No Crust Pizza Poppers: My Taste of Pizza Without the Carbs from Cleo Coyle

Certainly, we've all heard of jalapeno poppers, but the inspiration for this Pizza Poppers idea came from another source. About ten years ago, an Italian company came up with the idea of on-the-go pizza served in a cone. Yes, a cone!

Honestly, when my husband, Marc, and I first learned about this, our jaws dropped in horror. Once we got over the shock, however, we began to have fun thinking up ways to write it into one of our Coffeehouse Mysteries. Here's how we did it (to read more click here)...

How to Make Italian Easter Pie Palmiers by Cleo Coyle

Every year at Pasqua, my late Aunt Mary would make her Easter Pie. This rustic pie was amazing to me not because it was filled with dozens of ingredients, but because it was so satisfying yet so simple. She called it a "pizza," but Americans would probably recognize it as closer to a white calzone.

Cleo Coyle, author of 
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

My aunt would fill her rustic Easter pie with ricotta; diced ham; fresh parsley (always fresh!); strong, grated Italian cheese; and raw eggs for binding. She'd mix up a delicious, slightly sweet dough using just her hands on a big bread board. Then she'd roll our the dough, mound in the filling, fold over the dough, seal it, and bake it. After it was baked and chilled (yes, chilled!), we would cut thin slices and eat it at all hours -- for breakfast, lunch, snacks, as an appetizer before dinner, or a savory dessert after.

Italian Easter Pies are a famous tradition, but the recipe can differ from house to house. In our neighborhood that was quite literal. The family next door made a much more elaborate pie with sausage, whole boiled eggs, and a bread-like yeast crust. Other families make theirs in a pie tin with spinach as an ingredient. 

Chocolate Matzo Buttercrunch and White Chocolate-Pistachio Buttercrunch from Cleo Coyle

Monday evening marked the first night of Passover, one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays of the year. An important food custom that’s followed during this week is to eat no yeasted bread, only unleavened bread (aka Maztos!).

Cleo Coyle, author of The
Coffeehouse Mysteries

MATZOS + CHOCOLATE 

= AN AMAZING TREAT 

Over the last few years, the basic recipe for Matzo Caramel Buttercrunch has been posted all over the Internet, but it was originally created by Marcy Goldman, author of A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. This post gives you my version with step-by-step photos and some personal notes and tips. I hope you enjoy it!

Love and peace to you. Happy Passover, Happy Easter, Happy Spring! And may God bless us, every one.

~ Cleo Coyle 

Shamrock Green Pistachio Muffins (with ricotta!) for St. Patrick's Day by Cleo Coyle

Cleo Coyle, who likes to wear
and eat green on March 17 is
author of The Coffeehouse
Mysteries

Here in New York City the St. Patrick’s Day parade is one of the biggest of the year. Hot coffee is a must for me and my husband on those cold March mornings when we line up with our fellow New Yorkers to watch the parade. 

Portable food is also a good idea, especially when it’s green, which is why I developed a special St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Green Pistachio Muffin using ricotta cheese (click here to download a PDF of the recipe that you can print, save or share). 

Why ricotta? Because even though everyone is Irish on March 17, I’m Italian every other day of the year, and this sweet, soft Italian cheese is a fantastic ingredient for making a tender, delicious muffin. The ricotta gives the muffin a nice substance without making them dry or heavy, so they're satisfying as well as delicious. (Try them warm, right out of the oven, split open and slathered with butter or cream cheese, ahh....)

To get the recipe, read more...

How to Make Chocolate Buttercream Frosting without Butter or Cream by Cleo Coyle

Cleo Coyle, who likes to play

with her food, is author of

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

This "buttercream" frosting has no butter or cream,
yet it tastes like a chocolate fudge dream. So what's the mystery ingredient to this frosting? It's one that vegans and vegetarians may have guessed by now...avocado.

If you've never used avocado as a substitute for butter in baking, I can tell you that it's a lot of fun to play with. This week, I'm doing frosting, but stay tuned because I'll be sharing more recipes with avocado taking the place of butter (and, yes, there will be a beautiful summer-green recipe in the near future). Until then...

