Murder by Mocha (43 page)

Step 2—Cook the bacon and prep the veggies:
Take out a separate, large pan, and slowly cook the fat out of the chopped bacon. Do this over low heat, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook only until the fat is rendered; the bacon should not be crispy.

Step 3—Cook the veggies:
When the bacon fat is rendered, add the chopped onions, garlic, bell peppers, and jalapeño. Cook slowly over medium heat until the onions are translucent and the peppers soft, for 10–15 minutes.

Step 4—Create a spice mix:
Pour the remaining cup of Guinness into a mixing bowl and add the chili powder, oregano, thyme, cumin, cinnamon, coriander, fennel, and ground almonds. Pour this aromatic mixture into the pan with the bacon and vegetables. Stir well to blend. Using a hand immersion blender, chop and blend the ingredients into a smooth sauce. When well blended, add the chocolate, stirring until melted and velvety smooth.

Step 5—Add the chicken and finish:
Add the chicken to the sauce and continuing cooking until thick, for 25–30 minutes. Plate the chicken mole and sprinkle sesame seeds, if using, over the finished dish. Serve hot with plenty of warm flour or corn tortillas for dipping in this amazingly flavorful sauce!

Peanut Butter Surprises ( Peanut Butter Cookies with Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Hearts)

Sergeant Franco rivals Elvis in his love of peanut butter. (This Clare knew from the Five-Borough Bake Sale that took place in
Roast Mortem
.) With her promo bag of chocolate chips from the ICE show, she decided to create this “surprise” treat for him—a sweet and tender peanut butter cookie with the kind of ooey-gooey chocolate heart that grown men swoon for—and the perfect, home- baked thank-you for body-slamming that scumbag Sun God.

Makes 18–20 big, stuffed cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1¼ cups peanut butter (standard creamy, not sugarless)
1 cup granulated sugar plus ½ cup, for dusting
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate chips (6–8 ounces)
Confectioners’ sugar, optional

Step 1—Make the dough:
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and vanilla and blend well. Finally, add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix only enough until a soft dough forms.

Step 2—Form and stuff:
Pinch off generous pieces of dough and roll into big, golf-ball-sized rounds. Cradle the cookie ball in one hand. Use the thumb of your opposite hand to make a deep indentation in the center of each cookie ball. Fill the hole with about a teaspoon of chocolate chips and then seal the chocolate inside the dough ball. Gently roll the balls in white, granulated sugar for a finished look.

Step 3—Freeze:
Place the cookie balls on a wax-paper-covered plate in the freezer for 30 minutes. (The wax paper will prevent the dough from adhering to the plate.) Do not skip this freezing step. This is the key to a successful cookie. If you don’t freeze the cookie dough before baking, the cookie may break while baking and the chocolate may ooze out instead of staying in the center of the cookie.

Step 4—Bake:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place chilled cookie balls on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, keeping the balls a few inches apart to allow for spreading. Bake 20–30 minutes. The cookies are not done until they flatten out, so be patient and wait for this to happen. The chocolate should stay inside. A nice “cover” for a cookie with oozing chocolate is to gently dust with confectioners’ sugar. (Yes, a bit of sweetness and light once again rescues the day—and the cookie.)

Note:
Hot cookies are fragile. Allow them to cool before picking them up or they’ll break on you. And allow your baking sheets to cool before putting more dough on them.

“Fudge Factor” Cupcake Tops

“What I can’t swallow is fudg
ing
,” Mike told Clare, “as in fudging statistics, fudging results, fudging the truth. Mathematicians call it a fudge factor—putting an extra calculation into an equation just so it will work out as expected . . . It’s what we law- enforcement types call a scam.”

After Clare finally discovered the “fudge factor” in Alicia’s Mocha Magic powder, she contemplated a “fudge factor” goodie, one that was packed with chocolate flavor but without an excessive amount of butter in the ingredient list.

These fudge brownie–like rounds are the result. They’ll delight your taste buds with the sultry flavor and aroma of chocolate, and when frosted, you’ll think you’re eating the top of an old-fashioned fudge cupcake. But here’s the best part—with Clare’s “fudge factor” in place, these treats use far less butter than similar recipes. Can you find the “fudge factor” in Clare’s ingredient list?

Makes about 20 rounds

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
¼ cup hot brewed coffee
1 cup ricotta cheese (whole milk)
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
Fast Mocha Frosting (recipe follows)

Step 1—Create the mocha paste:
In a small saucepan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, chocolate, and coffee. Over low heat, melt everything together into a mocha paste, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. At no time should this liquid boil, or you’ll get a terrible burnt taste to the chocolate. If that happens, discard and begin again. (You can also microwave these ingredients. Use a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 30-second bursts, stirring between each burst to avoid burning the chocolate.) Set aside to cool.

Step 2—Mix up the dough and chill:
Using an electric mixer, beat ricotta cheese and sugars a minute or so. Add in the mocha paste, egg, and vanilla. Blend until smooth. With the mixer set to low, mix in flour, salt, and baking powder. Do not overmix or you’ll produce gluten in the flour, and your rounds will be tough instead of tender. Chill dough at least 1 hour in the refrigerator before baking. You must do this to harden up the dough and also to allow the flavors to develop. (During this hour of chilling, the chocolate will richly penetrate the ricotta cheese).

