Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(40)

Unwrap the squares of chocolate and break them apart. Put them in a small microwave-safe bowl. (I used an 8-ounce measuring cup.) Melt them for 90 seconds on HIGH. Stir them until they’re smooth and set them aside to cool while you mix up your cookie dough.

Hannah’s 1stNote: Mixing this dough is easier with an electric mixer. You can do it by hand, but it takes some muscle.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat them on medium speed until they’re smooth. This should take less than a minute.

Add the baking soda and salt, and resume beating on medium again for another minute, or until they’re incorporated.

Add the egg and beat on medium until the batter is smooth (an additional minute should do it.) Add the red food coloring and mix for about 30 seconds.

Shut off the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Then add the melted chocolate and mix again for another minute on medium speed.

Shut off the mixer and scrape down the bowl again. At low speed, mix in half of the flour. (That’s one cup.) When the flour is incorporated, mix in the sour cream.

Scrape down the bowl again and add the rest of the flour. (That’s the second cup.) Beat until the flour is fully incorporated.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and give it a stir with a spoon. Mix in the chocolate chips by hand. (A firm rubber spatula works nicely.)

Use a teaspoon to spoon the dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets, 12 cookies to a standard-sized sheet. (If the dough is too sticky for you to work with, chill it for a half-hour or so, and try again.) Bake the cookies at 375 degrees F., for 9 to 11 minutes, or until they rise and become firm. (Mine took exactly 9 minutes.)

Slide the parchment from the cookie sheets and onto a wire rack. Let the cookies cool on the rack while the next sheet of cookies is baking. When the next sheet of cookies is ready, pull the cooled cookies onto the counter or table and slide the parchment paper with the hot cookies onto the rack. Keep alternating until all the dough has been baked.

When all the cookies are cool, peel them off the parchment paper and put them on waxed paper for frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

? cup softened butter (? stick, 1/8 pound)

4 ounces softened cream cheese (half of an 8-ounce package)

? teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar (no need to sift unless it’s got big lumps)

Mix the softened butter with the softened cream cheese and the vanilla until the mixture is smooth.

Hannah’s 2ndNote: Do this next step at room temperature. If you heated the cream cheese or the butter to soften it, make sure it’s cooled down before you continue.

Add the confectioner’s sugar in half-cup increments until the frosting is of proper spreading consistency. (You’ll use all, or almost all, of the sugar.)

A batch of Red Velvet Cookies yields about 3 dozen, depending on cookie size. They’re soft, velvety, and chocolaty, and they’ll end up being everyone’s favorite.

Hannah’s 3rdNote: If you really want to pull out all the stops, brush the tops of your baked cookies with melted raspberry jam, let it dry, and then frost them with Cream Cheese Frosting.





Chapter Thirteen


“We’re done!” Hannah said, carrying two mugs of coffee over to the stainless steel workstation in the kitchen of The Cookie Jar.

Lisa glanced up at the clock with a smile. “I know, and it’s only seven.”

“You got here at six. You really shouldn’t have come in, Lisa,” Hannah gently chided her partner. “I told you to take the week of the reunion off.”

“I took yesterday off. That’s enough. From now on I’m coming in at six to help with the baking.”

“But that’s a lot of work for you, with the reunion and all.”

“It’s a lot of work for you, too! You’re baking cookies every morning and then coming out to the lake every afternoon to help with the dinner buffet.”

“Okay, you win.” Hannah held up her hands in surrender. “I appreciate the help. But don’t feel you have to come in if you’re too tired, okay?”

“Okay, as long as you don’t feel you have to come out to the lake to help with dinner.”

Hannah laughed. “Do we have a culinary standoff?”

“I think so.” Lisa turned and pointed to the pan of bar cookies she’d baked. “The bars are cool enough to cut. Do you want to taste my new invention?”

“Sure. What do you call them?”

“Rocky Road Bar Cookies, because they remind me of rocky road ice cream.” Lisa walked over to cut a piece and brought it back to Hannah.

“I see nuts, and marshmallows, and chocolate, and…I don’t know what else.”

“Go ahead and taste. And give me your honest opinion.”

Hannah took a bite and chewed. The bars were delicious. “Yummy!” she pronounced. “On a goodness scale of one to ten, these are a twelve.”

“Do they remind you of rocky road ice cream?”

“Yes. And they also remind me of S’mores. We used to make those on Girl Scout campouts.”

“What’s a S’more?”

“A graham cracker with a square of Hershey’s milk chocolate on top. You toast a marshmallow over the campfire, plunk it on top of the chocolate square, and cover it with another graham cracker. Then you eat it when it’s hot and everything just melts in your mouth.”