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!
Though, weirdly enough, I enjoy airports. All the different people mingling together, the opportunity to study them whilst standing in lines, and the eccentric selection of goods and services one can find leading to the terminals fascinate me.
I think this love stems from my parents taking me to watch airplanes take off and land as a small kid. On those evenings, when the terminals were quiet, I would tire myself out running hither, thither, and yon.
And all it cost was the price of a partial tank of gas.
Of course, these were the days before you needed a ticket to pass beyond the TSA’s metal detectors.
Interestingly, my first-ever flight didn’t frighten me at all. In point of fact, I found it exhilaratin, probably because the Captain spotted a pod of blue whales swimming in the Pacific Ocean and tipped the plane so we could see them too! Even thousands of feet in the air, these sea-faring mammals were monstrous in size, and I cannot help but thank this unknown Captain for showing them to us.
(Not my photo, my little Kodak Brownie camera did not capture this much detail. Nor, thankfully, did we get this close in a 737. Thanks to Unsplash for this image.)
However, sometime betwixt my 18th and 23rd birthdays (when I took my second flight), this wonder transformed into terror — that I’ve yet to shake….Despite boarding a plane about once or twice a year. (Until Covid, when my long-range travel came to a standstill.)
In any case, since then, I have discovered a few tricks to get me onto the plane. One of which is providing myself with something to look forward to on the other end. This helps curtail a nearly irresistible impulse to bolt from the plane, down the terminal, and out of the airport while declaring, “This is my new hometown now.” (When flying home.)
In this instance: Golden, Colorado.
Though a wonderful city, this sea-level girl did not exactly thrive at altitude. And yet, I still needed something besides my own bed to get my sneakers to stay still.
Then, King Arthur Baking Company sent me an email about a sale on their baking supplies.
Inspiration and credit card in hand, I ordered a modest assortment of specialized ingredients from their website. Amongst which was a bag of Harvest Grains Blend, which included a recipe for a new-to-me type of bread.
And it turned out beautifully.
Despite needing to substitute actual milk for powdered milk called for in the recipe, which I didn’t have on hand. And, since I was already straying off the beaten path, I swapped malt powder for white sugar. Since my palate thinks the flavor of malt pairs better with wheat than plain sugar. (I also used their Climate Change wheat blend, which paired beautifully with the grains and malt.)
Nutty and full of flavor, it made excellent sandwiches!
Christie: Speaking of sandwiches…..I think Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp would appreciate this loaf. Especially since I see both men as sandwich enthusiasts. Japp, whilst he staking out a person or place for either Poirot or his superiors. Unsurprisingly, I think Hastings would do the same whilst helping Poirot. Though, as an added wrinkle, I can also see Hastings making a sandwich or two for dinner during his bachelor days!
Inspiration: A few months back, whilst perusing a new independent kitchen shop, I uncovered a bite-sized cake pan just waiting for me (and my pocketbook) in their clearance section. After I brought it home, it sat next to my mixer for a month while I got distracted by one thing and another. Then, a request for something sweet came from my husband’s coworkers, and I decided to give the kull pan a whirl!
The only change I made to the ingredients was swapping the called for cayenne for ancho chili powder (because I was out of the former). And, due to ancho being milder than cayenne, I added a full teaspoon rather than the half teaspoon called for in the recipe.
All the spices, flour, and such required by the recipe ready to be sifted!
Then, because not everyone is as excited for any sort of heat (sweet or otherwise), I dipped the skulls in melted 72% dark chocolate to help mitigate the burn.
They were a hit!
Christie: I can easily see these tiny cakes gracing the festive snack table in Christie’s mystery, Hallowe’en Party. They are bite-sized, not particularly messy (after the chocolate cools & hardens), and not particularly sugary! Making them ideal for a kid’s party.
Inspiration: Last amongst the treats I whipped up this year as holiday gifts were Brigadeiros.
The recipe I used was from the 2017 American Test Kitchen Christmas Cookie issue. However, while brilliant at turning out some of the most reliable recipes around, the ATK site requires you to pay to gain unrestricted access to their site, or you need to purchase their magazines and/or books as I do. So here are two different web recipes, 1 & 2; that, while similar to the ATK one, are not carbon copies.
