I love a mystery that
I can sink my teeth into, and such is often the case with the “culinary mystery,”
a cozy, domestic-type mystery that features both crime and cuisine. My first
experience with a culinary mystery was in 1982 with Virginia Rich’s The Cooking
School Murders. Rich, a former food columnist, was the author who
pioneered this sub-genre.
Another such author
is Diane Mott Davidson who created a series of mysteries featuring amateur
sleuth and crime-solving Colorado caterer Goldie Bear (where everything is just
right). Each book includes original mouthwatering recipes, and the series has
grown to such an extent that she has developed over one hundred recipes
for Goldy to make and serve as part of her catering business. As a consequence, this
past fall, Goldy’s Kitchen Cookbook was published containing all of these recipes. One of my favorites from this book (and there
are a LOT of them) is from the second mystery in the series, Dying for
Chocolate, called Lethal Layers. They
are murderously good!
Lethal Layers
From Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson
1/2 cup unsalted
butter
1/2 cup dark brown
sugar
1 cup all-purpose
flour
1 -2 cup pecan
halves
2 eggs (I used
extra-large)
1 cup firmly packed
dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking
powder
Additional flour (see
below)
1 cup chocolate
chips
Preheat oven to 375ยบF.
In a food processor,
combine the first three ingredients with a metal blade until coarse crumbs are
formed. (Can also be done with 2 knives or a pastry cutter).
Pat as a crust into
a buttered 9x13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely.
Spread pecans over cooled crust. (I used the full 2 cups.)
Beat eggs with brown
sugar until thick. Add vanilla. Put salt and baking power in the bottom of a
1/4 cup measure, and then fill the rest of the measure with flour. Stir this
into egg mixture. Pour this mixture over the pecans and crust. Sprinkle chips
over the mixture.
Bake 20 minutes or
until center is set. Let cool before cutting.
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