Category: Recipes

Recipes

Gluten Free Chocolate Babka

Indulge in our irresistible gluten-free chocolate babka recipe! Learn how to make this luscious treat and satisfy your cravings today. Try it now!Yeast of Eden mostly sells traditional long-rise bread, but every once in a while, Olaya makes something sweet. In The Walking Bread, the 3rd Bread Shop Mystery, she makes Babka. Because we eat gluten-free in our household, I included the gluten-free version, which is so good!Excerpt:One by

July 18, 2023 No Comments

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Blueberry Cornmeal Cake

One of the things I love about writing my Bread Shop Mystery series is that I get to read cookbooks, which is a favorite pastime.I also then get to adapt recipes and bake. And one of the things I love about living in North Carolina is the blueberries. We have two blueberry farms nearby. I go to pick them several times during the short summer window when they are ripe. Sometimes

November 28, 2022 No Comments

Recipes

The BEST Blueberry Strata Recipe

Pippin Lane Hawthorne serves up this delectable Blueberry Strata at Sea Captain's Inn on the Outer Banks island of Devil's Cove. Making it with fresh blueberries, especially if they're freshly picked during blueberry season, takes the whole thing up a notch. It's wonderful for brekkie, dessert, or, honestly, whenever! This recipe is featured in Murder Through an Open Door, book 3 in the Pippin Lane Hawthorne Book Magic series. Enjoy!

February 1, 2022 No Comments

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My Grandmother’s Cornbread Stuffing

This recipe isn’t from one of my books (although it may end up in one someday). This is a MUST HAVE in my house for Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d share it. I didn’t realize how much of a MUST HAVE it was until, early on in my marriage to my husband, Carlos, we spent Thanksgiving at his parents’ house. His mom made a white bread stuffing with green chilis.

November 24, 2021 No Comments

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The Best Ginger Molasses Cookies from Devil’s Brew Cafe

Ginger cookies are my absolute favorite! This recipe is my grandmother’s. We make them every fall (many times) and enjoy every last crumb.

October 6, 2021 No Comments

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The Most Delicious Blueberry Scones (Regular or Gluten Free)

Devil's Brew is the café on the island of Devil's Cove in the Book Magic series. Ruby Monroe is the owner and baker of all the delectable sweet treats, including this yummy blueberry scone recipe. I make them gluten free with a one-to-one flour blend…or make them using regular old wheat flour. Either way they are delicious!

October 6, 2021 No Comments

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How to Make a Grazing Table/Charcuterie Board

My daughter is especially gifted at putting together beautiful boards (she’s on the right in the photo with one of her besties).Charcuterie is traditionally preparing and assembling cured meats. It has evolved to include meats, cheeses, breads, olives, nuts, and fruit. It’s all artfully arranged on a board. The artful part takes practice, I’ve discovered!In my Book Magic Mysteries, Devil’s Cove has a cheese shop called Charcuterie. In Murder at

July 9, 2021 No Comments

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Fresh Strawberry Cake

This strawberry cake is a spring favorite of mine–and is often my choice of birthday cake. It’s a ‘cheat’ version because you start with a box cake mix. I use a gluten-free yellow cake mix, preferably King Arthur’s, but I think any regular yellow cake mix would also work! Start by prepping your pans(s). I’ve done this cake as a flat sheet cake, a layer cake, cupcakes, and a bundt.

