Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(58)

Bake your Savory Tortilla Cups at 350 degrees F. for 8 to 10 minutes or until they are beginning to brown slightly.



Take the muffin tin out of the oven and set it on a cold stove burner for 10 to 15 minutes or until the muffin tin and its contents are cool to the touch.



Hannah’s 3rd Note: Letting the Savory Tortilla Cups cool in the pan will firm them up so that they will maintain their cup shape when you remove them.



Flip the muffin tin over on a wire rack. The Tortilla Cups should tip right out. Since they’re now upside down on the rack, flip them over, place them on a platter, and fill them with contents of your choice.



Michelle’s Note: I’m going to use these Savory Tortilla Cups for potato salad, chicken salad, and tuna salad.





SWEET TORTILLA CUPS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.



5 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 cup white (granulated) sugar ? cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, ? pound) salted butter 12 flour tortillas (I used Mission brand 8-inch size.)





Hannah’s 1st Note: I like to add a bit of cardamom to this recipe so I use 4 and ? teaspoons of cinnamon and ? teaspoon of cardamom.



Place the cinnamon in a shallow bowl on the counter that is an inch or so larger than the size of the tortillas.



Hannah’s 2nd Note: I usually use a 10-inch pie pan for the spices and sugar and another one for the butter.



Add the white sugar to the bowl with the cinnamon (and cardamom if you used it) and mix them together with a fork.



Place the cup of salted butter in a second shallow bowl that is microwave-safe.



Heat the butter on HIGH in the microwave for 30 seconds. Check to see if your butter is melted. If it is, take the bowl out of the microwave. If it isn’t, heat it for another 15 seconds on HIGH.



When the butter is melted, take the bowl out of the microwave and set it on your kitchen counter next to the bowl with the cinnamon and sugar mixture. (Be careful. The bowl with the melted butter could be hot.)



Move the prepared muffin pan next to the bowls for easy access.



Using your impeccably clean fingers or tongs, dip a flour tortilla into the bowl with the melted butter. Be sure to coat both sides of the tortilla.



Take the tortilla out of the butter bowl and dip it in the bowl with the cinnamon and sugar. Again, be sure to coat both sides with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.



With your impeccably clean fingers, press the center of your buttered and coated tortilla into one of the muffin cups. Then press the sides of the tortilla against the side of the muffin cup. (You may have to overlap the sides of the tortilla together to get a good fit.)



Repeat the above steps with the remaining 11 flour tortillas.



Hannah’s 3rd Note: If you have quite a bit of melted butter and cinnamon and sugar mixture left, don’t worry. You can always save it to make Tortilla Snickerdoodle Cookies. (The recipe is also in this book. You may have to re-melt the butter, but that’s easy to do in the microwave.)



Bake your Sweet Tortilla Cups at 350 degrees F. for 13 to 15 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown.



Take the muffin tin out of the oven and set it on a cold stove burner for 10 to 15 minutes or until the muffin tin and its contents are cool to the touch.



Hannah’s 4th Note: Letting the Sweet Tortilla Cups cool in the pan will firm them up so that they will maintain their cup shape when you remove them.



Flip the muffin tin over on a wire rack. The Sweet Tortilla Cups should tip right out. Since they’re now upside down on the rack, flip them over, place them on a platter, and fill them with a scoop of ice cream drizzled with syrup, or fruit pieces topped with sweetened, whipped cream.





Chapter Fifteen


Hannah glanced at the alarm clock on her dresser. It was three in the morning on Monday and she was wide awake. Her neck was stiff and she changed positions, but it didn’t seem to help. She looked over at the cats sleeping beside her and realized that Cuddles was sleeping on Moishe’s pillow, and Hannah’s resident feline had appropriated her pillow in defense.

No wonder her neck felt stiff! Perhaps that was why she had opened her eyes an hour and a half before she had to get up.

She sat up and assessed her condition. Wide awake. Feeling reasonably well rested. Longing for a hot shower to erase the ache in her neck. Hannah knew that if she shooed Moishe off her pillow and tried to go back to sleep, she’d toss and turn for the entire hour and a half before her alarm went off.

You’re not going to go back to sleep so you might as well get up, Hannah’s rational mind told her. That made sense and Hannah folded back her quilt. As she always did when she looked at her quilt, Hannah smiled. It was printed with cute, frolicking cats, and Norman had given it to her the one time in her life that she’d been locked up in the Winnetka County Jail.

Once Hannah had made her way to the bathroom and taken her morning shower, she felt fully awake, her neck had loosened, and she craved coffee. She sniffed the air, half-hoping that Michelle had heard the master bedroom shower running and had decided to get up, too. But it was clear that Michelle was still asleep because all was silent outside her bedroom door.