Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery Box Set

by Anna Celeste Burke

  When using pâte sablée, the crust needs to be either partially or fully baked before filling. The rule of thumb is that the less time the filling needs to bake, the longer the crust needs to bake on its own. So, in the cases where the filling needs just a little baking, like with frangipane, the crust should be partially baked. If the filling does not need to cook at all (like for pastry cream, whipped cream, fresh fruit, etc.), then the crust needs to be fully baked.

  Most recipes for tarts using this dough will recommend that you “blind-bake” the tart for about 20 minutes. In other words, line the chilled dough with parchment paper or foil. Fill the inside with pie weights or beans and bake until the edges of the crust begin to brown. Remove the pie weights. Then return the crust to the oven and bake another 5 or 10 minutes until entire crust is a golden brown. Try “setting” the pâte sablée dough by freezing for 15-30 minutes in that tart pan or pie tin first. Then bake it as you need to do for your tart by simply pricking the bottom with a fork instead of using the blind-baking strategy. Do this when you’re rehearsing the tart you plan to make for a special event, though, to see if it works for you!

  Ganache is a fancy word for what is basically chocolate [yum!] with warm cream poured over it. Let it melt the chocolate on its own, then mix. If you stir too much too soon the mixture can get grainy. Use it as a glaze over candy, cake, or brownies or as a filling between cake layers. Let the ganache cool so that it will spread more easily over cake layers. For more variety, you can add other flavors to this chocolate ganache. Check this site out for ideas: http://www.easy-cake-ideas.com/chocolate-ganache.html

  Whoa, wait! What about the Bavarian cream and Passion fruit syrup on that chocolate tart I described in Murder at Sea of Passenger X? That takes a bit more work but here’s how to do it. You need a Bavarian cream and a passion fruit syrup. Here goes!

  Make a Bavarian cream to add as a layer over the ganache…

  Bavarian Cream Ingredients

  1 Tahitian Vanilla bean, halved, seeds scraped or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

  1 1/4 cups heavy cream

  1 tablespoon powdered gelatin

  3 tablespoons milk

  1/4 cup sugar

  5 egg yolks

  1 1/4 cups whipped cream

  Bavarian Cream Preparation

  Put the split vanilla bean in cream and slowly bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let sit for 1 hour. Remove bean and scrape out seeds, add them to the cream and discard the pod. [If you use vanilla extract instead of the vanilla bean, scald the milk as above but wait until it’s cool to add the vanilla extract]. Sprinkle the gelatin into the milk and set aside.

  Whisk the sugar and egg yolks together. Warm the cream mixture back up and slowly whisk into eggs. Place mixture over simmering water and stir until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooded spoon. Remove from heat and add milk and gelatin mixture.

  Place bowl in an ice bath and stir until it reaches room temperature. Fold in whipped cream and spread a thin layer of Bavarian cream over the top of the cooled ganache tart. Return to fridge and chill for at least an hour or until you’re ready to serve it. If you have Bavarian cream leftover, use it on top of French toast or pancakes, as a filling for crepes or blintz, or all alone as a rich pudding.

  Drizzle with passion fruit syrup. While the tart is chilling, or ahead of time, make the passion fruit syrup...

  Passion Fruit Syrup Ingredients

  1 cup water

  1 cup sugar

  1/2 cup passion fruit pulp (from about 7 ripe passion fruits), strained to remove seeds

  Passion Fruit Syrup Preparation

  Combine all ingredients in heavy small saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low; simmer until syrup is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 15 minutes. Transfer to bowl, cover, and chill. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.)

  Ripe passion fruits look dry and very wrinkled. If you can't find them fresh, look for frozen pulp at Latin markets. Or, Monin makes a ready-made passion fruit syrup that you can purchase online if you can’t find the fruit you need to make this yourself.

