkins,
stray cats (with attitude),
and author of the
Coffeehouse Mysteries

I'm a lover of muffin tops--the kind you eat and the other kind, because mangia means love in Italian and love handles make it easier to hold on to the ones you love. :)

Of course, as a writer, I spend most of the day sitting on my assets. So, while I love indulging for the holidays (butter and I have a longstanding relationship), when it comes to daily eating, I'm always looking for recipes that taste good but aren't crazy-high in calories. This recipe does that for me. I posted a version of it last November, but with so many new followers on our blog this year, I thought it might be nice to share it once more...

Now that Holiday Grind is released to bookstores, my editor is waiting for me to deliver my next Coffeehouse Mystery, which means Clare Cosi and Company are in the thick of it again. So the quicker my laptop gets fired up every morning, the better.

At the start of the week, I'll make a double batch of these babies and store them in the fridge. Each day I'll pop two in the microwave, spread a little butter on top, pour a fresh cup of coffee (of course!), and I'm good to start writing.

Nemo and the pumpkin!

To find out the title of my next book in the series and see an early draft of the cover, click here, jump over to my web site's message board and scroll down.

CLEO COYLE'S
PUMPKIN
MUFFIN TOPS

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


Servings: about 12 muffin tops


Ingredients:

2 large eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
1 cup whole milk
½ cup canned pumpkin
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1-½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (*see end note on making your own)
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour (NOTE: for higher, prettier muffin tops, you can increase the flour by 1/4 cup, but in my opinion they don't taste as good)


Method:

(1) One bowl mixing method: Preheat oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Place eggs in bowl and whisk. Add oil, milk, canned pumpkin, sugar, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, salt. Whisk until blended. Finally, sift in baking powder and flour. NOTE: Sifting the flour lightens it for better rising and texture. Sift after measuring for correct amount. Stir well to blend in the flour. Batter should be smooth but don't over mix. Now chill that batter for 15 to 30 minutes in the refrigerator. This batter really needs to rest and hydrate for best results.

(2) Prep pan and drop: For best results, line baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop batter onto baking sheet, about 2 tablespoons per muffin top (simply drop one tablespoon of batter right on top of the other). These will double in size so leave room between. On the 2nd batch, allow pan to cool before dropping batter or
tops will spread too flat.

(3) Bake: Oven should be well pre-heated to 425° F. Bake muffin tops about 10 – 12 minutes (depending on oven). Rounds will rise slightly in center, resembling muffin tops. Serve warm with butter or dust with powdered sugar. Do not allow muffin tops to cool on hot pan. Bottoms may steam and become tough. Be sure to store in refrigerator (either wrapped in plastic or placed in an airtight container).

*HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN
PUMPKIN PIE SPICE

Pumpkin pie spice can be found wherever other spices are sold. Spice mixes like this (and apple pie spice) are good to keep in mind when looking for economical shortcuts to your holiday baking. If you would rather not use pumpkin pie spice (or run out of it on occasion, like I do!) here is how you can make your own (this information is also included in the PDF of this entire recipe, just click here to get it for printing, saving, or sharing)...

1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice =

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon allspice or cloves

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

----------------------------------------

Eat with joy!

~ Cleo Coyle, author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries



HOLIDAY GRIND:
A Coffeehouse Mystery
The national
bestseller in hardcover
is now a bestseller
in paperback!

To get more of my recipes,
win free coffee, or learn
about me and my Coffeehouse Mysteries, visit my *virtual* coffeehouse at: CoffeehouseMystery.com

HOLIDAY GRIND

“Fun and gripping…” —The Huffington Post

“Some of the most vibrant characters I've ever read. Coyle also is a master of misdirection and red herrings. I challenge any reader to figure out whodunit before Coyle reveals all.”
—Mystery Scene