The magazine where I got the recipe from!
In any case, these sweets are super simple to make….and are probably the stickest substance I’ve worked with in several years! Even after they are chilled!
Even better, due to their coating of sprinkles, they turn the gooey chocolate instantly festive! And since they’re so rich, I can only envision myself making them on holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Halloween. (As these suckers are so soft, I cannot imagine making them for warm weather holidays, lest my parent friends quietly kill me as their kids get the fudgy substance all over their clothes and person.)
These Brazilian treats went over splendidly with every chocolate lover on our gift list this year!
Helpful Hint: If you use a teaspoon to scoop the gooey goodness out of the pan — make sure to grip the measuring spoon by the neck. Otherwise, if yours are like mine, there’s a possibility the spoon will bend from the sheer effort needed to drag it through the set chocolate.
Christie: If these were introduced to St. Mary Mead, I could see Miss Marple or any other village ladies whipping these up for holiday parties and church fetes! Or at Halloween parties where kids and chocolaty treats go together like Ariadne Oliver and apples!
Inspiration: Did you know that pumpkins are a good source of potassium? This tidbit is excellent news for people like me who love and loathe bananas in equal measure.
In any case, thanks to fall and spooky season, cooking magazines have all kinds of pumpkin based bakes around this time of year. The recipe that caught my eye this year was Cook’s Illustrated Pumpkin Spice Muffins, and, like most quickbreads, is relatively easy to make, even with the addition of a streusel topping.
Now, I say relatively easy because according to my grandmother (and everyone else) who first taught me how to make them, you’re only supposed to mix the batter enough to ensure everything is incorporated.
No more, no less. An instruction I’ve struggled with ever since.
However, a page and a half later, I read an interesting instruction for a different set of muffins in the Fall Harvest Recipe magazine that I thought would apply equally well to the pumpkin muffins. So, after mixing all the ingredients, I let the batter sit on my kitchen counter for thirty minutes prior to portioning it out in the paper-lined muffin tin.
For nut-based flour (which formed the base of the other bake), this interval allows the flour to absorb the moisture and create a bit of gluten, giving the end result a better structure. I’ve no idea if this same principle applies to AP flour, but ever since enacting this bit of info, my quickbread bakes have improved significantly!
Christie: Honestly, I can imagine Miss Marple or Tuppence baking these beauties for friends, family, and for themselves! As they are tasty without being overly sweet.
Inspiration: Whilst perusing recipes one day, I was listening to Bob’s Burgers with half an ear and their Holiday Special came on…and I’d a sudden hankering for cranberry sauce. However, since I don’t generally eat it by the spoonful, I looked in the fridge and spotted….chicken thighs.
Whereupon I tilted my head and thought — why not?
So I emptied an entire bag of frozen cranberries into a pan with a third of a cup of water and a cup of sugar, then cooked them until the berries just start to burst.
While the sauce is simmering away, I added the bone-in-chicken thighs to a crock pot — then added the juice and zest of an orange, a couple of teaspoons of ginger, and several (eight) Calabrian chilis. Once the cranberry sauce thickened, I chucked it in as well and set the cook timer for ten hours.
The chicken turned out delicious….However, it was an odd shade of purple when it finally finished cooking….which was interesting. But once we’d stuffed it into a taco, the slightly unappetizing hue was disguised.
Christie: Griselda Clement, the Vicar’s wife from Murder at the Vicarage, strikes me as an experimental cook — should the mood strike!
This Week’s Recipe: Soft-Baked Vanilla Lemon Confetti Cookies
I am so excited the thermometer’s finally started to dip into the fifties! That means I need to start gearing up for the baking season! This recipe I found in a magazine and turned out beautifully the first time.
I only increased the amount of sprinkles called for in the instructions…as well I like sprinkles.
Here’s where I found this great recipe:
Christie: This is a cookie I can see being served at a kids party, like the one in Hallowe’en Party!
My 52 Weeks With Christie 
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