  FINALLY! This tart is ready to serve. Remove the chilled tart from the refrigerator. If you used a tart pan with a removable bottom, this is the time to free the tart. Use a small bowl, like a 1 ½ quart mixing bowl, and turn it upside down. Or you can use a large, 28 oz. can of tomatoes.

  This becomes the base on which you set the tart pan with its removable bottom. Set the tart on the base and gently tap the top edge. The side ring will slip off and drop to the counter leaving the tart on its base. Carefully transfer the tart to a serving platter for display.

  Here's a YouTube video if you want to see how this is done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWP4DeixeXA

  Cut the tart into 8 pieces. Place a piece of the tart on a dessert plate and drizzle the top with passion fruit syrup as you serve it.

  Coconut Pineapple Sheet Cake

  About 40-50 pieces

  INGREDIENTS

  Cake

  2 cups sugar

  2 cups all-purpose flour

  2eggs

  1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice [reserve ¼ cup for frosting]

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1 Tahitian vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scooped out or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  ¼ teaspoon salt

  Icing

  5 cups powdered sugar

  8 ounces softened cream cheese

  ½ cup chopped macadamia nuts

  ¼ cup butter, room temperature

  1 teaspoon vanilla bean or vanilla extract

  Dash of salt [1/4 teaspoon]

  ¼ cup crushed pineapple

  ½ cup, shredded, sweetened coconut, toasted

  PREPARATION

  Cake

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13” x 18” or 12” x 18” [half] sheet pan.

  Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, pineapple and vanilla and stir. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt, and then combine with wet ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed and then pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool.

  Icing

  Toast the coconut—in the microwave! Spread the ½ cup coconut onto a flat microwave safe plate. Cook using 30 second bursts until it’s a golden brown—about 5 minutes if you’re coconut is at room temperature when you start. A little longer if it’s starts out cold from being stored in the fridge.

  Mix all ingredients except coconut to make the icing. Spread evenly over the cooled cake. Sprinkle the toasted coconut on top of the iced cake.

  Georgie’s Tips

  Coconut, pineapple, Tahitian vanilla—wonderful Polynesian, tropical flavors all end up in this cake. If you enjoy that flavor of toasted coconut, make it up ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. It’s great sprinkled on top of pancakes or French toast or as a garnish with a curry dish or even in soup. It’ll make an everyday bowl of tomato soup special.

  What are the dimensions of a half-sheet cake? Wow! Who knew how much this can vary. Ask your bakery if you order a cake ready-made because sizes are all over the place. The difference in dimensions is tied to do with the fact that the term “sheet cake” more often refers to a flat, single layer style of cake rather than to the pan in which it is baked.

  The full-size sheet pans we use in commercial kitchens are 18 inches wide x 26 inches long [too large for most home ovens, btw!]. So, the dimensions here 18 x 13 is based on a sheet pan in half that size. You might find 12 x 18-inch sheet pans are more widely available in stores.

  The baking pans most of us have in our homes already are 9 x 13 so quarter-sheet pan sized. They’re usually deeper though—more like 3 inches compared to 1 or 2-inch depth in commercial sheet pans. You can use this recipe in a smaller quarter sheet pan, but you will need to cook it longer—30-40 minutes. AND you’ll have fewer 2-inch servings [18].

  What you get using a half-sheet pan is a
thin cake that you can cut into various sizes. You’ll get 54 2 x 2-inch [1-inch high] squares that’s plenty to go around if you’re doing a luau with lots of friends. Make the squares bigger and feed fewer people. Or cook two half-sheets and stack them with filling before icing them!

  If you’re planning a dessert bar, the smaller slices will make it possible for your guests to try your other treats.

  THANK YOU!

  Thank you so much for reading the first five books from the Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery Series in this box set. I hope you enjoyed meeting Georgie Shaw, Jack Wheeler, “Mad” Max Marley, and the other characters and culprits featured in these mysteries. That includes Miles and little Ella, of course!

  When you can, please take a minute and leave me a review on Amazon, Bookbub, and Goodreads. Your feedback matters—to me as I plan and write the next books in the series—and to readers who are trying to find books they’ll enjoy.

