JEANNE KOLKER | Wisconsin State Journal | | 608-250-4153
Hannah Swensen is living a pretty sweet life. She runs her own bakery in small town Lake Eden, Minn., she’s dating two men, and she’s a surprisingly talented amateur sleuth.
Hannah’s life sounds like it would make a great plot for a Lifetime series, but, according to her inventor, she’s not your “traditional gorgeous, young amateur sleuth.”
In fact, says writer Joanne Fluke, who created Hannah and her fictional hometown of Lake Eden, “Hannah’s a little too plump — maybe more than a little too plump.” But Hannah has an edge, says her creator.
“She solves crimes, she’s dating two guys, and she’s over 30.”
She’s also the heart of Fluke’s cozy mystery series, the latest installment of which is “Blackberry Pie Murder” (Kensington, $25). Fluke visits Madison on Wednesday to sign copies of her new book and do a little “research” for her next murder mystery book.
Fluke is inviting readers to submit their favorite recipe for double fudge brownies, and if she chooses to use the recipe in her next book (“Double Fudge Brownie Murder,” naturally), she’ll write the recipe’s creator into that book. She’s inviting readers to bring their recipe to her appearance at Mystery to Me on Monroe Street.
Fluke’s latest mystery stars blackberry pie, with the recipe featured here, but she also weaves other recipes into her fiction to tempt readers as they ponder whodunit. In “Blackberry Pie Mystery,” she offers instructions for a variety of baked goods such as chocolate hazelnut crackles (delicious-sounding Nutella cookies), graham cracker cake, and other tempting creations.
Cookies and crime just go together, Fluke said by phone from her home in California’s San Fernando Valley.
“A lot of people bake, for every occasion. If you invite someone over for coffee in the morning, you serve something. Coffee and ... cake, cookies, pie,” she said.
Even when someone dies, some sort of baked good is called for. Fluke’s childhood in small-town Minnesota taught her the ins and outs of the “funeral hot dish.”
“When something bad happens, you have to eat. It just makes you feel better,” she said.
Fluke doesn’t have formal training in the baking arts, which is why she struggled to sell a cookbook years ago. She had been writing other things when her editor at Kensington approached her with the idea of a cozy mystery series. Cozies, as they’re called, are a type of crime fiction that go easy on the sex and violence and usually involve a heroine one might find working at a vocation like librarian or quilter. Think Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote.”
Fluke agreed to write a series of cozies as long as she could include recipes, and Hannah Swensen was born. Hannah has starred in numerous books including “Apple Turnover Murder,” “Red Velvet Cupcake Murder” and “Peach Cobbler Murder.” Fluke knows Hannah so well by now that she’s got a life of her own.
“I was down at my local grocery store recently and I noticed a new kind of chocolate chip in the baking aisle,” Fluke said. “I turned around to ask Hannah if she had ever heard of it before. I had my mouth open when I realized what I was doing and shut it fast. Hannah’s very real to me.”
So, what if life imitated art and Fluke found herself mixed up in some shady business? Say, what if someone had a gun to her head and demanded she whip up her favorite recipe?
“I’d make them chocolate chip crunch cookies. And then I’d make them stir the batter so they’d put down the gun,” she said.
Blackberry pie
There are two ways to top this pie:
The French crumble is easy and you need only one round of piecrust if you decide to use it.
The double crust pie is the easiest and fastest as long as you buy ready-made frozen pie crusts. You will need two rounds of piecrust for this top.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of 2 frozen 8-inch deep dish pie crusts (or make your own from your favorite recipe)
- 3 heaping cups whole blackberries (approximately 3 grocery square berry boxes)
- 3/4 cup white (granulated) sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly ground is best, of course)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (if it’s been sitting in your cupboard for years, buy fresh! – cinnamon loses its flavor when it’s old)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 stick cold salted butter (1/4 cup, 2 ounces, 1/8 pound)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
Prepare your crust(s) according to the following instructions:
If you decided to use homemade pie crust, roll out one round and use it to line an 8-inch deep-dish pie pan (or a 9-inch regular pie pan).
If you bought frozen pie crusts, leave one right in its pan and let it thaw on the counter. You’ll use that for the bottom crust. If you decided to make the double crust, loosen the second crust a bit in its pan, but leave it in the pan on the counter to thaw. If you decided to use the French crumble top, return that second frozen pie crust to your freezer for the next time you bake a pie.
Rinse the blackberries, pat them dry with a paper towel, and put them in a large bowl.
Mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a small bowl.
Dump the small bowl with the dry ingredients on top of the blackberries and toss them to coat the berries. (Again, use your fingers and be as gentle as you can. You don’t want the berries to break open so the juice runs out. There will be enough juice given off when your pie bakes.)
Place a layer of coated blackberries in the bottom of the pan lined with pie crust. Arrange them with your fingers if there are any noticeable gaps. (You want a nice foundation for the rest of the berries.)
Place the rest of the coated berries in the pie pan. There should be enough to mound the top slightly. (These berries will fill in and settle during baking.)
There will probably be some leftover dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl you used to mix the berries. Just sprinkle the remainder of the dry ingredients on top of the blackberries in the pie pan.
Cut the cold butter into 4 pieces and then cut those pieces in half. Place the pieces on top of the blackberries just as if you were dotting the blackberries with butter.
For a double crust, if you used a frozen piecrust, simply dip tip the pan it came in upside down over the berries in the bottom crust. Smooth it out with your impeccably clean fingers.
Squeeze the edges from the top crust and the edges from the bottom crust together. (Use a little water for “glue” if the crust just won’t cooperate.)
With a sharp knife, cut 4 slits in the top crust about 3 inches long, starting near the middle of the pie and extending down toward the sides of the pie.
For the French crumble:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cold butter (1 stick, 4 ounces, 1/4 pound)
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Put the flour into the bowl of a food processor with the steel blade attached. Cut the stick of butter into 8 pieces and add them to the bowl. Cover with the 1/2 cup of firmly-packed brown sugar.
Process with the steel blade in an on and off motion until the resulting mixture is in uniform small pieces.
Remove the mixture from the food processor and place it in a bowl.
Pat handfuls of the French crumble in a mound over your pie. With a sharp knife, poke several slits near the top to let out the steam.
Bake the pie at 350 degrees F. for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top crust or the French crumble is a nice golden brown and the blackberries are tender when you pierce one with the tip of a sharp knife.
Cool your pie on a cold stove burner or a wire rack. This pie can be served warm with ice cream or sweetened whipped cream, or cold right out of the refrigerator. Refrigerate any leftover pie.
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