HOW TO MAKE A KILLER
CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING
By Penny Warner
Like most female readers I’m a Choc-addict. That’s
like being a crack addict but more fattening. So naturally both protagonists in
my two mystery series have my disorder. Connor Westphal (DEAD BODY LANGUAGE)
keeps chocolates hidden in her desk, while Presley Parker (HOW TO DINE ON
KILLER WINE) offers them to unsuspecting crowds at her parties. But when she’s
not sharing them, she uses chocolates for medicinal purposes. She has ADHD
(Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and the caffeine in chocolate and
coffee are similar to drugs like Ritalin and Adderall, which calm her down
instead of revving her up.
So she self-medicates. Often.
Unfortunately for Presley, her chocolates are
sometimes lethal. As a party planner, she always includes some form of
chocolate on the party menu. For example, in my first book, HOW TO HOST A
KILLER PARTY, Presley Parker hires local TV chef Rocco Ghirenghelli to create
chocolate Maltese Falcons for Mayor Davin Green’s Alcatraz Wedding Party. But she
soon realizes a couple of the brown birds have been injected with cyanide. She
discovers this when the bride-to-be is found floating in the San Francisco Bay,
a victim of poisoning. And dead guests of honor aren’t really good for the
party business.
In my latest book, HOW TO DINE ON KILLER WINE, Presley
pairs wines with desserts, but soon the chocolate bread pudding becomes a
weapon, when placed in the wrong hands. You can imagine what happens next…
So how did Presley get herself into this chocolate
mess? That’s the way I wrote her. After all, it’s a murder mystery. And while I
haven’t had much experience injecting chocolates with cyanide (see the Internet
for instructions), I have had a lot of experience with chocolate, as well as
party planning, writing party books for kids and adults, and creating
mysteries. Since “they” often say, “Write what you know,” I decided to make my
new sleuth a party planner (she prefers “event planner”), put her on Treasure
Island where she lives and works, and have her solve mysteries all around the
San Francisco Bay Area.
Presley, recently downsized from her teaching job at
San Francisco State University, agrees to the career change after being
encouraged by her mother, once a popular party girl and member of the City’s
café society. But after developing early stage Alzheimer’s, Mother has retired
to a care facility, leaving Presley to fill her party slippers.
After that it’s just one party foul after another…
Here’s Presley’s recipe for Chocolate Bread Pudding:
Ingredients
4 cups milk
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
8 tablespoons butter
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 loaf white bread, no crusts
1 pint heavy cream, whipped
Directions
1.
Stir milk, eggs, and sugar in medium saucepan.
2.
Add butter and chocolate and heat over low,
stirring until butter and chocolate are melted.
3.
Spray 13 x 9 inch pan with cooking spray.
4.
Arrange bread slices in 3 layers.
5.
Pour chocolate sauce over bread.
6.
Cover with plastic wrap and place another dish
on top to weigh down bread for 1 hour.
7.
Heat over to 325 degrees.
8.
Remove top dish and plastic wrap.
9.
Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes or until set.
10.
Serve warm with whipped cream.
11.
Serves 8
Penny Warner has published over 60 books for both
adults and children. Her first mystery series featuring Connor Westphal, a deaf
reporter in the California Gold Country, won a Macavity Award for Best First
Mystery, and was nominated for an Agatha and an Anthony Award. The seven books
in the series will be available online soon.
Her new mystery series features event planner, Presley
Parker, and is set in the San Francisco Bay Area. HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY offers
a wedding on Alcatraz, HOW TO CRASH A KILLER BASH features a Murder Mystery
Party at the de Young Museum, HOW TO SURVIVE A KILLER SÉANCE presents a Séance
Party at the Winchester Mystery House, and HOW TO PARTY WITH A KILLER VAMPIRE is set in
Colma, the City of Souls. HOW TO DINE ON
KILLER WINE offers a mystery in the Napa Wine Country.
Her middle-grade mystery, CODE BUSTERS CLUB: SECRET OF THE
SKELETON KEY, was nominated for an Agatha Best Juvenile Mystery Award. It
features four kids who solve a mystery by cracking codes in each chapter. The
second book in the series, CODE BUSTERS: THE HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE, is set on
Alcatraz. (Join the Code Busters Club at www.codebustersclub.com.) Her
non-fiction book, THE OFFICIAL NANCY DREW HANDBOOK, was nominated for an Agatha
Award.
She writes a column for the local newspaper on family life
in the Valley, creates fund-raising murder mystery events for libraries across
the country, and teaches child development at Diablo Valley College. She can be
reached at http://www.pennywarner.com
or pennywarnerink@yahoo.com.
