I took this photo when I was making sprinkles — right when I added the food coloring to the base sugar mixture!
Cooking With Christie: Outtake
Cooking With Christie
Cooking With Christie: Another Use For Malt Vinegar…
Inspiration: Staring in my fridge one afternoon, I spotted the bottle of malt vinegar sitting on a shelf, behind the pickles and lingonberry jam — and wondered if there was another use for it besides sprinkling it over my fish and chips. Unwilling to let my curiosity fizzle out under the weight of laundry, dishes, and weeding, I used the computer in my pocket (i.e., my phone) to see what recipes I could find that featured malt vinegar…and found one for Malt Vinegar Rye Bread.
Warming up my mixer, I set to work.
Turns out this is a pretty easy loaf to make. Even better? It’s pretty tasty as well. Pairing well with turkey, Havarti, and my homemade mustard. However, what I’m more interested in is how well this tangy rye bread pairs with Welsh rarebit, Danish open-faced sandwiches, and a fancied-up version of beans on toast. All dishes, for some reason, I hadn’t thought of making before now…I think I might be writing hungry. Because all I want to do is sprint into my kitchen and whip up another loaf and try out these other recipes.
And who am I to deny inspiration and curiosity’s influence?
See ya later!
Christie’s Canon of Characters: Depending on their preferences, I can see any of Christie’s detectives enjoying this loaf of bread — if it goes well with any of the aforementioned untested pairings. Speaking of which, I wonder if they’d enjoy a patty melt, because I just bet this bread would add an extra layer of flavor…
Seriously, I’ll see you later, I need to see what’s in my fridge!
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Outtake & A Giant Oops!
Okay, so last Thursday I wrote about making a St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake. I, in fact, made two, and both cakes turned out great…However, the process of making them did not go flawlessly. For reasons I can only guess at, because I’ve no clue what my brain was doing, whilst mixing the base bready layer — I added one cup of milk.
I was only supposed to use 5 tablespoons (a quarter cup plus 1 Tbsp).
This significant increase in liquid became readily apparent when I started mixing in the flour. Instead of forming the expected dough, all I had was a loose batter. Knowing that humidity can affect how much flour bread needs, I added a handful of flour. And another. And another.
Then the handfuls got bigger.
By this point, I must have added about two or three extra cups. I wasn’t measuring, so I’m not sure. However, the dough was sort of starting to do what it was supposed to, but it still wasn’t right. And I was trepidatious about adding much more, lest the final product turn crumbly or worse, not rise at all. Finally, after a solid ten minutes of mixing, I looked at the recipe and immediately realized my error. Scraping my mistake out of the mixing bowl into another, I set it aside and started again.
By the time I looked up from all the measuring, mixing, and side chores a couple of hours later, I discovered my mistake had risen.
Even more surprising? It looked like regular bread dough.
Deciding — nothing ventured, nothing gained — I shaped my mistake into a round loaf and stuck it in the oven. Using the cake’s baking temp of 350 degrees, I baked it until the top turned golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
And much to my astonishment, my mistake turned out great! A slightly sweet bread that paired really well with butter and/or lingonberry jam. Admittedly, it was a tad crumbly, just as I feared, but for a bake I’d completely messed up and written off — it was amazing!
My 52 weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake
Inspiration: Did you learn this riddle as a kid — How do you eat a bear? One bite at a time. It’s intended to illustrate how to overcome an overwhelming task. It’s also how my mother-in-law ate an entire gooey butter cake in one sitting whilst gabbing away with her fellow family members one evening. What’s even funnier? No one, including her, noticed the cake slowly shrinking until after she demolished the entire sucker. After listening to this story get retold for years at every holiday gathering, I decided to make her one as both a joke and in her honor.
Unfortunately, I fell at the first hurdle.
In a fit of spring cleaning, my mother-in-law threw out all her handwritten family recipe books and cards, believing they all could be found online. (I nearly cried when she told me this. All that knowledge lost!) Meaning she no longer had a copy of her mother’s original recipe.
