Murder She Baked Movies in Order: The Complete Hannah Swensen Timeline

Looking for the correct Murder, She Baked movies in order? The Hannah Swensen mystery franchise follows bakery owner Hannah Swensen as she solves crimes in Lake Eden, Minnesota, across a cozy mystery series that now spans 14 Hallmark films released between 2015 and 2026 .

The franchise began as “Murder She Baked Movies in Order” and was later rebranded “Hannah Swensen Mysteries,” but it has always followed the same character, played by Alison Sweeney, inside the same small-town world drawn from Joanne Fluke’s long-running novel series . Below is every film in release order, complete with real plot details, cast context, and guidance on where to start if you’re new to the series.

This guide is compiled from publicly available Hallmark release information, official network announcements, and verified entertainment sources including IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and entertainment trade coverage. Release schedules and streaming availability can change, so confirm premiere dates through Hallmark’s official channels before planning a watch.

Quick Timeline Table

#	Movie	Premiere	Franchise Era
1	A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery	May 2, 2015	Murder, She Baked
2	A Plum Pudding Mystery	November 2015	Murder, She Baked
3	A Peach Cobbler Mystery	January 10, 2016	Murder, She Baked
4	A Deadly Recipe	June 2016	Murder, She Baked
5	Just Desserts	2017	Murder, She Baked
6	Sweet Revenge	August 8, 2021	Hannah Swensen Mysteries
7	Carrot Cake Murder	May 19, 2023	Hannah Swensen Mysteries
8	A Zest for Death	October 6, 2023	Hannah Swensen Mysteries
9	One Bad Apple	April 5, 2024	Hannah Swensen Mysteries
10	A Sprinkle of Deceit	October 4, 2024	Hannah Swensen Mysteries
11	Reality Bites	February 6, 2025	Hannah Swensen Mysteries
12	A Pie to Die For	June 22, 2025	Hannah Swensen Mysteries
13	Sugar & Vice	March 7, 2026	Hannah Swensen Mysteries
14	Best Served Cold	May 16, 2026	Hannah Swensen Mysteries

Some exact premiere days vary slightly across broadcast listings, where sources disagree on the exact date, only the confirmed month and year are shown.

Murder, She Baked Franchise History

Hallmark launched the series in 2015 with “A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery,” introducing Hannah Swensen, a bakery owner in fictional Lake Eden who runs The Cookie Jar and can’t resist getting pulled into local murder investigations. Alison Sweeney has played Hannah in every film, opposite Cameron Mathison as Detective Mike Kingston in the earlier entries .

Five films aired under the “Murder She Baked Movies in Order” title between 2015 and 2017, built around a slow-burn love triangle between Hannah, Detective Mike Kingston, and dentist Norman Rhodes. After a four-year gap, Hallmark relaunched the franchise in 2021 under the name “Hannah Swensen Mysteries,” picking up right where “Just Desserts” left off rather than starting over . Since then, the series has added new installments almost every year, reaching its 14th film, “Best Served Cold,” in May 2026 .

Every Film in Order, With What Actually Happens

Each mystery is self-contained, but knowing the plot beats helps explain why the series has stayed popular for a decade.

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The Original Murder She Baked Movies in Order Era (2015–2017)

A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery (2015) is where it all starts. Hannah finds her friend and delivery driver shot dead behind The Cookie Jar and, ignoring the new detective’s warnings, begins working the case herself, uncovering gambling debts among the town’s supposedly upstanding citizens. It introduces Hannah, Mike, and the bakery in one efficient setup and remains the natural starting point for new viewers .

A Plum Pudding Mystery (2015) is the franchise’s Christmas entry. Hannah discovers the owner of a local Christmas tree lot shot dead just days before the holiday and investigates while juggling the growing tension between Mike and Norman. It’s a swindle-and-revenge plot wrapped in a festive small-town atmosphere .

A Peach Cobbler Mystery (2016) flips the formula by making Hannah the suspect. When her new bakery rival is murdered, Hannah finds herself in the frame, forcing Mike to investigate the woman he’s courting while Norman works to clear her name. The mistaken-identity angle makes this one of the more tightly plotted early entries .

A Deadly Recipe (2016) raises the personal stakes. Hannah and her sister discover the town sheriff dead right before an election, and with her own brother-in-law named as the prime suspect, Hannah has to find the real killer while running a charity cookbook drive on the side. Small-town politics and family loyalty give this installment more weight than the earlier films .

Just Desserts (2017) closes out the original era. Hannah investigates the murder of a fellow bake-off judge while the rivalry between Mike and Norman keeps simmering in the background. It’s a steady, comfortable send-off before the franchise went quiet for four years .

The Hannah Swensen Mysteries Era (2021–2026)

Sweet Revenge (2021) marks the franchise’s revival under its new title. Now engaged to Mike, Hannah finds a fitness instructor dead in a gym hot tub and launches her own inquiry, while her mother Delores hijacks the wedding planning with a Regency-themed book launch. It’s a confident restart that proved the format still worked after the gap .

