Move to the mixer. Beat eggs and salt. Slowly add the sugar, then the vanilla. Continue to beat forever (actually about 6 to 8 minutes.)
If the chocolate mixture is still warm, you can speed up the cooling by setting the bowl in cold water. Just don’t let it get too cold and turn solid again.
Sift the flour. Yes, this is important. We’re adding more air and breaking up any small clumps. If you don’t have a sifter, use a fine-mesh strainer. That works just fine.
When all the parts are ready, use a rubber spatula to gently fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar until just incorporated. Then gently fold in the flour, again until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips, then pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes and check for doneness. If the batter springs back when you gently press on it, it’s done. Sorry, but the inserted knife or toothpick test won’t work because of the chocolate chips. Better to underbake than overbake.
Let the brownies cool completely before you cut them, or they’ll crumble. (That’s not necessarily a bad thing.)
Also available by Laura Jensen Walker
Bookish Baker Mysteries
Murder Most Sweet
Phoebe Grant Series
Dreaming in Black and White
Dreaming in Technicolor
Getaway Girls
Daring Chloe
Turning the Paige
Becca by the Book
Other Novels
Miss Invisible
Reconstructing Natalie
Author Biography
Laura Jensen Walker has loved mysteries ever since she read Trixie Belden in the fourth grade in her Danish-founded hometown of Racine, Wisconsin--America’s kringle capital. A former journalist and the author of several novels and humorous non-fiction books, including Thanks for the Mammogram! Laura, like her main character, chose to go flat after her second mastectomy and is grateful to be a longtime breast cancer survivor. She lives in California with her Renaissance-man husband and their canine-daughter Mellie.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reaction to the recipes contained in this book.
Copyright © 2021 by Laura Jensen Walker
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-64385-504-2
ISBN (ePub): 978-1-64385-505-9
Cover illustration by Tsukushi
Printed in the United States.
www.crookedlanebooks.com
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First Edition: January 2021
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Hope, Faith, and a Corpse Page 25