Joanne Fluke Christmas Bundle: Sugar Cookie Murder, Candy Cane Murder, Plum Pudding Murder, & Gingerbread Cookie Murder (93 page)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position

Note: Bridget Murphy makes this green pie every year for St. Patrick’s Day dinner. She says that if green food doesn’t spark your appetite, either cover the top with whipped cream, or shut your eyes when you eat it.

You’ll need a blender to make this pie. It makes its own crust.

In the blender container combine:

1 ½ cups water

one can sweetened condensed milk
(14 ounces)

½ cup Bisquick
(biscuit baking mix)

3 eggs

¼ cup
(
½
stick)
melted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 or 4 drops green food coloring
(optional—don’t tell Bridget I said this, but you can leave out the green food coloring if you’d rather.)

Blend on low speed for 3 minutes.

Spray a 10-inch pie plate with Pam or other non-stick shortening. Pour the contents of the blender container into the pie plate and let it stand, uncovered, at room temperature for 5 minutes.
(The Bisquick settles to the bottom and that’s what makes the crust.)

Sprinkle 1 cup of flaked coconut over the top of the pie.

Carefully place the pie in a 350 degree F. oven.
(This takes steady hands! I set my pie plate on a baking sheet before I fill it, just in case it spills on the way
to the oven.)
Bake pie for 40 to 45 minutes or until a knife inserted one inch from the edge comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack.

This pie can be served slightly warm, room temperature, or chilled. Bridget says to remind you that it’s wonderful with strong Irish coffee, and to be sure to refrigerate leftovers.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position

For First Step:

2 cups flour
(no need to sift)

1 cup softened butter
(2 sticks,
½
pound)

¾ cup loosely packed brown sugar

For Second Step:

5 beaten eggs
(just whip them up with a fork)

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup melted butter

1 and ½ cups white corn syrup
(I use Karo)

¾ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups roughly chopped pecans

¹
/
₈
cup flour
(that’s 2 Tablespoons)

First Step: Cream softened butter with brown sugar and add flour. Mix well. Spread 3 cups of this mixture in a greased 9 by 13 inch cake pan and pat it down with your hands. Reserve the rest for a crumb topping.
(You can use cold butter if you divide each stick into 8 pieces and zoop everything up with the steel blade of your food processor.)

Bake the crust at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. DON’T TURN OFF THE OVEN!

Second Step: Beat the eggs and mix them with the brown sugar. Add the melted butter and stir it all up. Then mix in the white corn syrup, salt, and pecan pieces. Now add the flour and mix thoroughly.

Pour this mixture over the crust you just baked. Sprinkle the reserved crust mixture from the first step on top.
(At this point you can carefully decorate the
top with a few half pecans, if you want to make it fancier. I don’t bother. With something this good, you don’t need decoration.)

Bake at 350 degrees F. for another 30 to 35 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Once the pan is cool to the touch, refrigerate it until ready to serve.

To serve, cut the Pecan Pie into 16 pieces. You can top these with whipped cream if you like, but they don’t really need it.

Bill likes to eat this cold, right out of the refrigerator. Andrea likes it best at room temperature. Carrie loves it when it’s still warm, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Mother also likes it warm, but with chocolate ice cream. I like it any way at all, anytime.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position

1 ½ cups flour
(no need to sift)

¾ cup butter
(1
½
sticks)

½ cup powdered
(confectioner’s)
sugar
(don’t sift unless it’s got big lumps)

4 eggs

1 ½ cups white
(granulated)
sugar

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon nutmeg
(freshly ground is best)

½ teaspoon cardamom
(or 1 teaspoon cinnamon, but cardamom’s better)

3 ½ cups plain canned pumpkin, no spices added
(29-ounce can)

2 cans evaporated milk
(12-ounce cans)
or 3 cups light cream

Cut chilled butter into 12 pieces. Layer them between the flour and the powdered sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture has the consistency of corn meal.
(You can also do this by cutting softened butter into the dry ingredients.)

Coat a standard 9 x 13 inch cake pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the mixture inside, shake it until it’s evenly distributed on the bottom, and press it down a bit with a metal spatula.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes. Let it cool while you prepare the pumpkin pie filling, but DON’T SHUT OFF THE OVEN.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl
(or use an electric mixer.)
Mix in the sugar, salt, nutmeg, and cardamom.
Add the pumpkin and blend. Then add the evaporated milk and mix thoroughly.

Pour this over the crust you just baked. Stick it back in the oven and bake it for another 60 or 70 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Chill overnight, cut into 16 squares, and serve each with a generous dollop of sweetened whipped cream.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position

This is my Grandma Ingrid’s recipe. She used to make these for special occasions.

3 cups flour
(no need to sift)

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup
(2 sticks,
½
pound)
softened butter

2 beaten eggs

1 cup white
(granulated)
sugar

2 jars
(16-oz. each)
maraschino cherries WITH STEMS
(about 65 cherries)

Small bowl with powdered
(confectioner’s)
sugar for dipping

Open the jars of cherries and drain the cherries. Leave them in the strainer while you make the cookie dough.