Step 3—Bake, cool, and frost:
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray. (Yes, spray the paper! These “cupcake tops” are lower in fat than cookies and cakes with lots of butter and will have a greater tendency to stick. The parchment will also protect the bottom of your rounds from browning too much.) Drop a heaping tablespoon of dough per round onto your the baking sheet and cook for 10–13 minutes. Do not overbake. The finished round will feel spongy to the touch on the outside but with a somewhat firm structure. The inside should be fudgy, moist, and a little underbaked. The rounds will be too soft to pick up when they first come out of the oven. Slide the entire sheet of parchment onto a wire rack and allow rounds to cool before lifting or moving. They will harden as they cool—and they’ll taste deliciously fudgy, filling your mouth as you chew with the sultry flavor and aroma of chocolate. Once cool, frost with Fast Mocha Frosting (see below).

How to Make Fast Mocha Frosting:
In a nonstick saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. Add 4 tablespoons cold brewed coffee, 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. (Do not boil or you may get a scorched taste.) While stirring, add 2–2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, a little at a time, until mixture is melted and smooth. (You be the judge on the consistency you prefer. The amount you need may vary depending on the humidity or your altitude.) Remove from heat and work quickly to frost the cooled cupcake tops. The frosting hardens fast. You can always reheat, stir, and add a bit more coffee to soften again.

Phoebe Themis’s Mini Chocolate-Chip Scones

The scone is the UK equivalent of an American biscuit. They’re delicious with tea or coffee, slathered with butter while still warm, or split and served with clotted (or unsweetened whipped) cream and fruit preserves. The scone originated as a Scottish quick bread. According to Madame’s new favorite librarian, “The name came from the original Stone of Destiny, known as Scone, which was the place where Scottish kings were once crowned.” For further reading, Phoebe Themis suggests
The Stone of Destiny: Symbol of Nationhood
by David Breeze, Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments, and Graeme Munro, Chief Executive, Historic Scotland, published by Historic Scotland, 1997.

Makes 12 scones, of 2 to 2½ inches in diameter

2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (yes, with the self-rising flour!)
½ cup (1 stick) butter, well softened
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup whole milk (for a richer scone, use half-and-half or light cream)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw), for dusting, optional

Step 1—Prepare the dry ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Place a sieve in a bowl and measure the flour and baking powder into it and then lift the sieve and sift the two together into the bowl. Add the (softened) butter. Use your fingers to work the butter completely into the flour until the mixture is mealy and crumbly. Fold in the granulated sugar and chocolate chips.

Step 2—Prepare the wet ingredients:
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and egg. Reserve 4 tablespoons of this mixture and place it in a separate cup. (You’ll use this reserved liquid to coat the scones before baking.) Whisk the vanilla into the remaining egg mixture.

Step 3—Marry the dry and wet:
Using a fork, begin to combine the egg mixture with the dry ingredients, a little at a time. A sticky dough will form.

Step 4—Knead gently and stamp out your scones:
Form the dough into a ball and move it to a floured surface. If the dough is especially wet or sticky, add a bit more flour until you can work with it. Using floured hands, shape and pat the dough into a very thick circle of about ¾- to 1-inch thick. Stamp out the scones with a round biscuit (or cookie) cutter that’s around 2 inches in diameter. For best result, dip the cutter repeatedly in flour between applications to the sticky dough. Gather up the scraps and repeat until all the dough is used up. Using a pastry brush, coat the top and sides of each scone with the milk-egg mixture that you reserved in Step 2. Sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar (optional).

Step 5—Bake:
Place your pan on the top rack of the oven and bake for 10–15 minutes, depending on the size of your scones. To ensure even browning, rotate the pan once during baking. They are done when the tops have turned a golden brown. Remove and cool on a wire rack. (To reheat scones, wrap loosely in foil, and warm in a preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes.)

CLARE’S BROOKLYN BLACKOUT CAKE (FOR MIKE)

W
HEN Mike had to become untraceable for his own safety, Clare went a little crazy. To keep as busy as possible during this blackout period, she decided to make her Blackout Cake.

The Blackout is a rich and decadent chocolate cake with fudge pudding slathered between each of the three layers. The entire cake is then frosted in chocolate and covered in cake crumbs. The original recipe was developed in Brooklyn, New York, during World War II, and is named after the blackout drills performed by the Civilian Defense Corps.

Because the dessert is time-consuming to make and complicated to assemble, Clare found it the perfect distraction from her continual worries about Mike’s safety. Even better, when Mike finally appeared, safe and happy, she had this incredible cake ready to help them celebrate.

The recipe for this cake, along with photo illustrations on how to make it, can be found at my Coffeehouse Mystery Web site. Visit me there at
www.CoffeehouseMystery.com
to download a free PDF of this recipe. If you have any questions, I also have a message board.

Cook with joy!
—Cleo

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