And this was about eight(ish) years back — before yeasted cakes became all the rage. Making it challenging to find a recipe that didn’t start from a boxed cake mix (which I can’t eat due to allergies), and even those shortcut ones were few and far between.
So I made her lemon bars instead.
Then, about a year later, Bake From Scratch magazine printed a scratch-made recipe for St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake! To say I was over the moon is an understatement, and so was she when I presented her with it.
Even better? The whole family finally got to taste this legendary/infamous cake and fall in love with it.
Helpful Hints From Me To You: This cake can take upwards of 6-7 hours to make. However, you can shave this down to 3(ish) with a little bit of easy prep.
- Brown the butter the night before, then set it in the fridge to cool overnight. Then remember to pull it out when you start making the base so it warms to room temperature when you’re finally ready to use it.
- Pull the butter and eggs you’ll need for the recipe from the fridge and leave them on the kitchen counter overnight. It’s really important for this recipe that these ingredients are at room temperature when you use them. Otherwise, the base layer won’t rise as high when baked.
- Make sure to use a 13×9” pan with tall sides. This cake rises and falls a lot in the oven, and if you’re not careful, you could end up with cake all over the bottom of your oven. I use disposable aluminum pans, the one between the short-sided cake pan and the steep-sided turkey roaster.
- Make sure to preheat your oven about 45 minutes before the rise time is complete. (That way your oven’s temp is stable when you put the cake in to bake.)
- In the last twenty minutes of the rise time, make the batter for the second layer.
Although the time sink is considerable for this cake — 2 hours of it is simply letting the first layer rise, and 30 minutes of baking. So this cake isn’t quite as daunting as it sounds. Moreover, you don’t frost it — you simply sprinkle it with powdered sugar, and maybe some edible glitter, then you’re done.
The gentle unevenness of the gooey butter cake’s top is its hallmark, i.e, something to be highlighted, not covered up.
Christie’s Canon of Characters: I can totally envision Tuppence making this cake, should it have migrated from around the St. Louis area to England between 1922 and 1973.
Because you can get so many other things accomplished whilst making this dessert: a couple of loads of laundry washed, dried, and folded; dishes washed and counters cleaned; beds made; pick up the house; even a bit of vacuuming. All things that need doing, but can be challenging to accomplish when baking sweets. All you need to do is keep an eye on the clock and timers wound!
It’s a fantastic multitasker cake.
Especially when you need to bake something for a fete or bake sale, but your three kids need clean britches!
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Outtake!
This is the baked off loaf of bread in which I used the harvest grain medley from King Arthur Baking Company.
And it turned out pretty well! Especially for a first attempt!
Cooking With Christie: Boredom
Inspiration: Every now and then, for reasons I don’t fully understand, I get bored. And the only real cure, for me at least, is to try something new. A fix that is a tad difficult to achieve when you’re stuck at home — but not impossible.
Fortunately, I’d finally figured out a method (that works for me) for making sourdough starter. Hopping onto one of my favorite baking websites, I found a completely unfamiliar recipe for Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Bread. Always wishing for Autumn in the middle of summer and excited to bake something new, I got to work…And quickly discovered I didn’t have all the ingredients.
Happily, it was only the raisins and walnuts.
Substituting raw pumpkin seeds and chopped crystallized ginger, I followed the rest of the recipe to the letter. And it turned out great!
Once you get everything measured the batter comes together very quickly.
Admittedly, the ginger didn’t add the same texture as the raisins would, but the burst of concentrated spice flavor more than made up for it, whilst the pumpkin seeds, which are naturally a tad bitter, helped keep the loaf from being overly sweet. Whilst the sourdough starter added a subtle, twangy note to the whole affair.
Christie’s Canon of Characters: Remember when, in Hallowe’en Party, Ariadne Oliver goes off apples for just a bit? I wonder, being as it was spooky season, if she switched to pumpkin flavor to fill that apple-shaped void in her life?