Put flour, baking powder, soda, and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir with a fork until thoroughly mixed. Cut in the softened butter with two forks, continuing to cut until the mixture looks like coarse corn meal.
(You can also do this in a food processor with the steel blade, using cold butter cut in half-inch chunks.)

Beat the eggs in a medium-sized bowl and combine them with the sugar.

Add the egg and sugar mixture to the rest of the ingredients and stir until thoroughly mixed.

Extract small bits of dough with your fingers and wrap them around each maraschino cherry, leaving the stem sticking out. Press the bottoms of the dough-wrapped cherries down slightly on a greased baking sheet, 16 to a standard-sized sheet.
(4 rows of 4 cookies works nicely.)

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes.
(Cookies will be white—if they start to brown, reduce the baking time.)
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet. Then dip them in the powdered sugar so that the entire cookie part is covered, but not the stem.

Yield: 5 to 6 dozen cookies.

Kids love these, probably because they can pick them up by the stem, pop the whole cookie in their mouths, and pull off the stem.

For Christmas, I make these with one jar of red maraschino cherries and one jar of green. Once they’re arranged on a platter lined with a paper doily, they’re really pretty.

Do not preheat oven—this dough must chill before baking

I came up with the cookie recipe and Lisa did the frosting.

1 ½ cups melted butter
(3 sticks,
¾
pound)

2 cups white
(granulated)
sugar

4 beaten eggs

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon flavor extract
(lemon, almond, vanilla, orange, rum, whatever)

5 cups flour
(no need to sift)

Mix the melted butter with the sugar. Let cool. Add the beaten eggs, baking powder, salt, and flavoring.

Add the flour in one-cup increments.

Refrigerate dough for at least two hours. Overnight is fine, too.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the center position.

Divide the dough into four parts for ease in rolling. Roll out the first part of the dough on a floured board. It should be approximately
¹
/
₈
inch thick.

Dip the cookie cutters in flour and cut out cookies, getting as many as you can from the sheet of dough.
(If you don’t have cookie cutters, you can cut free-form cookies with a sharp knife.)
Use a metal spatula to remove the cookies from the rest of the sheet of dough and place them on an UNGREASED cookie sheet. Leave at least an inch and a half between cookies.

If you want to use colored sugar or sprinkles to decorate, put it on now, before baking. If you’d rather frost the cookies, wait until they’re baked and cooled.

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 8 to 10 minutes, or just until delicately golden in color. Leave them on the sheet for a minute or two and then transfer them to a wire rack to complete cooling.

Icing:

2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
(powdered sugar)

pinch of salt

½ teaspoon vanilla
(or other flavoring)

¼ cup cream

Mix up icing, adding a little more cream if it’s too thick and a little more powdered sugar if it’s too thin.

If you’d like to frost the cookies in different colors, divide the icing and put it in several small bowls. Add drops of the desired food coloring to each bowl.

Use a frosting knife, or a brush to “paint” the cookies you’ve baked.

DO NOT preheat oven—this dough must chill before baking

1 ½ cups melted butter
(3 sticks,
¾
pound)

2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

2 beaten eggs
(just whisk them up in a glass with a fork)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla
(or other flavoring—I used lemon extract)

1 ½ cups dried mixed fruit chopped with 2 Tablespoons flour
(measure fruit after chopping)

3 cups flour

Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl on HIGH for 2 ½ minutes. Add the brown sugar and mix it up. Let it cool for several minutes. When the mixture is warm to the touch, but not hot, add the beaten eggs, baking powder and vanilla.

Chop the dried mixed fruit. This is easy with a food processor and the steel blade. Just drop in the fruit
(I used peaches, apples, pears, and apricots)
and sprinkle the 2 Tablespoons of flour on top. Pulse until the fruit is finely chopped, adding a bit more flour if it starts to “gum” up. Measure out a cup and a half of chopped fruit.

Add the fruit to your mixing bowl and stir it in. Then add the flour, one cup at a time, stirring after each addition.

Place the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to firm up. Then divide it into 4 parts. Using waxed paper, roll each part into a log approximately 2 inches
in diameter.
(If the dough is too sticky, return it to the refrigerator and let it chill for another ten minutes.)
Wrap the logs in fresh sheets of waxed paper, stick them in a plastic bag, and store them in your refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
(Overnight is fine, too—Heavenly Tea Cookie dough will keep up to a week in your refrigerator.)

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the center position.

Take out a roll of dough,
(just one—it’s easier to work with when it’s chilled)
unwrap it, and roll it on the counter again if the bottom has flattened in the refrigerator. Cut quarter-inch thick slices with a sharp knife and place them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard-sized sheet. Return the unused dough to the refrigerator. Bake the cookies at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes or until nicely browned.

Cool one or two minutes on the sheet and then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: 6 to 7 dozen cookies.

Note: These cookies are not very sweet—if you prefer a sweeter cookie, dust the tops with powdered sugar before serving.