In Darci Hannah’s Food & Spirits cozy mystery, chef Bunny MacBride’s big break on a reality TV show at a haunted English manor takes a deadly turn when a dinner guest is murdered. As she whips up a ghostly feast to tempt spirits back to the table, Bunny must solve the mystery with the help of her ghost-hunting team before the manor claims another victim. Enjoy a sweet treat with Bunny’s Chocolate Digestive Biscuits as you piece together this ghostly puzzle!
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup oat flour*
- ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup cold butter, cut into small cubes
- ¼ cup cold buttermilk
- 1 cup chopped milk or dark chocolate
- In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, confectioner’s sugar, baking powder, and salt until well blended. Using a pastry blender (or your fingers), cut in cold butter until mixture resembles coarse sand. Stir in cold buttermilk and shape dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a scant ¼-inch thickness. Using a fork, prick dough all over. (This will prevent the cookies from buckling as they bake.) Using a 2½-inch round cutter dipped in flour, cut as many cookies (biscuits) as possible from dough, and place them 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake until tops of cookies are golden brown, approximately 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, place chocolate. Heat in a microwave oven at 30-second intervals, stirring well between each heating until chocolate melts and is velvety smooth. Either dip the bottom of each cookie into melted chocolate, or dollop a spoonful of melted chocolate onto the bottom of each cookie. Using a knife, smooth chocolate, making sure it covers entire bottoms of cookies. Place cookies chocolate side up on a wire rack. Let chocolate set completely before serving.
*To make your own oat flour, place 2/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats in a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade. Process oats until they resemble coarse flour.
Bunny’s Pro Tip: I prefer to make this cookie dough by hand, as my mum taught me. However, if you have a food processor and are making the oat flour, by all means, make the dough in the food processor as well. Using a metal chopping blade, bend all dry ingredients together before adding the cold butter. Add the butter and blend again until the dough resembles coarse sand and then add the buttermilk for the final blend. Easy-peasy!
While filming at a haunted English manor, chef Bunny MacBride’s big break on her first reality TV show may be cut short by an unscripted murder in Darci Hannah’s new Food & Spirits cozy mystery series.
It isn’t how chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride imagined her own cooking show unfolding. But, if preparing historic meals with a modern flair is what it takes to get her cooking on the air, she can deliver, even if her dinner guest is a ghost. That’s the premise of the new reality TV show Food & Spirits, where Chef Bunny teams up with ghost hunter Brett Bloom and psychic medium Giff McGrady to visit haunted locales around the world and tempt lingering spirits back to the table with a beloved meal. For their first episode, the Food & Spirits team sets off to investigate Bramsford Manor, a historic house turned famously haunted hotel, in picturesque Hampshire, England. The sprawling estate is said to be home to the Mistletoe Bride, a young woman who died in the 18th century, the victim of a tragic accident on her Christmas wedding night.
Disliking spooks but loving food, Bunny leaves the spectral search to the pros and focuses on the feast, creating a traditional English holiday wedding dinner, complete with a gorgeous prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and rustic apple tarts. It’s a sumptuous meal she hopes will entice the ghostly Mistletoe Bride to take a seat and join them while the cameras roll. But Bunny’s task is made more difficult when someone steals a boning knife from her custom kit. Alas, when the blade finally turns up again—in the chest of an all-too-human dinner guest—Bunny’s woes only grow, as she is named a lead suspect in the case! Now, with a haunted house full of living residents, staff, and crew, Bunny will need the help of Brett, Giff, and her clairvoyant Grandma Mac to solve this murder before the manor gains another ghost!
Darci Hannah is the author of the Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries and the new Food & Spirits Mysteries. Darci grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, is a graduate of Indiana University, and currently lives in a small town in Michigan with her husband, three sons, and two dogs. She has lived around the Great Lakes all her life and considers them a source of inspiration. When she’s not engaged in a rollicking family adventure, walking her dogs, or working at the historic Howell Carnegie District Library, she’s either baking up a storm or hard at work on her next book. Visit her at DarciHannah.com, or keep up with her on Instagram.
Blending cozy mystery vibes with a touch of the supernatural and mouthwatering chocolate details makes Darci Hannah’s story especially immersive—there’s something charming about how food and suspense intertwine so effortlessly. Moments like these remind readers how important good experiences are, whether in fiction or real life, which is why having reliable support like the Compass Group customer service number can make all the difference when it comes to food services and hospitality.