A Ghostly Affair: A cozy mystery series (Death by Chocolate Book 3) (13 page)

Sunlight flooded through Grandma Ellie’s bay windows and onto the celebrants gathered around her dining room table in front of a chocolate ganache cake. Maxine couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.

Patrick stood just behind her while Grandma Ellie, Heath, Heather, Tanya and Wendy, Marcus, Ally, Jane and Danielle along with a few others such as Sam from the shop next door to hers, gathered around the table. Jacob Jones, January Stevens and Matt Jones were also there.

“It’s not as if you’re the only one who can cook,” Tanya said laughing.

“You really made this yourself,” Maxine said amazed. Tanya was many things but – master baker?

She looked up to see Tanya stopping herself from laughing while Heath made funny faces.

“So, I was more like an assistant,” she said laughing. “Heath really made the cake.”

Heath shrugged good naturedly.  “She helped with the leaves and putting it together. The important thing is that you didn’t have to bake it yourself.”

“We wanted to thank you and Patrick specially for solving Zak’s death and figure out what really happened, “Grandma Ellie said.

Tanya shuddered. “We still might not know if you hadn’t  figured it out.”

“I’m,” she shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re doing this for me. I mean I didn’t do anything special.”

“Maybe that’s what makes you special,” Jake Jones said. “I can’t think of anyone with your tenacity or drive. In a good way!”

“Well, I couldn’t have done it without all of you,” she said, cutting the chocolate cake carefully, so that they could all enjoy it.

It was a perfect ending to a ghostly affair, as she’d come to call the events of the last few weeks.

Hi there

People are always asking me what my secret is and why everything I make always turns out so well. (Thank you, I so appreciate all your support)

But the real secret is in my ingredients. I NEVER SCRIMP. Nope, the butter is my baked goods is always butter. The cream is always fresh and the vanilla is REAL.

Now, I can’t share ALL my recipes with you or you might stop coming into my shop. But I like to share a few at the end of each book and this time I’m sharing some absolutely delicious cookie recipes. Really, you can’t go wrong with these:

BASIC BUTTER COOKIES

This is a basic dough that can be added to or changed up to make chocolate, caramel-pecan or black and whites. Add nuts, sprinkle with sugar crystals or glaze. Really, you can’t go wrong with it!

2 cups flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

½ tsp vanilla (adjust to individual taste)

Mix together dry ingredients

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy (3 minutes with a standing mixer, 6 with a hand mixer.

Beat in egg and vanilla

Add flour mixture in at low speed, a third at a time.

Take dough out of bowl and form (10 – 12 inches) it into a log on a sheet of plastic wrap.

Chill until firm or at least for a couple of hours.

To Bake

Heat oven at 375 degrees

Take cooled log and slice ¼ inch slices until you have enough to fill two baking sheets. Place on ungreased cooking sheet about an inch apart. Cook for about seven minutes with a sheet on each oven rack. Switch baking sheets and bake another 5-7 minutes until edges are golden. Cool for a couple of minutes and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely. Continue until all dough is used.

Garnish with melted chocolate drizzling back and forth across the cookies or sprinkles of coarse sugar.  These cookies can be kept for up to a week in an airtight container between layers of wax paper. They never seem to last that long for me but perhaps your house will be different.

Also, you can save part of the dough for up to five days chilled in the fridge or wrapped in plastic for up to a month in your freezer.

PECAN CARAMELS

A seriously good variation

Butter cookie dough for crust (at room temperature)

Line 13 X 9 baking pan with foil with 2 inch overhang. Spray with PAM.

Press dough into pan and chill

Bake in 375 degree oven for twenty minutes. Make the topping

Caramel Topping

1 ½ cups sugar

3,/4 cup butter

½ tsp vanilla

Dash salt

2 cups pecans chopped

Cook sugar in heavy saucepan over medium heat until it begins to melt. Continue to cook stirring occasionally until sugar is melted to a golden caramel color. Tilt pan and carefully pour in cream which will harden. Cook over low heat until caramel is dissolved then add the butter, vanilla and salt. Add the pecans.

Top crust with caramel pecan mixture and bake in oven for 20 minutes. Cool in pan then cut into squares, triangles or whatever you want. NOTE: Run knife under hot water wiping off excess before cutting cookies.

ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE COOKIE

Basic butter dough recipe but add in ½ cup dutch or best quality cocoa powder and ½ tsp baking soda to dry ingredients.

Mix ingredients together until you have a stiff dough. Form dough into 10 -12 inch log. Cool for at least a couple of hours.

To Bake

Heat oven at 375 degrees

Take cooled log and slice ¼ inch slices until you have enough to fill two baking sheets. For a change roll uncut log in pecan pieces or crushed almonds. Place on ungreased cooking sheet about an inch apart. Cook for about seven minutes with a sheet on each oven rack. Switch baking sheets and bake another 5-7 minutes until edges are golden. Cool for a couple of minutes and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely. Continue until all dough is used.

