#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR EDITH MAXWELL/MADDIE DAY

Agatha-nominated and Amazon bestselling author Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and as Maddie Day, the Country Store Mysteries. A former farmer and doula, she also writes award-winning short crime fiction. Learn more about Edith and her books at her website. 

Edith/Maddie will be giving away an advanced reading copy of Grilled for Murder. If you'd like a chance to win, post a comment, but be sure to leave your email address so she has a way to contact you.

I’m delighted to be back on the blog. One of my favorite things to cook is muffins. You really can’t go wrong with them. They are quick, easy, and tasty. I always use whole wheat flour and keep the sugar to a minimum, which keeps the recipe fairly healthy. Pretty much any quick bread recipe can double as a muffin recipe, like banana-bread muffins. The ones I make most often, though, are blueberry, throwing in a cup of the blueberries I picked and froze last summer.

But it used to be frustrating scrubbing out the muffin tins. No matter how much I greased them, stuff stuck. And it’s a pain scouring out each cup in the pan. Then I discovered USA Pan bakeware. (No, I don’t work for them, really.) Nothing sticks! Baked-on bits of batter just slide right off. They are of a heavy metal, so the muffins bake evenly. I have cookie sheets and bread pans of the same make, too.

In Grilled for Murder, the second Country Store Mystery, chef-carpenter Robbie Jordan serves up apple-spice muffins to breakfast customers in her country store restaurant, Pans ‘N Pancakes. They’re easy and tasty – and nobody dies from eating them!

Apple Spice Muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 cups chopped apples (about three small)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 T baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a muffin pan.

Combine eggs, sugar, milk, apples, and vanilla and mix well.

Separately combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, and walnuts.

Stir dry ingredients into wet with a fork until just mixed. Spoon into a greased muffin tin.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until brown on top. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

Serve warm with butter, peanut butter, or cream cheese.

Grilled for Murder

In the charming small town of South Lick, Indiana, transplanted Californian Robbie Jordan has transformed a rundown country store into the popular restaurant Pans 'N Pancakes. When the star of a homecoming party turns up dead in Robbie’s store the next morning, apparently clobbered with cookware, the police suspect Robbie's friend Phil, who closed up after the party. To clear Phil and calm her customers, Robbie needs to step out from behind the counter and find the real killer in short order…

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