Raspberry Danish Murder (Hannah Swensen #22)(55)

2 Tablespoons (1 ounce) salted butter

2 cups milk chocolate chips (I used Nestle Milk

Chocolate Chips, the 11.5-ounce package)

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk (NOT

evaporated milk – I used Eagle Brand)





Place the butter in the bottom of a microwave-safe bowl. (I used a quart Pyrex measuring cup)





Place the milk chocolate chips on top of the butter.





Pour in the 14-ounce can of sweetened, condensed milk.





Heat on HIGH for 1 minute. Then remove from the microwave and stir with a heat-resistant rubber spatula.





Return the bowl to the microwave and heat for another minute.





Let the bowl sit in the microwave for 1 minute and then take it out (careful—it may be hot to the touch!) and set it on the counter. Attempt to stir it smooth with the heat-resistant spatula.





If you can stir the mixture smooth, you’re done. If you can’t stir it smooth, return the bowl to the microwave and heat on HIGH in 30-second increments followed by 1 minute standing time, until you can stir it smooth.





To frost your Chocolate Cashew Bar Cookies, simply pour the frosting over the top of your pan and use the heat-resistant rubber spatula to smooth the frosting into the corners.





Give the microwave-safe bowl to your favorite person to scrape clean. (If you’re alone when you’re baking these bar cookies, feel free to enjoy the frosting that’s clinging to the sides of the bowl all by yourself.)





Hannah’s 1st Note: You can also make this recipe on the stovetop if you prefer. Simply heat the ingredients in a saucepan over MEDIUM-LOW heat, stirring constantly until the chips are melted. Then pull it to a cold burner, let it cool for one minute, and proceed to frost your bar cookies.





Hannah’s 2nd Note: This frosting recipe is also enough for a 9-inch by 13-inch cake.





Chapter Seventeen


By the time she parked in her spot in back of The Cookie Jar again, Hannah’s head was swimming with information. Carol had been a font of second-hand gossip, telling Hannah details about P.K. that Hannah probably didn’t need to know. Although most of it seemed to be immaterial to her investigation, Hannah had taken the time to cull through the data and write down a few facts that might be useful.

Even though it was cold once she’d shut off her cookie truck, Hannah paged through her murder book and arranged what she’d learned. “Pinkie” was not P.K.’s girlfriend’s real name, but no one at KCOW had known her true identity. Carol had mentioned, however, that she thought that Pinkie had gone to high school with P.K. Hannah flipped to Pinkie’s name on her suspect list and wrote down that information. She knew that Pinkie and P.K. had broken off their engagement and no longer saw each other. Michelle had told her that, but Mike had once mentioned that anyone who’d had a close personal relationship with the murder victim was automatically a suspect until they’d been cleared.

Next, Hannah flipped to the page she’d set aside for Scotty. Her instincts told her that Scotty probably wasn’t the killer, but she still had to investigate him. Luckily, she knew where to start. Scotty had mentioned that P.K. had joined him at the bar in the Lake Eden Inn. Hannah planned to interview Dick, the co-owner and bartender, when they went out there for dinner with Norman tonight.

Then there was Betty Jackson. She’d told Hannah that she liked P.K., but Betty had been very quick to mention that she thought there had been bad blood between Scotty and P.K. If that turned out to be false, either Betty wasn’t as observant as Hannah thought she was, or Betty had deliberately attempted to steer suspicion away from the real culprit. The real culprit could even be Betty. It seemed unlikely, but Hannah wasn’t even close to having all the facts. Digging for more information might either substantiate or disprove that theory.

The final suspect Hannah had added was the unnamed suspect with an unknown motive. That suspect always had a separate page on her suspect list. In some of her investigations, the name was actually filled in and so was the motive, but not usually this early in an investigation. That could be the case in P.K.’s murder. There was no way she could know that yet.

Hannah closed her murder book, stuck it back in her purse, and got out of her cookie truck. A few moments later, she was stepping inside the kitchen at The Cookie Jar.

“Hannah! You’re back!” Michelle greeted her with a big smile. “Norman went down to the clinic to check on his mail and he’s coming back at five-thirty to pick us up for dinner. Is that okay with you?”

“It’s fine,” Hannah responded, hanging her parka on a hook by the door. “Something smells good. What are you baking?”

“Chocolate Butterscotch Crunch Cookies.”

“Is that a new recipe?”

“Yes. It’s a variation of your Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies and your Chocolate Sugar Cookies. I made a couple of batches of bar cookies, and I wanted to do something in a regular cookie. You had some corn flakes in the pantry, and I found some butterscotch chips, so I decided to try these.”

“They smell great!”