Welcome back to Diet Killers: Recipes for Readers. Today’s recipe evokes a comfy teatime. It also involves fresh garden produce, so I’ve paired it with a few freshly picked produce-related cozy mystery series. Let's dig in.
Elle Brooke White’s Finn Family Farm Mysteries are a whimsical addition to the long list of amateur sleuths working with animal sidekicks. Former advertising executive Charlotte Finn inherits a farm in Little Acorn, California, and ends up dealing with a corpse instead of her crops. Her sidekicks, a teacup pig named Horse and a ladybug named Mrs. Robinson, prove more reliable at solving crimes than Charlotte’s staff or relatives.
Lynn Cahoon is a master at writing entertaining cozy mysteries. Her Farm-to-Fork series doesn’t disappoint. Set in Idaho, they star best friends Angie and Felicia with their new farm-to-fork restaurant, County Seat. Murder intrudes, of course, and there are loveable animals—a hen named Mabel, a pooch named Dom, and a baby goat named Precious.
Peg Cochran’s Farmer’s Daughter Mysteries take us to Love Blossom Farm in Lovett, Michigan. There, Shelby McDonald, a widow with two children, keeps the family farm running while writing a popular lifestyle and cooking blog—and reluctantly solving murders. Cochran is a deft hand at creating engaging characters and charming settings.
Amanda Flower’s Farm-to-Table Mystery series also takes place in Michigan. Shiloh Bellamy leaves her California life behind and cashes in her 401K to save the family farm—by turning it organic, sustainable, and adding a farm-to-table café. It’s a tall order in a small town full of secrets, lies, and deceit. Shiloh has a good sense of humor, though, and family and friends to see her through.
Edith Maxwell brings her own experience as a former organic farmer and her usual flair to her Local Foods Mysteries. In the books, Cam Flaherty, a former corporate world computer scientist, turns her hand to managing her great-uncle’s small Massachusetts farm. Cam’s rusty social skills make the small-town scene somewhat difficult, but she does her best to plug into the locovore community. Maxwell is great with intriguing plots and winning characters.
Now for the recipe! Double chocolate zucchini bread is an amazing hunk of flavor. It’s dense, moist, and delicious. The zucchini is like a hidden clue or a suspect lurking out of sight. If you didn’t know it’s there, you might never catch on.
What’s your favorite stealth ingredient—in your cooking or in your writing?
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
1 ½ cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups finely grated zucchini, slightly drained
1 cup chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or spray a large (9”x5”) loaf pan or line it with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat together sugars, oil, eggs, and vanilla until thoroughly combined.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
Gradually add dry ingredients into the sugar mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in zucchini until it’s evenly distributed in the batter. Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan, spreading so top is somewhat level.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean, 65 – 75 minutes.
The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She writes the award-winning Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. MacRae’s short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and is a past president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society.
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