With the holidays coming up we've allowed Cloris another spot this week to feature one more author who bakes. After all, you can never have too many Christmas cookies, right?
Judy Penz
Sheluk writes the Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries, and
her short crime fiction has appeared in several anthologies. Learn more about
Judy and her books at her website/blog.
Judy is offering a giveaway to a lucky reader. Click
here to sign up for her newsletter before December 20th
for a chance to win an Audible.com audiobook of either The Hanged Man’s Noose or Skeletons in the Attic
(winner’s choice).
While I don’t write the sort
of books that contain cats, crafts or cookie recipes (my amateur sleuth
mysteries have bit more of an edge), like me, my protagonists have a sweet
tooth, at least when it comes to cookies. When I visited last December, I
shared a recipe for my mom’s Almond Crescents, a to-die for shortbread that
Arabella Carpenter of The Hanged Man’s
Noose would surely appreciates. You can find that recipe here.
In Skeletons in the Attic: A Marketville Mystery, my protagonist,
Calamity (Callie) Barnstable, is searching for clues that might help her find
out more about her mother—a woman who disappeared thirty years earlier, when
Callie was just six-years-old. As Callie digs through a box of her mother’s
belongings, she finds a peanut butter cookie recipe that bears a striking
resemblance to the recipe my mom used. Maybe it’s the childhood memory of
baking with my mother, but I truly believe these are the best peanut butter
cookies you’ll ever taste.
Anneliese’s Best Ever Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter (smooth
or crunchy; I prefer smooth, but if you like bits of peanut in your cookies,
the crunchy peanut butter works well)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla (real
vanilla, not the imitation stuff) Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix flour, baking powder,
baking soda and salt and set aside. Beat butter, peanut butter and white and
brown sugar with mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs and vanilla.
Gradually add flour mixture, beating well after each addition.
Drop a tablespoon of cookie
dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray. Flatten
each cookie in a crisscross pattern with the tines of a fork.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or
until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to wire
racks. Allow to cool completely.
Skeletons in
the Attic, a Marketville Mystery
What goes on
behind closed doors doesn’t always stay there…
Calamity (Callie) Barnstable isn’t surprised to learn she’s the
sole beneficiary of her late father’s estate, though she is shocked to discover
she has inherited a house in the town of Marketville—a house she didn’t know
existed. However, there are conditions attached to Callie’s inheritance: she
must move to Marketville, live in the house, and solve her mother’s murder.
Callie’s not keen on dredging up a thirty-year-old mystery, but
if she doesn’t do it, there’s a scheming psychic named Misty Rivers who is more
than happy to expose the Barnstable family secrets. Determined to thwart Misty
and fulfill her father’s wishes, Callie accepts the challenge. But is she ready
to face the skeletons hidden in the attic?
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