  You’re invited to follow me on Amazon to receive notifications about new books in the Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery series and the other four series I write. You can find me at: https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Celeste-Burke/e/B00H8J4IQS/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1ps://.

  You’re also invited to subscribe to my newsletter, too. That’s another way to get the latest about new preorders and new releases, sales, free books, special events, and giveaways. To sign up go to https://desertcitiesmystery.com.

  Cheers!

  Murder of the Maestro Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery #6: A Preview

  Georgie and Jack have a new mystery to solve in book six. What’s the book about?

  Marvelous Marley World's Legendary Maestro Is Missing

  A body on the rocks below Dave Rollins' Malibu estate pulls Georgie Shaw and Detective Jack Wheeler into another whodunit. Their investigation soon reveals that the legendary maestro was a man of mystery. Did a secret from his past lead to his death? Or was his killer a scorned woman, a jealous rival, a disturbed fan, or someone close to his heart?

  ˃˃˃ Another Body Turns Up, This Time With A Calling Card

  When another body turns up, the killer leaves a calling card for Georgie: "Requiescat in pace." She and Jack must scramble to unravel the clues and solve the mystery before the murderer strikes again.

  ˃˃˃ Who Killed The Maestro?

  To find out, read book 6 in the awarding-winning Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery Series by USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Anna Celeste Burke.

  Recipes Included!

  Here’s a sneak peek…

  1 On the Rocks

  My heart raced when my cell phone belted out the Marvelous Marley World ringtone before dawn. Like a cult member, my brain involuntarily chanted along with the familiar tune: “It’s a marvelous world, a Marvelous Marley World.” Not one word of that could be true. A phone call at the crack of dawn is never marvelous, is it?

  I can’t entirely blame that ringtone for my racing heart. Seconds before my phone blared, Miles bellowed. I don’t know how he does it, but my Siamese cat anticipates lots of the action that goes on around here. That’s especially true about doorbells, alarms, or phones about to ring. Is it an acute sense of hearing he possesses that picks up tiny sounds humans can’t detect, or does he have an uncanny ability to anticipate trouble?

  Not just one, but two Siamese cats stared at me now. Their blue eyes shimmered in the shadowy light cast by the creeping dawn as I typed in my passcode. Not fast enough since that theme song played again. Mighty-mouth, who regularly demonstrates that naming him after the jazz trumpet player, Miles Davis, was a good choice, sat Sphinxlike. The lovely Ella posed next to him. My cats who love routine almost as much as their creature comforts, were not happy with the disruption—as if I were the one who’d raised the alarm!

  “Don’t blame me,” I said, answering the call before I had to listen to the ringtone a third time.

  “Why would I do that?” my sleepy husband asked. “Carol did it, didn’t she?” My clever, technologically savvy Executive Assistant takes great delight in playing pranks on me, like changing the ringtone on my phone. I’m a diehard fan of all the marvels at Marvelous Marley World, but even I have my limits. That ringtone had to go.

  “Yes, sweetheart, but I wasn’t talking to you.” I gave Jack a reassuring pat. “I’m trying to get the cats to stop eyeing me like I’m up to no good.” That I was chatting with my cats didn’t strike my new husband as odd at all. I catch him talking to them too, even though he’s only been “owned by cats” for a year. I preferred the conversation I was having with them to the one that began the moment my caller had me on the line.

  “Slow down, Max, please!” I implored my frantic boss moments later. He was beside himself with news that his “old friend,” Dave Rollins, was missing. I could understand his concern since Max’s old friend is well into his seventies. Maximillian Marley, the founder of Marvelous Marley World is no spring chicken either. He needed to calm down, not that I could make that happen.

  Max has had decades of practice running around with his hair on fire when he’s worried or upset. You never could tell how seriously to take his fretfulness. His tantrums are legendary, too. I could barely handle the panicky episodes and tantrum-throwing when fully awake. I wasn’t sure what I might do if he went into Rumpelstiltskin mode before six a.m. and without my usual fortification with strong coffee.