Black Bean Brownies: No flour, No butter, Just Chocolate Fudgy Goodness by Cleo Coyle

These chocolate brownies nearly qualify as magic. There is no white flour in the recipe. The structure comes from nutritious black beans, which add fiber and protein, but you won't taste the beans. You'll taste only delicious fudgy chocolate. My previous recipe for Black Bean Brownies started with a brownie mix (to see that recipe, click here). Today's "from scratch" version is still easy, yet it's healthier and tastier. 

My Coffeehouse Mystery readers may recognize these brownies from A Brew to a Kill. They're a bonus recipe from the book. To view more recipes from the book, click here.  

To get the Black Bean Brownie recipe, click the "read more" link below... 

Baking up Biscochitos by Cleo Coyle

Biscochitos (aka bizcochitos) are tender shortbread cookies irresistibly flavored with anise and cinnamon. They were originally developed by Spanish settlers in the New Mexico Territory and finally adopted as the official state cookie of New Mexico in 1989. The cookies are traditionally served at weddings, birthdays, and religious holidays, including Christmas, but they're also enjoyed with coffee or milk in the morning and after dinner with wine or again (you guessed it) coffee.

Readers of my Coffeehouse Mysteries may remember these cookies from a scene in Holiday Buzz. A Latina baker named Rita included them on her special display table at one of The Great New York Cookie Swap parties. I wasn't able to include the recipe in the book's recipe section, but I'm happy to share it with you here as a bonus. 

As for my approach to this cookie...

No-Guilt Mini Pizzas: A Writer's Snack from Cleo Coyle

   

Writing novels for a living appears to be a perfectly safe occupation. As my fellow authors know, however, the writing life comes with one major hazard. No, we don't dodge flying bullets or psychotic killers (though our characters may). What we combat every day is a more sinister villain: Excess Calorie Man. He lurks behind every extra handful of peanuts or just-one-more-silver of pie.

Even when our diet is relatively healthy, the hours of sitting in front of our computers take their toll as EC Man gets his jollies from as little as a sliced-up banana on a peanut butter sandwich or an extra hunk of cheese with your crackers.

As you can imagine, it’s even worse for a culinary mystery writer. Testing recipes, especially delicious ones like the cookies in Holiday Buzz (my latest Coffeehouse Mystery), give Excess Calorie Man free reign. Well, today I’m going to show you one way this writer reigns him in...with a lunch of my No-Guilt Mini Pizzas

Supernatural Sticky Wings from Cleo Coyle's Roast Mortem



Read more about 

Roast Mortem 

and its recipes by
clicking here.

Wings are good eats. I grew up on my Aunt Mary's broiled chicken wings, so they bring back good memories, too.

Over the last few years, Korean-style sticky wings have become a popular treat here in New York City. These wings, which are described as "Korean pub food," are lip-smackin' good, whether they're eaten in a pub, in one of the Korean wing shops around town, or on a Central Park bench.

My husband and I have enjoyed these wings so much that we put a knockoff recipe for UFC soy-garlic wings in our 9th culinary mystery Roast Mortem (a murder mystery involving New York's Bravest--its firefighters). 


Today I have a completely different wing recipe for you, but one that's just as transcendentally delicious. Maple syrup is the star ingredient in this sticky wing recipe. The process begins with a flavor bath--a sweet and savory marinade. During the cooking, the wings are glazed with a combination of maple, honey, lemon, ginger, and an ingredient that really pulls it all together: cumin. This ancient spice is often used in Mediterranean, Middle-Eastern, and Asian cooking. Here it deepens the glaze flavor, adding an earthy, nutty, ever-so-slightly mustard-like dimension that sends these sticky wings right out of this world...

Guardian Angel Chicken Soup and My New Year Newsletter from Cleo Coyle

The science is in. Mom's chicken soup is not just for the soul. Properties in white meat chicken, carrots, celery, garlic, and onion appear to help relieve cold and flu symptoms better than over the counter medications (source: New York Times, health/science).

How to Make Christmas Pain Perdu: Italian Fruit Cake French Toast

A popular breakfast in New Orleans, pain perdu literally means lost or wasted bread. Traditionally it's made with thick slices from a crusty French loaf that's gone stale, which tells you where the name originated. If not used this way, the bread would be wasted, lost to crumbs or bird feed.

