Read Online Pistols & Pies (Sweet Bites Book 2) (Sweet Bites Mysteries) by Heather Justesen - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Heather Justesen
Tags: Murder mysteries, culinary mysteries, recipes included, Sweet Bites Bakery, Tess Crawford, Tempest Crawford, pastry chefs
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area. Some of her employees probably stop by your shop for a muffin or Danish.”
I stopped at a corner and looked at Honey. “Anything else?”
Her eyes sparkled—she loved sharing gossip, and this sounded very relevant. “They indicated she’d thrown a fit about bringing in an independent auditor and said there was nothing wrong with her books and made such a commotion that most of the staff on her floor overheard it—even from their offices.”
I pulled back into the road. “Hmm. I wonder what she has to hide.”
“I don’t know, but I think we need to find out.”
We speculated on how we could approach Anise without drawing too much attention to ourselves.
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
¾ cup softened butter
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond flavoring
Filling
1 3/4 cups raisins
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup water
1 pinch salt
1 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water
To Make the Dough: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside. Cream the butter with 3/4 cup of the brown sugar and the white sugar. Beat in the eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix at high speed for two minutes, then reduce speed and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Refrigerate if you have time, dough will be sticky otherwise and require a little extra flour to be mixed into it for immediate use. Sometimes it still needs a little extra flour when you roll it out.
To Make Raisin Filling: Grind the raisins. (I cook my mixture for a few minutes to soften raisins, then whirl it in my blender for a few seconds before returning it to the pan before adding the cornstarch). In a medium saucepan combine the ground raisins, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup water, salt and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 3 minutes.
Combine the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the water and mix until smooth. Add to the raisin mixture and continue to simmer until thick. Remove from heat and let cool.
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets.
On a floured surface, roll out the chilled dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 2 3/4 inch rounds (the ring off of a canning jar works great.) Place rounds on the prepared baking sheet. Place a couple of teaspoons of the raisin filling on the cookie round, spreading it out to within a ¼ inch of the edges and top with another cookie round. Crimp the edges closed.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on sheet until just barely warm.
Honey doesn’t care for raisins, so I make a cherry-pineapple variation for her.
To make the filling, reduce the amount of dried raisins in half and replace with dried cherries, reduce the sugar to ¼ cup, Add ½ cup of crushed pineapple and use juice from pineapple instead of water, prepare everything else as directed.
Every morning before I start work, and several times through the day, I check my website email to see if there are any new orders, or quote requests for a custom dessert. The site had been operational since May—thanks to Honey’s brilliant web design skills. It featured some of my most amazing cakes, a blog where I post pictures of newer creations and a list of my other products.
Once I had my store opened and the shelves at least mostly stocked for the day, I sat down to check my email again. I could hear Lenny moving around in the kitchen, humming as he frosted some cupcakes that had been ordered for a party that night.
Since we were still a new company—I loved being able to say we, now that Lenny was here—I didn’t receive a lot of electronic orders yet, but I had been giving out my card like crazy and things had started to trickle in.
I clicked my way into my mail program and my inbox smiling when I found a message from Anon E. Mouse. It should have been a clue, but I didn’t look that closely or read it aloud. Mouse? What a funny name, I thought instead. And I
I stopped at a corner and looked at Honey. “Anything else?”
Her eyes sparkled—she loved sharing gossip, and this sounded very relevant. “They indicated she’d thrown a fit about bringing in an independent auditor and said there was nothing wrong with her books and made such a commotion that most of the staff on her floor overheard it—even from their offices.”
I pulled back into the road. “Hmm. I wonder what she has to hide.”
“I don’t know, but I think we need to find out.”
We speculated on how we could approach Anise without drawing too much attention to ourselves.
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
¾ cup softened butter
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond flavoring
Filling
1 3/4 cups raisins
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup water
1 pinch salt
1 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water
To Make the Dough: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside. Cream the butter with 3/4 cup of the brown sugar and the white sugar. Beat in the eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix at high speed for two minutes, then reduce speed and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Refrigerate if you have time, dough will be sticky otherwise and require a little extra flour to be mixed into it for immediate use. Sometimes it still needs a little extra flour when you roll it out.
To Make Raisin Filling: Grind the raisins. (I cook my mixture for a few minutes to soften raisins, then whirl it in my blender for a few seconds before returning it to the pan before adding the cornstarch). In a medium saucepan combine the ground raisins, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup water, salt and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 3 minutes.
Combine the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the water and mix until smooth. Add to the raisin mixture and continue to simmer until thick. Remove from heat and let cool.
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets.
On a floured surface, roll out the chilled dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 2 3/4 inch rounds (the ring off of a canning jar works great.) Place rounds on the prepared baking sheet. Place a couple of teaspoons of the raisin filling on the cookie round, spreading it out to within a ¼ inch of the edges and top with another cookie round. Crimp the edges closed.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on sheet until just barely warm.
Honey doesn’t care for raisins, so I make a cherry-pineapple variation for her.
To make the filling, reduce the amount of dried raisins in half and replace with dried cherries, reduce the sugar to ¼ cup, Add ½ cup of crushed pineapple and use juice from pineapple instead of water, prepare everything else as directed.
Every morning before I start work, and several times through the day, I check my website email to see if there are any new orders, or quote requests for a custom dessert. The site had been operational since May—thanks to Honey’s brilliant web design skills. It featured some of my most amazing cakes, a blog where I post pictures of newer creations and a list of my other products.
Once I had my store opened and the shelves at least mostly stocked for the day, I sat down to check my email again. I could hear Lenny moving around in the kitchen, humming as he frosted some cupcakes that had been ordered for a party that night.
Since we were still a new company—I loved being able to say we, now that Lenny was here—I didn’t receive a lot of electronic orders yet, but I had been giving out my card like crazy and things had started to trickle in.
I clicked my way into my mail program and my inbox smiling when I found a message from Anon E. Mouse. It should have been a clue, but I didn’t look that closely or read it aloud. Mouse? What a funny name, I thought instead. And I
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