Hannah’s bakery, The Cookie Jar, now has competition in the small town of Eden Lake. Hannah now has competition with her dating life. We know Hannah is a fantastic baker, but can she keep her cool if Mike starts to date someone else?
This is book #7 in the Hannah Swensen Mystery series. Joanne Fluke has established Hannah’s character as a clever and independent woman who runs a successful bakery. The reader knows her family and her paramours. Will competition in her bakery and love life change the direction of this series?
Peach Cobbler Murder by Joanne Fluke
Cozy Mystery Novel with Recipes
Book Review
Murder Mystery Books🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
Book Review Outline and Tone:
While the south, and specifically Georgia, is well known for growing peaches, Hannah decides to create her own Minnesota Peach Cobbler. Shauna Lee, who used to work with Mike in Minneapolis, opens a bakery, Magnolia Blossom Bakery, directly across the street from The Cookie Jar. Residents of Eden Lake flock to this new shop and Hannah is worried that she may have to close her bakery. But soon after the bakery opens, Shauna Lee is murdered. Hannah has to figure out who killed her rival and also prove it wasn’t her!
The book is set around Valentine’s day as well as Lisa and Herb’s wedding. The reader gets to learn more about characters: Deloris, Andrea, and Lisa, expanding the number of characters to either love or cause chaos. The mystery unravels and the book reads quickly. Joanne Fluke does a nice job of dropping clues throughout the story, allowing the reader to make guesses at what happened to Shauna Lee.
Movie Review:
I love movies. I used to teach a film appreciation class, but that doesn’t make me a movie snob. There is a time and place for every different style of movie, just like there is a time and place for different genres of books.
The Hannah Swensen movies are made for the Hallmark Channel, but unlike their plethora of Christmas movies, the Hannah Swensen movies are not all the same plots. I am biased as an Alison Sweeney fan, but the movies are more than just a place to showcase her acting prowess. The movies are a slice of homemade peach cobbler heated with a scoop of vanilla. This metaphor means the movies are comfort movies. A chance to curl up on your couch and enjoy entertainment that breeds comfort. I highly recommend them!
The author:
Joanne Fluke published her first Hannah Swenson novel, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, in 2001. Since then she has been a New York Times bestselling author several times. She is a popular guest on her local television station and she always uploads her interview to her YouTube Channel. She even has many interviews organized by the book. Some of her books have been made into movies on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel. Murder, She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery can be found https://www.hallmarkmoviesandmysteries.com/. Joanne Fluke will interact with fans on her Twitter and her Facebook accounts.
What is not to like?:
The only thing I didn’t like was Hannah’s hypocrisy. Hannah has been dating Mike and Norman since book #1 and yet she gets angry at Mike when she thinks he is dating both her and Shauna Lee. I know we are supposed to root for the protagonist, but in this issue, I didn’t think she had the right to be mad.
The verdict:
As with all books in this series, it is a fun read and the recipes are fantastic.
Book Club Recommendation: 4/5 books 📚📚📚📚
Disclaimer: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost for you).
Minnesota Peach Cobbler Recipe
Assemble the Ingredients
Easy to make dessert: 4/5 on the easy as pie scale 🥧🥧🥧🥧
***Do NOT thaw peaches***
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 13 by 9 inch cake pan with Pam.
Measure peaches and put them in a large mixing bowl. Let them sit on the counter and thaw for 10 minutes.
Then sprinkle with lemon juice and toss.
In another smaller bowl combine white sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Mix them together with a fork until they’re evenly combined.
Pour dry mixture over the peaches and toss them (your hands are best).
Once most of the dry mixture is clinging to the peaches, dump them into the cake pan you’ve prepared. Sprinkle any dry mixture left in the bowl on the top of the peaches in the pan.
Melt the butter. Drizzle it over the peaches.
Then cover the cake pan tightly with foil.
Bake the peach mixture at 350 for 40 minutes.
Take it out of the oven and set it on a heat-proof surface, but DO NOT turn off the oven.
Assemble the ingredients for the topping
Now for the crust. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a smaller bowl you used earlier.
Take the stick of cold butter and grate it. This will make it easy to incorporate it into the flour mixture.
Cut in the softened butter with a couple of forks until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal.
Add the beaten eggs and mix them in with a fork. For those of you who remember your school library with fondness, the result will resemble library paste but it’ll smell a whole lot better). You can also do this with food processor with chilled butter.
Remove the foil cover from the peaches and drop on spoonful of the topping.
Because the topping is thick, you’ll have to do this in little dibs and dabs scraped from the spoon with another spoon, a rubber spatula, or with your clean finger. Dab on the topping until the whole pan is polka dotted. (Will spread out when baking).
Or use a cookie scoop.
This set has small, medium, and large scoops. Perfect for even cookies or filling cupcake liners.
Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for an additional 50 minutes.
Minnesota Peach Cobbler from a Hannah Swensen Mystery Novel
Ingredients
Filling
- 10 cups frozen sliced peaches (2.5 pounds, sliced)
- ⅛ cup lemon juice (2 Tbsp)
- 1½ cups white sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ cup flour
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup melted butter
Crust
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ stick butter
- 2 beaten eggs
Instructions
- ***Do NOT thaw peaches***
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Spray a 13 by 9 inch cake pan with Pam
- Measure peaches and put them in a large mixing bowl. Let them sit on the counter and thaw for 10 minutes.
- Then sprinkle with lemon juice and toss.
- In another smaller bowl combine white sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon.
- Mix them together with a fork until they're evenly combined.
- Pour dry mixture over the peaches and toss them (your hands are best).
- Once most of the dry mixture is clinging to the peaches, dump them into the cake pan you've prepared. Sprinkle any dry mixture left in the bowl on the top of the peaches in the pan.
- Melt the butter. Drizzle it over the peaches.
- Then cover the cake pan tightly with foil.
- Bake the peach mixture at 350 for 40 minutes.
- Take it out of the oven and set it on a heat-proof surface, but DO NOT turn off the oven.
For the crust
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a smaller bowl you used earlier.
- Cut in the softened butter with a couple of forks until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal.
- Add the beaten eggs and mix them in with a fork. For those of you who remember your school library with fondness, the result will resemble library paste but it'll smell a whole lot better). You can also do this with a food processor with chilled butter.
- Remove the foil cover from the peaches and drop on spoonfuls of the topping. Because the topping is thick, you'll have to do this in little dibs and dabs scraped from the spoon with another spoon, a rubber spatula, or with your clean finger. Dab on the topping until the whole pan is polka dotted. (Will spread out when baking).
- Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for an additional 50 minutes.
What would I do differently next time?
I might try this with other frozen fruit or even a mix of peaches and mango.
Will I make it again?: Absolutely Yes! 😋😋😋😋
I am a big fan of desserts with fruit. Try these!
Apple Orchard Bars from Fudge Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke, Apple Turnovers from Two Parts Sugar One Part Murder by Valerie Burns, and Apple Spiced Muffins from Grilled for Murder by Maddie Day.
I know you will enjoy the recipes and the novels!
