Hannah comes to her mom’s rescue. Delores is the one who found a dead body, but Hannah is the one who jumps into investigation mode. As a newlywed, she saves some time for her new husband, but married life does not appear to slow her down her sleuthing and baking.
This is book #21 of the Hannah Swensen Mystery Series. Drama always seems to follow the theatre. In this case, the drama takes place behind the curtain. In the first chapter, we learn that the director has been killed.
Banana Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Citrus Sugar Cookies
from a cozy mystery:
Banana Cream Pie Murder
by Joanne Fluke
Book Outline and Tone:
Hannah and her new husband, Ross, are back from their honeymoon just in time to investigate a murder. This time Hannah’s mom, Delores, is the one who found the body and she is dramatically distraught about the incident. The mayor of Lake Eden has quite a scandalous reputation and his sister is the one who always rescues him. Not in this novel because she is the one Delores found. Who would want this successful actress and director dead and what will happen to the Thanksgiving play? This time the mystery doesn’t have too many suspects, but a lack of any seemingly credible suspects. It is not until close to the end of the novel that the pieces begin to come together for Hannah and for the reader.
The murder mystery is not the only interesting thing in the edition of the series. Hannah is a newlywed, but it seems that she and Ross hardly get to spend any time together. He is portrayed as a side character to even Norman and Mike. The back of my suspicious mind is running through the possibilities.
One thing not missing in action is a bevy of great recipes to try. Since we are rolling into the holidays and it is considered good luck to receive an orange for Christmas, I chose to make the Citrus Sugar Cookies, and they are wonderful!
The Best Quote:
“Hannah knew that her time had run out. The last few grains of sand had dropped down to the bottom of the hour glass. She’d never make it out the back door…”
Point of View:
The novel is told in third person through Hannah’s perspective for most of the story.
The Author: Joanne Fluke
Joanne Fluke published her first Hannah Swenson novel, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, in 2001. Since then she has been a New York Times bestselling author several times. She is a popular guest on her local television station and she always uploads her interview to her Youtube Channel. She even has many interviews organized by the book. Some of her books have been made into movies on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel. Murder, She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery can be found https://www.hallmarkmoviesandmysteries.com/. Joanne Fluke will interact with fans on her Twitter and her Facebook accounts.
What is not to like?:
Hannah seems to be happy with her new husband, but he doesn’t play an important role in the novel. I thought it would have been nice if they were active partners in the investigation.
The Verdict:
The Citrus Sugar Cookies are fantastic! The novel series seems to be taking an interesting turn with an unexpected cliffhanger. I highly recommend this novel as I am so curious as to where it will lead the fans.
Disclaimer: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost for you).
Citrus Sugar Cookies
Assemble the Ingredients
DO NOT preheat the oven. The dough must chill before baking.
Hannah’s 1st Note:
Just in case you don’t know, zest is the finely shredded colored part of the peel on citrus fruit. Use the colored part of the peel only. The white part under it contains pectin and it’s very bitter.
If you haven’t already done so, melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl. 60 seconds on HIGH should be enough.
You can also melt the butter in a saucepan on the stovetop at LOW heat. If you do this, stir the butter with a spoon to make sure the butter doesn’t brown.
Pour the butter into a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer.
Add the powdered sugar and the white (granulated) sugar and mix it in thoroughly.
Let the mixture cool to room temperature before proceeding further.
While the butter and sugar mixture is cooling, zest the orange and the lemon
When the butter and sugar mixture is cool, turn the mixer on LOW. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition.
With the mixer running on LOW speed, mix in the lemon and orange extracts.
Mix in the lemon zest and the orange zest.
Add the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Mix until thoroughly everything is combined.
Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing well after each addition. (You can mix the quarter-cup at the end with the fourth full cup of flour.
Give your dough a final stir by hand and cover the bowl.
Chill the covered dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour. (Overnight is fine, too.)
When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. with the rack in the middle position.
Prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Prepare a shallow bowl with the half-cup of white sugar.
Take your chilled Citrus Sugar Cookie dough out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter.
Remove the cover.
