Hannah Swensen is back for her second novel and second murder mystery. These chocolatey cookies can be chewy or crispy depending on your cooking time.
Book #2 in the Hannah Swenson series. The reader gets to know the characters even more and the mystery is just as good!
Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke
Outline and Tone:
This is Joanne Fluke’s second novel in the Hannah Swensen series and there is no sophomore slump anywhere. The story of Hannah Swensen, the owner of The Cookie Jar, a bakery in the small Minnesota town of Lake Eden. In this novel Hartland Flour company has decided to host the Hartland Flour Dessert Bake-Off in Lake Eden and Hannah is one of the local judges. The murder mystery begins early in the book and as Hannah investigates, there are more secrets revealed than at a middle school slumber party. The two men in her life, Mike and Norman, somehow continue their congenial love triangle. Hannah describes Mike as extremely attractive and Norman is “comforting, like a teddy bear”, so she can’t decide who is the perfect man for her.
The author:
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. 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 online with Hallmark Movies. Joanne Fluke is active on Facebook and Twitter. She does many interviews with her local news station and posts them on her Youtube channel.
What is not to like?:
To be perfectly honest, I don’t get the love triangle. Don’t get me wrong, I love both the Mike and the Norman characters and I believe they add great dimensions to the cozy mystery, I just don’t see how the love triangle would play out in real life. On the other hand, I’m not sure my local bakery owner would do a good job solving murder mysteries so if I can accept one aspect, I can accept the other too.
The verdict:
It’s a winner. I am very excited that there are so many books in the Hannah Swensen cozy mystery series. This book kept me guessing all the way to the reveal of who the murder was.
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Cocoa Snap Recipe
Assemble the ingredients
Do not preheat the oven because this dough needs to chill.
I got a new set of measuring spoons and measuring cups. It seemed that every time I tried to bake I was digging in my kitchen draw for the right sized measuring spoon or cup. I found these awesome sets from OXO, and decided to try them. The OXO Measuring Spoons stack neatly and can easily be clipped together or taken apart. The OXO Measuring Cups are clearly labeled and stack perfectly.
Sizes are easy to read on the measuring cups.
Melt the butter (I use the microwave safe OXO measuring cup with a napkin on top to prevent splattering). Pour the butter in a mixer and add the cocoa. Mix on low speed then add the brown sugar and mix again.
Easy to read measure marks on inside of cup. Dishwasher safe.
Now is the time to take a quick taste of the dough before adding the eggs.
Once the dough has cooled a bit, add the eggs, one at a time, and mix on low speed.
Combine the dry ingredients and then add them to the mixer. Mix on low. The dough will look dry and a bit crumbly. Don’t give up, the cookies will not be dry and crumbly like the dough. Now is the time to chill the dough for at least an hour.
Using a sturdy silicone spatula that can hand the still dough, like this OXO Silicone Spatula, helps to stir it and make sure everything is incorporated.
After chilling, roll the dough into walnut sized balls and then roll in a dish of sugar and place on a cookie sheet and then flatten the balls. I find a measuring cup works well.
The author writes, “Tracey says these taste like her favorite chocolate animal crackers, except better because she doesn’t have to pick them out from all the vanilla ones in the box.”
My note is these cookies came out soft and chewy, and delicious!
What would I do differently next time?
I love soft chewy cookies and when I baked these, that is how they came out, soft and chewy. But some people do like crispy cookies. Next time I might try to perfect this cookie by using smaller balls of dough and giving them a good press so they bake up crispy and snappy as their name implies.
Cocoa Snaps
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups ` melted butter (3 sticks)
- 2 cups cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 3 large eggs beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)
- 4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups flour (not sifted)
- ½ cup white sugar in a small bowl (for later)
Instructions
- DO NOT preheat oven yet, dough must chill before baking.
For the dough
- Melt butter and mix in cocoa until it's thoroughly blended.
- Add brown sugar.
- Let it cool slightly, then mix in beaten eggs.
- Add soda, salt, and vanilla and stir.
- Add flour and mix thoroughly.
- Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (Overnight is fine, too.)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
- Roll dough into walnut-sized balls with your hands.
- This dough may be sticky, so roll only enough for the cookies you plan to bake immediately, then return the bowl to the refrigerator.
- Roll the dough balls in the bowl of white sugar and place them on greased cookie sheets, 12 to a standard sheet.
- Flatten them with a spatula (or the heel of your hand if the health board’s not around).
Notes
More cookies to bake!
Chocolate Mint Cookies from A Chocolate Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Molasses Sugar Cookies from An Appetite for Murder by Lucy Burdette