There are two reasons I chose this recipe for Christmas day. The first is a gift to my readers, many of whom just finished Holiday Buzz. In the book, my amateur sleuth (Clare Cosi) talks about her special plan to cook up this dish on Christmas morning. Although I mentioned the recipe, I didn't publish directions for it.

The second reason I'm sharing this with you today is much more practical. Fruit cake is a customary gift for this Season, so many of you may have it on hand, and pain perdu is a very tasty use for those leftover pieces that might be going stale.

The Italian version of fruit cake is a rich, sweet bread lightly laced with dried fruit called panettone. If you've never had panettone, look for it in boxes like the one in my photo below. Boxed panettone can keep for months but once it's out of its wrappings, this delicious bread goes stale fairly quickly. When that happens, simply follow these directions for a festive French toast.

Merry Christmas, everyone...

Eat with joy to the world!

~ Cleo

For the recipe, click the "Read more" link below...

How to Turn Candy Canes into Peppermint Syrup

Got extra candy canes? Then you can make this excellent pink peppermint syrup. It's delicious drizzled over cookies or stirred into cocoa, tea, or cocktails. In fact, as a little Christmas gift to you, I'm giving away a canister of gourmet hot chocolate (classic or "wicked") from Jacques Torres. 
     I'll tell you how to enter this tasty giveaway after I share this recipe from my new culinary mystery, Holiday Buzz, now a Top-10 New York Times bestseller. Yes, we're popping champagne this week, and also sending thanks to you. Whether you're new to the Coffeehouse Mystery series or have been reading them since the first book was published (circa 2003), my husband and I extend our sincerest thanks for supporting our work. 

Enjoy the recipe, 
everyone, and have a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!

~ Cleo Coyle 

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Holiday Buzz Recipe: Pumpkin Cake with Surprise Cream Cheese Swirl

Here's a recipe from my new Coffeehouse Mystery Holiday Buzz, now a New York Times bestseller.

Cleo Coyle, author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries
click here to learn more.

One cup of canned pumpkin, a little maple syrup, and some classic holiday spices convert an ordinary cake mix into a stunning pumpkin-maple Bundt. The “surprise swirl” of sweetened cream cheese brings another level of happiness to your taste buds and impressiveness to your presentation. Serve as a brunch treat with a light dusting of powdered sugar or dress it up with an easy glaze for a lovely holiday dessert and… Eat with joy!  

Blue Velvet Cupcakes and a Cupcake Menorah for Hanukkah Week from Cleo Coyle

Like red velvet cake, blue velvet carries a wonderful hint of cocoa. This is a beautiful cupcake for birthday parties and baby or wedding showers. Because blue is also the color for Hanukkah, I used this recipe to make a cupcake menorah for Hanukkah week--and, no, unlike the oil, they did not last eight days! My husband and our friends ate them all on the very first night.

As for the recipe, I'm passing on an easy one to make. It even uses a cake mix as a starter, but there are some tricky aspects, which is why I’m sharing some tips, too.

Whether you are celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Yule, I send you the warmest wishes for these cold, dark months...

May your own holidays be bright!

~ Cleo Coyle 

To see the recipe,
click the read more link below...

A Kinder, Gentler Pfeffernusse (Gingerbread Snowball Cookies) by Cleo Coyle

Like any recipe that's been around for several hundred years, there are countless variations of the German cookie pfeffernüsse (aka "pepper nuts"), and I've made several. Some bakers, for example, put finely chopped nuts into their "pepper nuts. Some don't. 

Cleo Coyle, baker of
a kinder, gentler
pfeffernüsse, and author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Some bakers like to add a potent amount of black or white pepper into the cookie, giving them very peppery bite. Some add ground cloves. 

The version I'm sharing with you today is my favorite way to make it: soft on the inside but with a light crispness on the outside shell. No nuts to take away from the contrast of spicy, delicious gingerbread flavor with the sweet dusting of powdered sugar.

My version also takes a kinder, gentler approach to the spice aspect, using only a pinch of pepper and leaning more heavily on the ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice. (Allspice, I find, delivers that ground clove flavor at a much lower price.)