Admittedly, Christie set Hallowe’en Party well before pumpkin spice was a thing that infiltrates our lives from mid-September to the end of November. However, both fruits pair well with allspice, butter, cinnamon, cloves, honey, ginger, nutmeg, thyme, and vanilla. Although pumpkin isn’t generally eaten raw, the similar spice palate could have helped Ariadne satiate her apple craving. Especially if she consumed something akin to the aforementioned bread recipe with some apple brandy.
Or maybe she switched to pears until Poirot solved the case.
Which, honestly, sounds more likely.
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Cake!
Inspiration: Edging ever closer to summer and all the abominable heat the season entails, I decided to look towards my favorite time of year — Autumn. Thumbing through my library of cookbooks, I stumbled upon this gem from the publishers of the Bake From Scratch magazine: Mexican Hot Chocolate Bundt Cake. But rather than using a standard bundt pan, which can be a pain to slice up & distribute in an office setting and where I planned on sending it, I made small two-bite cakes instead.
With dark and milk chocolate swirled together, a rich chocolate glaze, plus a healthy dash of ancho chili powder (which I doubled), they turned out a treat!
Leaning into my fall theme, I used a pan with deciduous leaves, pinecones, and acorns! Being larger than a tea cake but smaller than a cupcake, they worked out well!
Helpful Hint from Me to You: I don’t know it it was because I used a different style of pan than the recipe called for or general human error on my part — but these cakes need the glaze. Otherwise they ate just a tad dry.
Christie’s Canon of Characters: Whilst Poirot would undoubtedly enjoy the decadence of the chocolates, I’m not sure he’d enjoy my purposeful heavy hand with the spice. Colonel Race, on the other hand, I think would enjoy these treats due to their spiciness!
My 52 Weeks with Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Outtake!
Here’s the final product of my first foray into making whole grain mustard!
I actually used 2/3 brown mustard seed and 1/3 yellow — as it turns out I didn’t buy quite enough of the brown and I really wanted to make it! Still turned out great.
Cocktails with Christie: Inspiration & Blackberries
Inspiration: Recently(ish), I travelled to Golden, Colorado — the home of Coors Beer. Though I’m not the biggest ale aficionado, I did see the potential fun in touring this giant brewery and sipping the (undoubtedly) freshest batch of beer brewed by them I’d ever encountered.
Then my body met the mile-high altitude of Golden.
Anyone who watches sports like soccer, American football, cycling, baseball, and many others often listens to commentators expound upon how the thinner air affects the distance a ball travels, an athlete’s endurance, and the risk of altitude sickness. So it came as no surprise when I started huffing and puffing whilst walking around town wearing fifteen pounds of camera gear on my back for the first day or two.
What I was unprepared for was how the thinner atmosphere affected my ability to eat and drink.
If the meal was much larger than a sandwich, my tummy had a hard time and alcohol was utterly off the table. Happily, according to a server I spoke to about this odd phenomenon, I wasn’t the lone ranger in this digestive experience. Thus, explaining why nearly every menu I read offered a pretty good selection of mocktails to sample.
Inspired by these tasty drinks, I started experimenting with flavors in hopes of creating my own mocktail! (Once I made it back home, of course.)
My Recipe: Blackberry Simple Syrup
- 4 heaping cups of black berries (fresh or frozen, doesn’t matter)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 limes zested & juiced
- 2-3 one inch knuckles of fresh ginger (peeled)
- 1 cup unsweetened blueberry juice
- 1/2 cup water
- Equipment: Saucepan, potato masher, trivet, wire fine mesh strainer, ladle, canning funnel, and large mason jar*
1. Chuck everything into a pot & stir until the sugar is dissolved. If using frozen berries: place on low heat until they thaw out and soft.