Carrot Cake Murder (2023) takes on a colder case than usual. An explosion at a historic building uncovers a skeleton that’s been missing since 1995, pulling Hannah into a decades-old jewelry heist with a killer who has been hiding in plain sight for years. It’s arguably the most somber mystery the franchise attempted up to that point .

A Zest for Death (2023) leans into character comedy. While house-hunting with her sister, Delores stumbles onto the body of a regular Cookie Jar customer, and Hannah suspects a secret inheritance is behind the murder, all while working through a rough patch with Mike .

One Bad Apple (2024), co-written by Alison Sweeney, moves the action to a local college where Hannah is teaching a guest baking class. When a professor turns up dead with one of Hannah’s own knives, she has to clear her name while Delores launches a comically self-serious private investigation agency. This film also properly introduces prosecutor Chad Norton into Hannah’s world .

A Sprinkle of Deceit (2024) is a transitional entry that introduces Victor Webster as investigator Chad. Hannah and Chad chase the same murder from different angles while working to clear an implicated colleague, quietly reshuffling the franchise’s central romance after the long Mike-and-Norman era .

Reality Bites (2025) sends a television cooking show crashing into The Cookie Jar. When the show’s producer is found dead, Hannah teams up with Norman to investigate while her relationship with Chad deepens. The film is officially credited as an adaptation of Fluke’s novel “Cooked to Death,” updated with a modern reality-TV backdrop .

A Pie to Die For (2025) finds Hannah discovering the body of her mother’s biggest theater rival, Victoria, while delivering banana cream pies for a party. Delores becomes the prime suspect due to their public rivalry, and Hannah has to clear her mother’s name while juggling her blossoming relationship with Chad. The case eventually leads to the theater’s own director, who had a hidden motive tied to jealousy over a dance instructor.

Sugar & Vice (2026) takes place at the grand reopening of the Lake Eden Inn, where Hannah is catering a masquerade party. When hotel staff member Brandi is found stabbed to death, a storm traps all the guests inside, forcing Hannah to identify the killer before the roads clear. The investigation eventually exposes an affair between the victim and the hotel owner, though the real killer turns out to be the property’s frazzled new manager.

Best Served Cold (2026), the franchise’s 14th film, centers on a forgery case that turns deadly. When a suspect is murdered and the prosecutor handling the case goes missing, Hannah and Chad have to figure out how the two cases connect and solve them before the related trial .

Books vs. Movies: What’s Actually Adapted

Not every film is a direct, scene-for-scene adaptation of a Joanne Fluke novel, and this is a detail many viewers get wrong. Alison Sweeney, who has written several recent scripts including “One Bad Apple,” has described her process directly: “All of them start with the origin of one of Joanne’s wonderful, fun mysteries… I start with an idea from her books or a character from a book that motivates me and then we just go from there” .

In practice, that means:

• Earlier films like “A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery” and “A Peach Cobbler Mystery” track their source novels fairly closely, since both the movies and books were released close together.
• “Reality Bites” is officially credited as an adaptation of “Cooked to Death,” though the on-screen plot involving a reality TV baking show was updated for modern audiences .
• Newer entries increasingly use Fluke’s characters and Lake Eden setting as a springboard rather than following one novel’s plot beat for beat, since many of the books date back to the 1980s and 1990s and needed significant modernizing for television.

If you’re a book reader hoping for a faithful adaptation, treat the early “Murder She Baked Movies in Order” films as closer companions to the novels and the newer “Hannah Swensen Mysteries” entries as looser, character-driven expansions of the same world.

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Cast Continuity Across the Franchise

Part of what keeps longtime fans watching is the consistency of the supporting cast. Alison Sweeney has played Hannah in all 14 films, and Barbara Niven has appeared as her mother, Delores, throughout the entire run . Cameron Mathison played Detective Mike Kingston through the earlier and middle entries, while Gabriel Hogan’s Norman Rhodes served as Hannah’s other long-running love interest during that same stretch . Lisa Durupt has recurred as Hannah’s sister Andrea, and Victor Webster joined the cast starting with “A Sprinkle of Deceit” as prosecutor Chad Norton, who became Hannah’s primary romantic interest in the franchise’s most recent films.

This continuity matters for viewing order. Someone who watches “Best Served Cold” without any earlier context will still understand that film’s standalone murder case, but they’ll miss why Chad, rather than Mike or Norman, is now central to Hannah’s story.

Do You Need to Watch Them in Order?

Not strictly, but it helps. Each film’s murder mystery is self-contained and solvable without prior context. However, watching in release order lets you follow Hannah’s evolving relationships, the family dynamics involving Delores and Andrea, and the transition from the Mike/Norman love triangle to her relationship with Chad Norton.

For new viewers who want a strong entry point without hunting down all the older titles, “Carrot Cake Murder” (2023) works well since it’s the first film after the franchise’s rebrand and re-establishes the core cast without requiring the five original films for context.

Where to Watch

The films air on Hallmark Mystery and Hallmark Channel and stream on Hallmark+, which hosts the “Hannah Swensen Mysteries Collection” covering both the original “Murder She Baked Movies in Order” titles and the current run . New episodes typically become available on Hallmark+ the day after their television premiere, and several older titles can also be rented or purchased through services like Amazon and Apple TV.

Frequently Asked Questions