#COOKING WITH CLORIS--APRICOT PISTACHIO MUFFINS

In the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, Anastasia rarely has time for breakfast before she leaves the house for work each morning. Luckily, her BFF, food editor Cloris McWerther, has her back, providing sugar and carb-laden confections on a regular basis.

In Scrapbook of Murder, the latest book in the series, Cloris and her husband are confronted with a mystery that could result in their financial ruin. We all deal with stress in different ways. Anastasia has been known to roll up the windows in her car and scream. Cloris resorts to marathon all-night stress baking. Here’s one of her confections.

Apricot Pistachio Muffins

Yield: 1 dozen muffins

Ingredients:

1 egg

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons melted butter, cooled

1 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup pistachio pieces (unsalted)

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Dice apricots and place in warm water to rehydrate for half an hour.

Grease muffin tins or use cupcake papers.

Place liquid ingredients and egg in blender and mix together at low speed. Fold in apricots and pistachios. 

In a separate bowl sift together dry ingredients. 

Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until evenly blended. 

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full.

Bake approximately 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5-10 minutes before removing muffins from pan.

Scrapbook of Murder

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 6

Crafts and murder don’t normally go hand-in-hand, but normal deserted craft editor Anastasia Pollack’s world nearly a year ago. Now, tripping over dead bodies seems to be the “new normal” for this reluctant amateur sleuth.

When the daughter of a murdered neighbor asks Anastasia to create a family scrapbook from old photographs and memorabilia discovered in a battered suitcase, she agrees—not only out of friendship but also from a sense of guilt over the older woman’s death. However, as Anastasia begins sorting through the contents of the suitcase, she discovers a letter revealing a fifty-year-old secret, one that unearths a long-buried scandal and unleashes a killer. Suddenly Anastasia is back in sleuthing mode as she races to prevent a suitcase full of trouble from leading to more deaths.

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