Devil's Food Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #14)(45)

You’re going to make the topping first, and that’s easy. In a small bowl (or a food processor with the steel blade) combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

If you’re doing this by hand, use your fingers or 2 knives and cut the butter into the flour until it looks like cornmeal. (If you’re using a food processor, use the steel blade and process with an on-and-off motion until the resulting mixture looks like cornmeal.)

Mix in the chopped pecans by hand and set aside on the counter.

Drain the pear halves, but DON’T THROW AWAY THE JUICE. You’ll use it later.

Dry the pear halves thoroughly on paper towels.

On a COLD BURNER, combine the sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, and salt in a medium-size saucepan. Stir them together until they’re thoroughly combined.

Mix in the pear liquid, stirring it well.

Turn the burner on MEDIUM HIGH.

Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture loses its milky appearance and turns clear. This is a little tricky for anyone who’s not used to working with cornstarch. A good rule of thumb is to heat the mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or a heat-resistant spatula until it just barely reaches the boil. Set your timer for 5 minutes and keep stirring the entire time. That guarantees you’ve cooked it long enough.

When 5 minutes are up, remove the saucepan from the heat and move it to a cold burner. Stir in the butter and the lemon juice, and let the filling sit there cooling while you work with the pear halves.

Arrange the pear halves, rounded side up, in the bottom of your unbaked pie shell. You don’t have to worry about being too artistic, because the pears will be covered with the crunch topping.

When the pear halves are arranged to your satisfaction, place the pan with the pie shell on a drip pan. (I use a cookie sheet with sides.) Pour the hot pear pudding you just made over the top of the pear halves as evenly as you can.

Give the topping you made earlier a final stir with a fork. Then sprinkle it over the tops of the pear halves as evenly as you can. This will form the sweet “crunch” part of Pear Crunch Pie. Rhanna’s recipe calls for a lot of crunch topping, so heap it on and press it down to form a bumpy, golden brown top crust.

Bake the Pear Crunch Pie at 425 degrees F. for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the topping turns dark golden brown and looks delicious. (In this case looks are NOT deceiving—it’s yummy!)

Yield: Rhanna’s recipe says you can get 8 pieces from this 9-inch pie, but those people must not be big dessert eaters. I always have to make two pies when I invite the family for dinner. Counting Bethany (who’s too little to eat Pear Crunch Pie yet) there are only 7 of us!

Rhanna used to make a slew of these pies for Sally’s Thanksgiving buffet. The Pear Crunch Pies were a great addition to Sally’s wonderful pumpkin pies.





Chapter Fifteen

Hannah woke up at four in the morning, fifteen minutes before her alarm clock was due to give its series of irritating beeps. She switched it off, clicked on the lamp sitting on her bed table, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Even though the facts did not support it, she felt well rested in both mind and body, and supremely happy. In short, Hannah felt wonderful, much better than she had in months.

“It was good seeing Norman again, wasn’t it Moishe?” she addressed her feline roommate, who was staring at her with wide, startled eyes. The sight of her astonished cat so amused her, she burst into laughter.

The hair on Moishe’s back began to stand up as she continued to laugh. He was obviously shocked by her high-spirited alertness at this hour of the morning, and that sent her into another gale of laughter. Normally, she let out a groan of dismay when the alarm woke her. More often than not, she got her slippers on the wrong feet, and she stumbled her way down the hall to the kitchen in dire danger of falling back asleep on the way.

“Rowww!” Moishe protested and jumped off the bed. She heard him run down the hallway, and then there was a thump as he leaped up onto the top floor of the Kitty Kondo Norman had given him. It was clear that Hannah’s cat wasn’t sure what to make of this new happy person who was inhabiting his mistress’s body, and he’d chosen to hide in the safest place he knew while he attempted to figure it out.

“Relax. It’s just Norman’s influence,” she called out as she padded down the hallway, her slippers on the correct feet, to the kitchen to pour her first cup of coffee. The mug in hand, she peered around the kitchen doorway. Moishe was still in his Kitty Kondo. He may have thought he was hidden, but his tail was hanging out of the doorway. “It’s okay. I promise not to laugh again until the sun comes up.”

Three of the four loaves of apricot bread she’d baked last night with Norman were still on the rack on the counter. Hannah debated cutting a slice for her breakfast. She was saving one loaf for her mother. Delores loved Sally’s Apricot Bread. She’d take the other two loaves down to The Cookie Jar with her and see if she could make a dessert with them that Lisa could serve if they ran out of cookies.

Would they run out of cookies? Hannah thought it was a distinct possibility. Everyone loved to come in, have a cup of coffee and two cookies, and listen to Lisa tell the story of Hannah finding a murder victim. The last time Lisa had performed her “Hannah Finds The Body” story, they had run out of cookies by early afternoon and had closed by two!

There was no way Hannah wanted to serve plain slices of apricot bread. They could get that out at The Lake Eden Inn in Sally’s bread basket. She had to think of another dessert, one that used cake or bread. Sally’s Apricot Bread was halfway between the two.