Garnish  with sprinkles of coarse sugar or nuts.  These cookies can be kept for up to a week in an airtight container between layers of wax paper. They never seem to last that long for me but perhaps your house will be different.

Also, you can save part of the dough for up to five days chilled in the fridge or wrapped in plastic for up to a month in your freezer.

Brookies

A combination of cookie and brownie I’ve tried several varieties but for me this wins hands down

Salted Chocolate Espresso Brookies

10 oz bittersweet chocolate,

¾ cup butter

2 Tbsp instant espresso powder (or coffee if that’s what you have)

1/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp sea salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

¾ cup sugar

Melt chocolate (except for 2 oz), butter and espresso powder in chocolate melter or microwave. Allow to cool.

Mix together the eggs sugar and vanilla extract at low speed or by whisking

Mix the dry ingredients together

Take the egg, sugar and vanilla mixture and add it slowly into the chocolate, butter and expresso.

Fold in the dry ingredients and remaining chocolate slowly. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 325

Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper and drop small ice-cream scoops of dough onto sheets a couple of inches apart.

Change baking sheets about five minutes in then bake for another five minutes until tops are dry and cracked.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with sea salt and cool for five minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

There you have it. Some seriously good cookie recipes that can be used for all occasions. I think I may make some of those Chocolate Espresso Brookies now. They’re so good!

First in cozy mystery series, Death By Chocolate

Maxine is the brand new owner of a chocolate shop and catering business 'Au Chocolat'.

She figures with a lot of hard work and a little luck she'll be able to make her dream a reality. But people aren't supposed to die holding one of her chocolates in their hands.
It's up to her to find out what happened and make sure justice is done. Before people decide even chocolate isn't worth dying for. To do that she'll have to dig into the lives of some of Victoria's richest, most powerful, people.
And in the process a killer may decide the only way to stop Maxine is to kill her. There are a lot of suspects to choose from since the victim died at one of the premier social events of the season.
Will Maxine will be able to find the killer, before she becomes the next victim?

http://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Worth-Dying-For-Death-ebook/dp/B00ECUG9TA

A Christmas Wedding To Die For

Second in cozy mystery series, Death By Chocolate

Maxine is making the wedding cake for the Christmas Wedding of the season. And it's to be held in one of her favorite places, Butchart Gardens. But before the day is over the bride lies at death's door and it's up to Maxine to find out just who wanted Julianna dead.

Could it be something to do with the rivalry between their parent's two gaming companies? The two founders started off together, fresh out of university. At some point they'd started fighting with Julianna's dad, Zeke branching off with a new game. A game, Amoury, Rohan's dad, had always claimed was stolen from Zone 2 Gaming. The two had gone on to become wildly successful in their own right, while remaining fiercely competitive.

And then, Rohan, for whatever reason, had quit university part way through to take an entry level job at AC Gamers, instead of finishing university and going into Zone 2 Gaming. Maybe Julianna had been the draw from the beginning.

Maybe once Rohan started working there, they became closer working on projects together, where Julianna's love of social translated into marketing success, while Rohan's gaming skills resulted in a brand new game and huge success in the online gaming world.

And then they decided they were in love and wanted to get married. Tension didn't begin to cover the situation. But was it enough to cause someone to try offing the bride?

Will Maxine be able to stop a killer from striking again so Rohan and Julianna can have their own Happily Ever After?

Available on Amazon.com    http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Wedding-Death-Chocolate-Book-ebook/dp/B00H1JWXA

And for Romantic Suspense with a touch of humour 

Lost In Vegas

Vegas - the city of gamblers, dreamers, heroes and heartbreak. And Kate McLarens' last chance to redeem herself by putting her boyfriend's fail-safe black jack system into action to make payroll for her salon. Make that ex-boyfriend when the system fails miserably. 
She wakes up to find herself being given mouth to mouth resuscitation by sexy JT Sullivan of Security. But the only way she can convince him not to send her to the nearest ER is by agreeing to meet him for breakfast the next day. After she tells him she's gone from business woman of the year to not being able to make payroll and can't face going back to her hometown he convinces her to stay in Vegas, finds her a place to stay and a job waiting tables. 
Determined to make the money she needs to pay off her debts she stays in Vegas and things are looking up when she gets a job styling a famous star making a comeback. Unfortunately her ex-boyfriend is still in Vegas and takes the opportunity to kidnap the star she works for and her. 
JT Sullivan has to find the kidnappers and bring them back. It looks as if he's succeeded when Max returns the star and keeps Kate. Now JT has to put everything on the line to get Kate back. 
If you like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plumb series or Stephanie Bond's Body Mover Series you'll like Lost In Vegas!

Available on Amazon.com   http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Vegas-Pat-Amsden-ebook/dp/B00CYZICQ8