2. Using a potato masher, mash the berries until they are all broken apart
3. Bring everything to a boil, whilst stirring frequently (it can boil over at this point and make a mess, so keep an eye on it)
4. Let it boil for a minute or two, then reduce heat until it’s barely simmering
5. Continue to simmer until it reaches the desired thickness. I usually let it go for about 20, maybe 30, minutes
6. Whilst simmering, grab your ladle, strainer, canning funnel, and mason jar*, stacking the last three items together in that order
7. Pulling the pot off the stove and making sure it sits on a trivet, taking care because the stuff is hot, start ladling the syrup through the strainer. Whilst carefully and gently swirling/pressing the mixture through the sieve until only the solids remain, then discard. (Picking out the ginger and cinnamon right away & discarding.)
8. Repeat this last step until you’ve emptied the pot. However, when you finish, do not scrape the bottom of the sieve into the syrup. All those little bits will make the final product less than smooth.
What the pot looks like at step one.
Add a couple of tablespoons of the chilled syrup (depending on your preference) to sparkling water & maybe some ice, and voila, a mocktail is born. (Or add a couple of tablespoons to a tart lemonade and a shot of peach vodka and you’ve a nice alcoholic drink — when you are back at sea level.) Keep it in the refrigerator and it should last for about two weeks.
*You don’t have to use a ladle, canning funnel, or large mason jar. You could just as easily place the sieve over a bowl and use a measuring cup to strain the bits from the syrup and then pour it into whatever container you’ve on hand.
PPS: Wear an apron and/or avoid wearing white when making the syrup, as it can and will stain if it gets on your clothes. Ask me how I know.
Christie’s Canon of Characters: Honestly, I can easily see Miss Marple making this! The non-alcoholic version for a fete of some sort (as I think it could make an excellent punch, though I’ve not tried turning it into such), or making a glass full at a time on a hot summer’s afternoon! It might even be sophisticated enough for Poirot to try, if elegantly garnished and presented in a posh enough glass. Or, frankly, any of Christie’s detectives I think would order this — if they wanted to look off their game or blend into a party without impairing their deductive skills!
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Variants
Inspiration: Recently, whilst my husband was working from home, I asked what cookie his coworkers were hankering after. Instead, they responded with a list of ingredients: oatmeal, cranberry, white chocolate, and bacon bits. Happily, I managed to make the majority of their vision come true in one cookie!
Except for the bacon bits, I’m still working on a recipe for that singularly unique ingredient.
That being said, I was a tad trepidatious about the bake. Why? Whether I used raisins, currents, cranberries, or lingonberries, whenever I made oatmeal cookies the dried fruit always seemed to catch during baking. As the condensed sugar makes it easier for these nuggets of antioxidants to scorch during the 9 – 11 minutes they reside in a 350 degree oven (as I understand it). Thus adding a bitter and burnt taste (I’m never looking for) to the final cookie.
Unwilling to back down from a challenge and having Betty Crocker’s otherwise tried & true recipe in my hip pocket — I decided to give berries one more chance.
I’m glad I did.
The recipe I traditionally use comes from one of Betty Crocker’s many cookbooks. This recipe here is the one I found online that’s closest to mine.
According to my book, after combining the recipe’s first eleven ingredients in the bowl all at once, the baker is then instructed to mix the oats, flour, and raisins together — in that order.
Unsurprisingly, I’ve strayed from this original order of operations over the years. Mixing the wet ingredients first. (The baker’s sugar and brown sugar are combined with the butter and butter-flavored Crisco, then the eggs are cracked in one at a time, and the vanilla is added last.)
Whilst my mixer is churning and whirring the wet ingredients, I whisk the dry together in a separate bowl. (Flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.) Then, I added the oats, pumpkin seeds, and raisins (when I used them).
Turns out I should’ve altered the order of operations just a little further.
