Baking Up Holiday Yummies

 

Baking Up Holiday Yummies by Maddie Day

Thanks for having me back to the Stiletto Gang! I’m celebrating the release of Candy Slain Murder, my eighth Country Store Murder, and I’ll give away a signed copy to one commenter. I had a two-release month in September, and Linda kindly agreed to host me as a guest twice, once for each.

Can you tell this new book is a Christmas cozy mystery? Robbie Jordan has her country store all decorated for the holidays, and she and her assistants think up fun Christmas-colored specials to serve, like a spinach-red pepper egg bake.

Of course, quite a few Christmas cookies make it into the book, too. I grew up making cookies with my mom, using recipes from both my grandmothers, and continue to do a lot of baking in December every year. I still make Mexican Bridecakes, English Butter Cookies, Red Sugar Cookies, red-and-green spiral icebox cookies, Spritz cookies (otherwise known as Squeeze-Out cookies), and of course, gingerbread people. Both my sons grew up baking with me, and I love that the custom keeps getting passed down.

One year recently my older son and I attempted a Buche de Noel. It was a lot of work and a bit of a fail.That’s definitely one to buy from a bakery. A successful non-sweet thing I baked was a cheesy Christmas tree, with cheese-filled balls of biscuit dough arranged like a tree and sprinkled with red peppers, parsley, and parmesan cheese. It’s a great holiday party appetizer, or it was in the days when it was okay for multiple people to touch the same piece of food (sigh).

Candy Slain Murder includes several recipes, including for gingerbread people and for Holly Cookies, which are sugar cookies cut with a holly leaf shaped cutter and dusted with green sugars. I hope you love a taste of Christmas a couple of months early!

Readers: What’s your favorite holiday sweet? Do you bake family recipes or preferto get your cookies at the bakery or at a cookie swap?

In Candy Slain Murder, Country Store owner Robbie Jordan’s life seems merry and as bright as the Christmas lights glistening around South Lick, Indiana – until a man claims to be the long-lost half-brother of Robbie’s assistant. A fire destroys the home of a controversial anesthesiologist, exposing skeletal remains in his attic. The twin of the long-dead woman is murdered. Unavoidably intrigued, all Robbie wants for Christmas is to stop her winter wonderland from becoming a real nightmare.

Maddie Day pens the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Agatha Award winning Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. With twenty-three mysteries in print and more underway, Day/Maxwell lives with her beau and their energizer kitten north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. She hopes you’ll find her on social media under both names, on WickedAuthors.com, and at her web site.