June 1, 2021 No Comments

An orange soup bowl with potato cheese soup

Recipes

Healthy Delicious Potato Cheese Soup

Who doesn't love a healthy potato cheese soup recipe? I certainly do, and this one fits the bill. I love potatoes. I'm with Dolly Parton when she said, "I never met a spud I didn't like." Yup, that is absolutely true for me, too.Whether a spud comes in the form of Chick-fil-A fries, a baked potato with all the fixins, or mashed and served with gravy, they are a-okay👌🏼

March 22, 2021 No Comments

Recipes

Sausage Bread

Sausage bread is something my family started making when I was a kid. It’s become a family favorite. I make it all through fall and winter to accompany soup, most often potato cheese soup.If I start my (gluten-free) bread dough around 3:30, or even 4:00 PM. I use this Gluten Free on a Shoestring French Bread recipe. When I have time and plan ahead, I use this Let Them Eat Gluten-Free recipe.You can

March 22, 2021 No Comments

Recipes

Rye Pumpernickel Rolls

Olaya Solis is a master bread baker. In Death Gone a-Rye, she makes Rye Pumpernickel Rolls. A basket of them end up at Owen Culpepper’s house. Everybody loves Olaya’s bread.

March 22, 2021 No Comments

Recipes

Miguel’s Savory Sausage, Kale, and Potato Soup

Miguel makes this hearty soup in A Murder Yule Regret. Ivy makes a sourdough loaf to complete the meal. Nothing is better on a cold winter day.

March 22, 2021 No Comments

Recipes

Christmas Punch

Ivy helps at a catered party in A Murder Yule Regret, the 6th Bread Shop Mystery. She makes this delicious punch. It is so beautiful and so festive!

March 22, 2021 No Comments

Recipes

Yule Log (BÛCHE DE NOËL)

Lindsay Conchar, founder of Life, Love & Sugar, graciously shared this Yule Log cake recipe with me. It’s so good! Eliza Fox, one of the characters in A Murder Yule Regret, the 6th Bread Shop mystery, attempts this showpiece cake. In the olden days in France, the spirit of love drew families together on Christmas Eve. Family members surrounded the blazing “yule log” to warm themselves before walking to Midnight

March 22, 2021 No Comments

Recipes

Van Dough Focaccia

Special Videos! Watch my interview with Teri Culetto, the Vineyard Baker Watch Mystery Writer Diane Kelly and me make our own Van Dough Focaccia! I made my version (see the video above) gluten free using Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread book. Check out the book here. Van Dough Focaccia Bread Art is bread art for the eyes and for the stomach. I first came across this beautiful bread

March 8, 2020 No Comments

Recipes

Tortas

Miguel makes tortas for he and Ivy at Baptista’s Cantina and Grill in Crust No One, the second Bread Shop Mystery.

March 8, 2020 No Comments

Recipes

Chocolate Babka

Yeast of Eden mostly sells traditional long-rise bread, but every once in a while, Olaya makes something sweet. In The Walking Bread, the 3rd Bread Shop Mystery, she makes Babka. Because we eat gluten-free in our household, I included the gluten-free version, which is so good!Excerpt:One by one I pulled the loaf pans filled with Babka dough from the walk-in refrigerator. We’d spent the entire day before making the

March 8, 2020 No Comments

Recipes

Conchas

Choosing recipes to include in each book is one of my favorite parts of writing the Bread Shop Mysteries. In Kneaded to Death, I knew I wanted to include a traditional Mexican treat in honor of Olaya Solis and her bread-making heritage. These conchas fit the bill.Excerpt:We spent the next hour measuring and mixing the ingredients for conchas. “Mexican sweet bread is an easy way to start the bread-making

March 8, 2020 No Comments

Recipes

Gruyère and Black Pepper Popovers

Popovers are one of my favorite baked treats. They’re so light and airy, and this recipe with gruyere and black pepper is decadent! This recipe is shared in the very first Bread Shop Mystery, Kneaded to Death.Excerpt:The chalkboard had today’s baking plan: Gruyere and black pepper popovers. I’d never actually had a popover, but if the illustration, with its muffin-shaped base and the billowy, full top looked anything like it

March 8, 2020 No Comments

Recipes

Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

I’ve been crazy about Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes ever since I went on a cruise and pretty much OD’d on them. I’ll fit them into a book somehow, sometime. In the meantime, try them. They’re so easy to make, and so decadent.

November 28, 2009 No Comments