Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #1)(95)

Lisa came in the back door at a quarter to seven, fifteen minutes before she was expected. She found Hannah sitting at the work island in the center of the room, sipping a cup of coffee.

“Hi, Hannah,” she said, hanging her coat on the rack by the back door and slipping out of her boots and into her work shoes. “You cleaned up the kitchen and did all the baking without me?”

Hannah shook her head. “I did the baking, but I didn’t clean the kitchen. That was all done when I came in at a little before five this morning. I thought maybe you couldn’t sleep and you’d done it.”

“No way. And I don’t sleepwalk, either. I wonder who…” Lisa stopped in midthought and began to frown. “Is anything missing?”

“Nothing I can see. Besides, our mystery cleaner left us a gift, and people who come in to steal things don’t usually do that.”

“What gift?”

Hannah pointed. “Candy. The note said they’re called Brown Sugar Drops and they’re on a plate right next to the coffee pot.”

“Did you try one?”

“Of course. They’re wonderful.”

“Okay. I’ll try one, too.”

“You’ll try one now that I’ve acted as official poison taster and I haven’t keeled over yet?”

“That’s right.” Lisa laughed as she walked over to get a piece of candy. She popped it into her mouth, chewed, and headed for the pot to pour herself a cup of coffee. “This is good candy. It reminds me of the maple sugar candy my dad used to buy, except that was a little different. I just wish we had the recipe.”

“We do,” Hannah told her, pulling out a stool so that Lisa could sit at the workstation, and handing her the handwritten recipe their early morning visitor had left.

Lisa glanced down at the recipe. “This is great. I’m really glad she left it for us.”

“She?”

“I think so. The writing looks feminine.”

Hannah began to grin. “Because it’s neat?”

“That could be part of it. But it’s also small. The letters are delicate and all the men I know write a lot larger.”

“I don’t think that proves anything. My dad had small handwriting. He could fit things on drawer labels that I had to abbreviate. I think it depends on how you were taught. People used to take great pride in their handwriting. If you look at documents from the eighteen hundreds, you’ll find some notable men with perfect penmanship. And how about the illuminated manuscripts all those monks wrote in the Middle Ages?”

“You’re right,” Lisa admitted. “I guees I made a sexist remark.”

“You certainly did. And I totally agree with you.”

“You do?”

“Absolutely. I’m convinced that a woman wrote that recipe.”

“Why?”

“Because men don’t usually use turquoise ink.”

Lisa took a huge swig of her coffee. “I’m not awake enough for this yet.” She took another swig and then she looked at Hannah again. “If you agreed with me in the first place, why did you argue?”

“Because I like to argue. It gets my brain cells firing and we need all the brainpower we can get today.”

“You mean because we have to figure out who broke in and cleaned our kitchen for us?”

“That’s right. And we have to figure out something else, too.”

“What’s that?”

“The next time it happens, we have to figure out how to get her to put on the coffee before she leaves.”





BROWN SUGAR DROPS




Hannah’s 1st Note: Candy told us that the original name of this recipe was “Browned” Sugar Drops. Over the years, it got shortened to Brown Sugar Drops, even though there’s no brown sugar in the candy.



To make this candy, you will need a candy thermometer. I use the kind with a glass tube and a sliding metal clamp that attaches to the side of a saucepan. And even though the recipe calls for a 3-quart saucepan, I always use my 4-quart pan. That way I don’t have to worry about the candy foaming up over the sides.



1 cup buttermilk

2 ? cups white (granulated) sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Tablespoons (1/8 cup) white Karo syrup

? cup butter, room temperature (1 stick, ? pound)



Before you start, get out a 3-quart saucepan and your candy thermometer. Place the thermometer inside the saucepan with the sliding clamp on the outside. Slide the thermometer through the clamp until it’s approximately ? inch from the bottom of the pan. (If the bulb touches the bottom of the pan, your reading will be wildly off.)



On a cold burner, combine the buttermilk, sugar, baking soda, and white Karo syrup in the saucepan. Stir the mixture until it’s smooth.



Turn your burner on medium high heat. STIR the candy mixture CONSTANTLY until it boils. (This will take about 10 minutes, so pull up a stool and get comfortable while you stir.)



Move the saucepan to a cold burner, but don’t turn off the hot burner. You’ll be getting right back to it.



Drop the butter into the candy mixture and stir it in. (This could sputter a bit, so be careful.) Slide the saucepan back on the hot burner and watch it cook. STIRRING IS NOT NECESSARY FROM THIS POINT ON. Just give it a little mix when you feel like it. Enjoy a cup of Swedish Plasma and one of those yummy cookies you baked last night while you wait for the candy thermometer to come up to the 240 degree F. mark.