Case #1: STUDmuffins

Hello again!

Mrs Hudson has returned from a six year hiatus to continue celebrating the cases of Mr Sherlock Holmes through baked goods. One thing I’d always wanted to do is to create a recipe for every adventure that Dr Watson set to paper. Here we’ll start with the first of these, “A Study in Scarlet.” I’ve heard that many of Mr Holmes’s devotees abbreviate this title as STUD, so our recipe will be “STUDmuffins.”

The recipe starts with a whole wheat muffin base, harkening back to the golden fields of wheat that John and Lucy Ferrier found in their would-be promised land of Utah. The next essential ingredient is the “scarlet thread of murder,” which we’ll represent with a ribbon of raspberry jam. The muffins will also be studded with fresh or frozen raspberries, and topped with cream cheese icing anchoring two jelly beans to represent the two pills in Jefferson Hope’s game of Russian roulette.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1 cup all purpose flour 
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1/3 cup brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 cup milk or buttermilk 
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries 
• 1/2 cup raspberry jam

Ingredients for frosting and decoration:

• 1/2 cup cream cheese 
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter 
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 

• Jelly bean “pills” in colour of choice 
• Cheerios for an additional wedding ring garnish, if handy

Mix together the two flours. Heat jam in microwave about 30-40 seconds to loosen it up and put aside. (Mrs. Hudson’s microwave is from 1895 so it took a little longer.) In another bowl, cream together the butter, two sugars and baking soda. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Add the milk and stir until well combined. Add the flour and mix until combined—don’t over mix. Gently stir in raspberries. If frozen, do not defrost them first. 

To create the scarlet thread of murder, pour the jam onto the batter in a few places and run a knife gently through the batter to make a ribbon. Ladle the batter into muffin cups set into a muffin pan. (Gently again so as not to disturb the jam ribbon.) Bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes. The top of the muffin should spring back a bit when touched.

Using large muffin pans yields 18 muffins.

Optional topping and decoration:

Unadorned, the muffins make a good, not-too-sweet breakfast option. To fancy them up, combine butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until creamy. Spread on top of the cooled muffins and top with two jellybeans in scarlet or pink or whatever colour you choose. If you like, add a piece of oat ring cereal for Lucy’s wedding ring.