LUCY BURDETTE: Today we’re delighted to welcome friend Barbara Ross to our kitchen, with her new Maine Clambake mystery, HIDDEN BENEATH. She’s sharing a favorite family cookie recipe—and a giveaway of the new book! Welcome Barb!
BARBARA ROSS: Thanks for inviting me today, Lucy! In Hidden Beneath, a neighbor serves these cookies to my sleuth Julia and her mother Jacqueline when they visit the Portland, Maine condo of a deceased friend of Jacqueline’s. The cookies turn out to be all Julia gets for lunch and she puts away quite a few of them. Good thing they’re delicious.
Many people know that my husband, Bill Carito, develops the recipes for the Maine Clambake Mysteries. However, despite my persistent encouragement, Bill has never had an interest in baking. For baked goods, I turn to my other main resource, a book of handwritten recipe cards my mother’s mother gave to me for Christmas 1984, three months before she died. In the real world, this recipe comes from that book.
Ingredients
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
parchment paper
Instructions
Mix butter, lemon rind, ginger, baking soda, salt, and vanilla.
Beat egg, lemon juice, and sugar until fluffy. Add to above.
Stir in flour until well mixed.
Refrigerate for four hours.
Shape into 3/4-inch balls. Place 1½ inches apart on parchment paper on cookie sheet.
Flatten to 1/8-inch thickness with the bottom of a glass covered with a damp cloth. Dip bottom of glass and cloth in water if dough sticks.
Bake at 400 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes, until edges are golden brown.
Do you have a family favorite cookie recipe? Leave a comment to be entered in Barbara's giveaway drawing!
About Hidden Beneath
Serving up mouthwatering shellfish, the Snowden Family Clambake has become a beloved institution in Busman’s Harbor, Maine. But when new clues rise to the surface five years after the disappearance of Julia Snowden’ s mother’s friend, the family business shifts to sleuthing .
Julia and her mother, Jacqueline, have come to the exclusive summer colony of Chipmunk Island to attend a memorial service for Jacqueline’s old friend Ginny, who’s been officially declared dead half a decade after she went out for her daily swim in the harbor and was never seen again. But something seems fishy at the service—especially with the ladies of the Wednesday Club. As Julia and Jacqueline begin looking into Ginny’s cold case, a present-day murder stirs the pot, and mother and daughter must dive into the deep end to get to the bottom of both mysteries . . .
Buy Links
Kobo
Audible
Chapters/Indigo
