Cozy mystery
author Kathy Aarons writes the Chocolate Covered Mystery series. She claims
research for the series is hardship: all that sampling
of chocolate, making chocolate, sampling more chocolate, and
hanging out in bookstores. What a tough life! Learn more about Kathy and her
books at her website.
One of my
favorite parts of writing is the research. For Death is Like a Box of Chocolates, I learned how to make truffles,
what is involved in running a chocolate shop and bookstore, and the special
qualities of a small town in western Maryland.
The plot of Truffled to Death was inspired by a
chocolate history exhibit in the San Diego Museum of Man where I saw a centuries-old
bowl that the Maya had used to hold chocolate. I envisioned the main character,
Michelle Serrano, being entranced by the bowl and the plot developed from
there. I had a wonderful time exploring not just Maya art and history, but also
international art trafficking. Could international art traffickers actually be
in sweet little West Riverdale, Maryland? Only if there was something worth
stealing. And possibly murdering for.
In addition to
buying too many reference books, I had a wonderful resource in Dr. Joe Ball, Professor-Emeritus, San Diego State
University.
He enthusiastically answered my questions, always getting back to me the same
day with pages of information. I could even email him plot questions, and with
his knowledge of the international art trafficking world, academics and the
museum business, he would suggest ways to make it all happen.
In fact, I’m
still amazed (and grateful!) at how much people want to help writers find the
right information! Besides my chocolate and bookseller buddies, I have my go-to
friends who provided information on medicine, law, psychiatry, marriage and
family counseling, special event planning, theater management, academia, and
more.
Of course,
once the research was done, I had to figure out the most interesting parts to
put on the page!
Bananas
Foster
(yields about 40 pieces)
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon rum (optional, can substitute vanilla
extract or rum flavoring)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
1 ripe banana
¾ cup heavy cream
8 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup cocoa powder, for dusting
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl and set
aside for now. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a 7-inch skillet over medium
heat. Once melted, add the brown sugar and stir it until the brown sugar melts
as well.
Add the rum, cinnamon and nutmeg, and stir until the
mixture is bubbling and fragrant.
Place the banana slices in the middle of the sugar,
and cook them for one minute on each side—no longer, or they will overcook and
become mushy.
Once cooked on both sides, remove the banana slices
from the saucepan. Add the heavy cream to the saucepan—the cream will first
cause the sugar to seize and you might have bits of hardened sugar floating in
your cream.
Whisk the cream and sugar together over the heat
until the sugar dissolves, the mixture is smooth and the cream is almost
boiling.
Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate in the
bowl and let it sit and soften the chocolate for 1 minute. Once softened, whisk
the cream and chocolate together until it is smooth and no bits of chocolate
remain.
Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and whisk
it into the chocolate.
Chop the cooked banana slices into small pieces and
stir them into the melted chocolate as well.
Let firm up overnight.
Place the cocoa powder in a bowl and dust your palms
with cocoa. Use a candy scoop or a small teaspoon to form 1-inch balls of ganache.
Roll them between your hands to get them round. If they start sticking, dust
the balls with a little cocoa powder. Repeat until all of the truffles have
been formed.
Truffled to Death
Hoping
to sweeten sales for their shop, Chocolates and Chapters, Michelle and Erica
host a reception highlighting a new museum display of ancient Mayan pottery curated
by Erica’s former mentor, Professor Addison Moody. The evening has a few
hiccups, but the ladies soon smooth things over with ample servings of wine and
chocolate.
Yet with the sweet comes the bitter. The very next day, the antiquities from the reception are discovered missing. The professor accuses Erica of having sticky fingers, claiming she wants revenge on him. And she’s only in more trouble after he’s found stabbed to death with one of the artifacts. Now Michelle must help Erica track down the real killer before someone else finds themselves in less than mint condition…
Yet with the sweet comes the bitter. The very next day, the antiquities from the reception are discovered missing. The professor accuses Erica of having sticky fingers, claiming she wants revenge on him. And she’s only in more trouble after he’s found stabbed to death with one of the artifacts. Now Michelle must help Erica track down the real killer before someone else finds themselves in less than mint condition…
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