Like most readers of mystery novels—aw let’s face it, like most women on the planet—I’m a
choc-addict. That’s sort of like being a crack addict but more fattening. I just
introduced the drug to my five-year-old granddaughter—I gave her a Hersey’s Kiss—and now
all she talks about is getting more “shock-lit.” Apparently the addiction runs in the
family.
Naturally my protagonist, Darcy Burnett, featured in my mystery series, DEATH OF A CRABBY
COOK and DEATH OF A CHOCOLATE
CHEATER, has this same disorder. She claims she uses it for its health benefits.
Chocolate is known to help alleviate depression, lower blood pressure and cardiovascular
problems, relieve PMS, increase your circulatory system, boost cognitive abilities, lower
cholesterol and possibly help prevent cancer. So when she’s assigned by the newspaper to
write a stringer article on the upcoming San Francisco Chocolate Festival, she’s on it
like melted chocolate on, well, just about anything.
Unfortunately, Darcy finds chocolates are sometimes lethal, as is the case in DEATH OF A CHOCOLATE CHEATER. Darcy
and her Aunt Abby, along with hot cream puff guy Jake Miller, are serving chocolate
goodies from their food trucks at the Chocolate Festival. But when one of the judges is
found floating in a vat of liquid chocolate, Darcy soon discovers the judge’s death is no
accident. Someone has dipped the intoxicated woman in her favorite dessert.
So how did Darcy end up in this chocolate mess? That’s the way I wrote her, of course.
After all, it’s a murder mystery. While I haven’t had much experience killing people in
vats of chocolate, I’ve certainly had lots of experience with chocolate—eating it,
mostly. And since they say, “Write what you know,” what choice did I have?
Naturally the book contains recipes for all sorts of chocolate treats. Here are a couple
to get you started.
ADVISORY: Keep chocolate handy while reading DEATH OF A CHOCOLATE CHEATER.
Aunt Abby’s Chocolate Raspberry Whoopie Pies
If you haven’t tried a whoopie pie, you’re missing a classic American treat!
Traditionally, a whoopie pie is a sandwich of two cakey cookies with a fluffy marshmallow
center. But that’s just the beginning. Try Aunt Abby’s Chocolate Raspberry Whoopie
Pies, which took first place at the San Francisco Chocolate Festival competition.
Ingredients for Chocolate Cakey Cookie
- 1 ¾ cups flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-½ tsp salt
-½ cup softened butter
-1 cup sugar
-1 egg
-½ cup unsweetened good quality cocoa powder
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 cup milk
Directions
-1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
-2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
-3. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
-4. Combine butter and sugar in a separate bowl.
-5. Beat in egg.
-6. Add cocoa powder and vanilla and mix well.
-7. Stir in flour mixture and milk until smooth.
-8. Spoon dough into 2 tbsp.-sized balls onto baking sheet, about two inches
apart.
-9. Bake for 11-13 minutes until cakes spring back when touched.
-10. Cool completely.
-11. Spread raspberry filling (below) onto one cakey cookie and top with
another cakey cookie.
Ingredients for Raspberry Filling
-1 cup softened butter
-¼ cup raspberry puree
-1 tbsp. milk
-1 tsp vanilla
-3 cups powdered sugar
Directions
-1. Beat butter in medium bowl.
-2. Add raspberry puree, milk, vanilla, and 2 cups powdered sugar and beat
until smooth.
-3. Add more powdered sugar is needed to thicken frosting.
-4. Spread onto cakey cookie.
Makes 16 whoopie pies.
Jake Miller’s Mocha Mousse Cream Puffs
Cream puffs, like whoopie pies, are so versatile when it comes to mixing and matching the
outsides with the fillings. This melt-in-your-mouth puff is perfect with a latte in the
morning, a glass of milk in the afternoon, and a bottle of red wine in the evening.
Ingredients for cream puff shell
-½ cup water
-4 tbsps. butter
-Pinch of sugar
-½ cup flour
-2 beaten eggs
Directions
-1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-2. Combine water, butter, sugar and salt in medium pan and bring to boil.
-3. Remove from heat and add flour.
-4. Place back on medium heat and stir well with wooden spoon for 30 seconds.
-5. Remove from heat and pour into bowl; stir 1 minute.v
-6. Add eggs, half at a time, stirring constantly until batter is smooth.
-7. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
-8. Scoop mixture into balls and place on prepared baking sheet. Leave 2
inches between puffs.
-9. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown, light, and crisp; cool on rack.
Ingredients for mocha filling
-1 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
-6 tbsps. good quality semisweet chocolate chips
-1 ½ tbsps. sugar
-Dash salt
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 tsp instant coffee granules
-Powdered sugar
Directions:
-1. Combine 6 tablespoons of cream, the chocolate chips, sugar, and salt in a
saucepan.
-2. Cook over low heat until chips are melted and ingredients are blended.
-3. Remove from heat and gradually stir in vanilla, coffee and remaining
cream.
-4. Refrigerate for two hours.
-5. Beat filling until stiff.
-6. Fill puff shells with mocha filling.
-7. Dust with powdered sugar, or drizzle raspberry sauce over top.
Makes 8-10 depending on size of puff.
Penny Pike AKA Penny Warner is the author of the new mystery series featuring food
trucks, set in San Francisco, including DEATH OF A CRABBY COOK and DEATH OF A CHOCOLATE
CHEATER. The third book in the series, DEATH OF A BAD APPLE, will be out in 2016.
(Obsidian/NAL/Penguin).
Website
Food truck vendor Darcy Burnett unwraps a murder at the San Francisco Chocolate
Festival in this mystery from the author of DEATH OF A CRABBY COOK…
At this year’s chocolate festival, Darcy and her Aunt Abby hope to win the $10,000 prize
in the chocolate contest with Aunt Abby’s taste sensation: the chocolate raspberry
whoopee pie. A little friendly competition from Darcy’s sometime-beau Jake Miller, who
plans to enter with his chocolate cream puff delight, only sweetens the deal.
But things get sticky when one of the judges, Polly Montgomery, is taken out of
commission—permanently. The suspects include every contestant with reason to believe
Polly wasn’t too sweet on their sweets, including Aunt Abby’s high school friend. Now
Darcy must pick through an assortment of secrets to catch a killer before someone else
gets a bittersweet finish.
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