  When Jack heard me utter Max’s name, he covered his head with a pillow and turned over with his back to me. Both cats swung their heads in Jack’s direction, their eyes boring into his back freeing me for a moment from their steely-blue gazes. I peeked out through the large bedroom windows and scanned the horizon where the Pacific Ocean meets the sky. The glow of the morning sun had just begun to cast its light on the placid sea. A measure of calm returned as I took a deep breath.

  “Start over, please, and tell me everything that’s happened.”

  According to my distraught boss, someone had called the police sending them to Dave Rollins’ home several hours ago. Music was blaring from open windows in the middle of the night. Every light in the house was on, as if he was having a party.

  There wasn’t a party. In fact, no one was home. Not even Dave Rollins, master musician, composer, and, until recently, Chief Creative Officer for the Marvelous Marley World Music Group. When the well-known local celebrity didn’t answer the door, the police pounded on the door loudly, announced themselves, and then went inside. The door was already unlocked, and not even completely latched, so they had no trouble getting in once that’s what they’d decided to do.

  “It sounds horrible. Just horrible what someone did to his place!” Max cried and then rambled on about what he meant by that. “His magnificent home is in disarray as if it’s been searched. Vandalized, too. The police are searching for the intruder, but what good will that do? They should be looking for Dave.”

  “Let’s hope the maestro has gone off somewhere, even if it’s just for the weekend. That would explain why someone broke into his home without Dave calling the police himself.”

  “You know Dave, he’d never just take off. Even if he did, why wouldn’t he answer his cell phone when I called?”

  I didn’t take the bait by responding to that question. A dozen reasons sprang to mind for not taking a call from “Mad” Max Marley; the early hour only one of them. Max didn’t give me time to say anything anyway.

  “I couldn’t believe it when the Lost Hills police officer had the gall to suggest Dave had simply gone off on a jaunt. Lost Hills is the right place for that officer, alright, since he’s the one who’s lost! To treat Dave’s sudden disappearance as if he were an errant teenager staying out past curfew or a college kid off on a backpacking trip is reprehensible! With his house in the state they found it, how could anyone say a thing like that?”

  “I understand you’re upset. I’m sure the Lost Hills police officer was trying to reassure you since they couldn’t possibly have enough information to even guess at what went on there. A burglary must be high
on their list. If Dave had been home at the time of the incident, he would have locked himself in his panic room, and called the police, don’t you think?”

  I tried to sound calm and confident as I asked Max that question. I skimmed over the fact that before I asked Max to start over he’d mentioned that the police suggested a struggle might have contributed to the wreckage found at Dave Rollins’ home. That raised the specter of a home invasion, kidnapping, or worse. Apparently, Max was having a conversation with himself since the next words out of his mouth had nothing to do with my question about Dave Rollins using his panic room.

  “No blood, no body, indeed! That still doesn’t mean no foul play!”

  “What do you mean no blood, no body?” Jack, who had already taken the pillow off his head and rolled back over to face me, made eye contact when he heard that question. I gave him a little shrug in return.

  That was it. Detective Jack Wheeler tossed his pillow to the foot of the bed. The cats bolted as Jack sprang to his feet, grabbed his phone, and placed a call. I heard him asking for someone with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at the Lost Hills/Malibu station.

  “That’s what the young fool from Lost Hills told me. I demanded they organize a search for Dave Rollins immediately. Since there was no blood and no body at the location, they had no reason to put out an APB, or whatever they call it, for Dave Rollins or anyone else. He actually told me to cool it!”

  Uh-oh, I thought. That sounded like an order. Max loves to give orders, but no one tells him what to do. An inspired dreamer who’d invented a private world with an odd assortment of fantastical creatures that inhabited cartoons, movies, theme parks, and resorts, Max often behaved as though he ruled the real world too.