Turns out, when I mixed the fruit in first – and – the oats last, the fruit no longer scorched in the oven! Seems the thorough coating of the base batter the berries receive solved my scorching problem and, happily, didn’t create a new one! I’ve made a half-dozen batches since without issue, and for someone who’s constantly looking for a better breakfasts cookie, I’m over the moon!
I never thought such a simple trick would make such a huge difference. All thanks to my husband’s coworkers laying down a challenge (even if they weren’t aware of it).
Another Helpful Tip from Me to You: I did need to quarter the dried cranberries before mixing them into the batter; otherwise, they probably still would’ve still scorched due to their size. And according to the group of tasters, this flavor combo turned out really well.
Variant: Recently, I’ve substituted dried blueberries for raisins. A swap my tastebuds likes much better! They also stand up well to the increased amount of cinnamon I’ve started incorporating into the cookies. I also discovered powdered vanilla mixes more uniformly (with the dry ingredients) into my batter and is slightly stronger in flavor than its liquid counterpart.
Christie’s Canon of Characters: Predictably, the sleuths I can most see tinkering with recipes are Miss Marple and Tuppence for similar reasons. Fiddling with a recipe allows one to land unexpectedly on someone’s doorstep and ask their opinion of your new adjacent creation. This conversational gambit creates an opening that allows one to naturally segue onto more pertinent topics, like alibis, unofficial witness statements, and their opinions of the victim.
(Joanna Fluke’s Hannah Swenson mysteries are predicated on this idea.)
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Outtake
This was a bowl of Tagliatelle with Corn & Cherry Tomatoes…and sadly it called for way too much chicken stock and pasta water making it way too soupy despite simmering it for nearly three times longer than called for.
However, pasta is pasta and it was still okay.
Cooking With Christie: Molasses Tea Cakes
Ignore the jar of sprinkles, they don’t feature in this recipe, they just decided to photo bomb the pic!
Inspiration: When my Husband’s co-workers request treats, nine times out of ten, they ask for either a spice based bake or one featuring lemons. On this occasion, a pair of people with spring birthdays wished for bite-sized bits of cake featuring warm autumn spices.
A request I happily accommodated! Until I discovered the sleeve of the cake pan, I’d intended to use sprouted legs and went walk about. Leaving me to wonder at what temp and how long to bake the batter-filled tin. Happily, I located a similar pan on the manufacturer’s website, and even better, I stumbled upon this recipe there as well!
And the crowd went wild for these super moist and flavorful cakes!
A Word of Warning from me to you: First, when and if you assemble these ingredients, the batter they produce is extremely thin — in my cake baking experiences, at least. But never fear! This is precisely how it’s supposed to turn out!
Second, don’t fill the tiny cake molds more than 2/3 to 3/4 full. Otherwise, you’ll encounter difficulties prying them out of the pan and wasting a bunch of the batter as you’ll need to cut the bottoms off the aforementioned tea cakes.
Third, for reasons I don’t quite understand, in the comments section of this recipe for Molasses Tea Cakes, people wrote about finding their taste too molasses-y. So much so that many warned against using blackstrap molasses. Which is interesting, as I thought they needed more molasses and spice!
To each is own.
Admittedly, they aren’t the sweetest tea cake I’ve ever eaten. However, I find this a feature, not a disadvantage. Especially if you’re bringing them to a buffet where dessert offerings tend to lean towards the sugary sweet end of the spectrum. They are by no means savory, but the cakes’ only source of sugar is a quarter cup of molasses. Nor does the recipe call for a glaze.
Just so you know!
Christie’s Canon of Characters: These treats are petite enough to appeal to Poirot if decorated stylishly. Whilst their lack of sugar might appeal to Tuppence. Thus allowing Tuppence to keep a room full of kids celebrating Autumn, Halloween, or a winter holiday from skating on Saturn’s rings during a sugar high! And finally, I think Miss Marple, would enjoy sharing these tiny cakes with visiting inspectors, friends, and the occasional suspect during tea time.
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
My 52 Weeks With Christie 
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