Use your impeccably clean hands to roll the dough into walnut-sized balls. Roll only a half-dozen dough balls or so to start. Then cover the bowl again so that it will remain chilled.
One at a time, dip the dough balls into the bowl of sugar and roll them around until they’re coated.
Place the sugar-coated dough balls on the cookie sheets you’ve prepared, 12 dough balls to a standard-sized sheet. Flatten the dough balls with the back of a metal spatula.
You can bake them as described or you can sprinkle some turbinado sugar or sprinkles on top before you bake.
Bake the cookies at 325 degrees F. for 10 to 15 minutes. (The cookies should have a tinge of gold around the edges when they’re fully baked, but they should not be brown.)
When the cookies have baked, take them out of the oven and set them on cold stovetop burners or on wire racks to cool. Leave them on the cookie sheets for 1 to 2 minutes.
Hannah’s 2nd Note:
If you remove the cookies from the cookie sheets right away, they may break into pieces.
The reason you cool them on the sheets for a minute or two first is so they will “set” and not crumble when you move them.
After the cookies have cooled slightly, remove them from the cookie sheets to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Hannah’s 3rd Note:
If you used parchment paper, just pull it off the cookie sheet and onto the rack. The cookies can finish cooling on the paper and you can peel them off later.
Yield: approximately 10 dozen crunchy, buttery, citrus-infused sugar cookies that children and adults will love.
Michelle’s Note:
I bet that you can’t eat just one!
Citrus Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups salted butter melted (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)
- 2 cups powdered sugar (don't sift unless it's got big lumps and then you shouldn't use it anyway)
- 1 cup white (granulated) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tsp orange extract
- zest of one lemon
- zest of one orange
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cream of tartar (critical!)
- 1 tsp salt
- 4¼ cups all-purpose flour (don't sift-pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
- ½ cup white sugar in a small, shallow bowl (for later you'll be using the sugar to coat dough balls after the dough has chilled)
Instructions
- If you haven't already done so, melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl. 60 seconds on HIGH should be enough.You can also melt the butter in a saucepan on the stovetop at LOW heat. If you do this, stir the butter with a spoon to make sure the butter doesn't brown.Pour the butter into a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer.
- Add the powdered sugar and the white (granulated) sugar and mix it in thoroughly.Let the mixture cool to room temperature before proceeding further.
- Zest the lemon and the orange
- When the butter and sugar mixture is cool, turn the mixer on LOW. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition.
- With the mixer running on LOW speed, mix in the lemon and orange extracts.
- Mix in the lemon zest and the orange zest.
- Add the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Mix until thoroughly everything is combined.
- Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing well after each addition. (You can mix the quarter-cup at the end with the fourth full cup of flour.) Give your dough a final stir by hand and cover the bowl.
- Chill the covered dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour. (Overnight is fine, too.)
- When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. with the rack in the middle position.
- Prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper. Or you can use a silicone baking mat as I did.
- Prepare a shallow bowl with the half-cup of white sugar.
- Take your chilled Citrus Sugar Cookie dough out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. Remove the cover.
- Use your impeccably clean hands to roll the dough into walnut-sized balls. Roll only a half-dozen dough balls or so to start. Then cover the bowl again so that it will remain chilled.
- One at a time, dip the dough balls into the bowl of sugar and roll them around until they're coated.
- Place the sugar-coated dough balls on the cookie sheets you've prepared, 12 dough balls to a standard-sized sheet. Flatten the dough balls with the back of a metal spatula.
- Bake the cookies at 325 degrees F. for 10 to 15 minutes. (The cookies should have a tinge of gold around the edges when they're fully baked, but they should not be brown.)
- When the cookies have baked, take them out of the oven and set them on cold stovetop burners or on wire racks to cool. Leave them on the cookie sheets for 1 to 2 minutes.
- After the cookies have cooled slightly, remove them from the cookie sheets to a wire rack to finish cooling.
What would I do differently next time?
Not a thing! These are great!
More treats from Joanne Fluke Novels
Minnesota Peach Cobbler from Peach Cobbler Murder by Joanne Fluke
Peanut Butter and Jam Cookies from Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke
Rocky Road Bars from Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke
Chocolate Mint Cookies from Chocolate Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
