Buon
giorno! Ellen
Byron here, writing under the pen name, Maria DiRico.
My
new Catering Hall Mystery series revolves around, well, a catering hall. It was
inspired by my life. My mother is Italian, born in a small central Italian
village called Orsogna. Her family wound up in Astoria, Queens, where
cousins-by-marriage ran a couple of banquet halls.
Given
the Italian – and subsequent Greek – influence on the neighborhood, and the
subject matter of my series, adding recipes to the books was a gimme. But in
addition to some homespun recipes, I wanted a unique and trendy party item for
the first book, Here Comes the Body. What I came up with wound up having
zero to do with either ethnic culture. Instead, it came about when I asked
myself a question I often ask when it comes to recipes for my books: WWMD? What
Would Martha Do? You see, one of first post-college jobs was working as a
cater-waiter for the legendary Martha Stewart. If you have an early edition of
her first cookbook, Entertaining, turn to page 29, you’ll see me
standing next to her.
If
Martha was still catering events, I can guarantee you that we’d be passing out Cookie
Cup Shot Glasses to guests. Saluti! And par-tay!
COOKIE CUP SHOT
GLASSES
Ingredients:
Cookie shot glass pan
3 Cups Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
⅔ Cup Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Brown Sugar
⅓ Cup White Sugar
½ Tsp Salt
1 ½ Sticks Butter (Melted and Cooled)
1 Cup Chocolate Melting Wafers for coating the inside (SEE NOTE)
1 Tsp Baking Powder
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
⅔ Cup Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Brown Sugar
⅓ Cup White Sugar
½ Tsp Salt
1 ½ Sticks Butter (Melted and Cooled)
1 Cup Chocolate Melting Wafers for coating the inside (SEE NOTE)
Liquor or liqueur of your choice, or
milk
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and
baking powder together in a large bowl and set aside.
In another large bowl, beat the
butter, vanilla, and eggs together well
Slowly add the flour mixture to the
butter, stirring each addition to incorporate into the batter.
Gently mix the chocolate chips into
the dough. Chill for about 10-15 minutes. This helps make the dough more
manageable.
Take about two or three tablespoons
of the dough, roll it into a ball about the size of a golf ball and place the
ball into one of the molds in the cookie shot glass pan. Push down the dough
with the metal insert, making sure the dough is pretty even all the way around.
Leave the metal insert in place and trim the excess dough from the sides of the
insert. Repeat with the rest of the molds. (As an alternative to pushing down
into the ball of dough, you can try building a cup by putting a flat disk of
dough on the bottom of the cup, building up the sides with more dough, and
placing the metal insert into the dough, pressing a bit to seal.)
Bake the cookie cups around 15
minutes. Remove the cookie cups from the oven. While they’re warm, you can
gently trim any excess dough from around the edges of each cookie – or not. Let
the cookies cool. Extract them from the mold and repeat until you’ve used up
all the dough.
Melt the wafers in the microwave,
following the melting directions on the package. When the cookie cups have
cooled, use a small spatula or a new, clean brush to coat the inside of each
cookie with the melted chocolate. Check
for holes while you’re doing this! You may need to add extra chocolate to
seal the hole… or just eat that cookie. Let the chocolate cool and harden.
When the cookies have cooled, add the
liquor or liqueur of your choice.
Serving: makes
approximately 18.
NOTE: Melting wafers are available at
craft stores like Michaels. They come in different colors, so you can play with
coating the cookie cups with the colors that are the theme of your event. You
can even coat the cookie cups with blue or pink for a baby gender reveal party
and fill them with milk to hide the color.
SECOND
NOTE: You can try making cookie cups with other recipes, like sugar cookies or
snickerdoodles. Feel free to experiment.
THIRD
NOTE: If you don’t want to invest in a cookie shot glass pan, there are ways
around that to create a cookie cup. You can make a rolled cookie and form it
like a cup over a muffin tin. Do an internet search for “cookie cups” or
“cookie shot glasses” and you’ll find an array of possibilities.
WHAT'S THE BOOK ABOUT?
Mia
Carina moves back home to Queens, where her father Ravello, a capo with the
Boldoni crime family, has been tasked with running a rundown banquet hall that
was surrendered to him by a broke gambler. Mia has always wanted her father to
go straight and she’s determined to help him run the place, with its view of
Flushing Bay and the LaGuardia Airport runway, as a legitimate business. Then a
body pops up – or technically, doesn’t pop up from a jump-out cake at a
bachelor party. Who knew working for a catering hall could be as dangerous as
working for the Mob?
Today, I am giving away a copy of Here Comes the Body to one lucky commenter. Tell me, have you attended a catered party? Any fun stories to share? Remember to leave your email so I can contact you if you win.
Maria DiRico is the pen
name of mystery author Ellen Byron. She is first-generation Italian American on
her mother’s side. While growing up in Queens, Maria/Ellen's cousins ran the
Astoria Manor and Grand Bay Marina catering halls. MARDI GRAS MURDER, the fourth
book in Ellen's bestselling Cajun Country Mystery series, won the 2018 Agatha
Award for Best Contemporary Novel. The series has also won multiple Best
Humorous Mystery Lefty awards. Ellen’s TV writing credits include Wings,
Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents.
GIVEAWAY
Today, I am giving away a copy of Here Comes the Body to one lucky commenter. Tell me, have you attended a catered party? Any fun stories to share? Remember to leave your email so I can contact you if you win.
ABOUT MARIA
Follow Maria aka Ellen here:
