of cupcakes she'd baked. 'Try one of these. I didn't frost them this time, but you can probably tell if I'm on the right track.'
'I think I can,' Beatrice said, taking one of the cupcakes and peeling off the paper liner. She took a bite, chewed and swallowed, and then she shook her head. 'Sorry, Hannah. These aren't right. Alma's were heavy, but not this heavy. Is that peanut butter I taste?'
'Yes. Whatever Alma used, it wasn't that thick. I knew it wasn't going to work, but since I'd mixed them up already, I figured I might as well bake them.'
'They're not Alma's, but they're good,' Beatrice said, reaching out for a second one. 'Maybe you've got a new recipe here, Hannah.'
'That's how I develop some of my cookie recipes. I start with an idea of how it should taste and a basic no-frills cookie recipe. Then I add and subtract ingredients until what I bake matches what I've imagined. Sometimes I stop short of the mark if I stumble on a really good variation. I remember when I was trying to make…”
'Hannah? We've got a problem.'
Hannah stopped in mid-sentence and turned to see Winnie Henderson waving at her. Winnie looked distressed and there wasn't much in this world that rattled Winnie. She never gave her exact age, but Hannah knew that she was old enough to have outlived four husbands, given birth to two children by each, and have almost three-dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren that loved to come and stay with 'Grannie,' who'd played on an all-female baseball team during the Second World War and could still hit a ball out of the park.
'I'll tell you more later,' Hannah told Beatrice, and then she hurried over to Winnie's kitchen workstation. 'What's wrong, Winnie?'
Winnie gestured toward her mixing bowl and gave the contents a stir. 'It's this banana bread. It smells great, but it's going to come out as heavy as a rock. Stir it yourself if you don't think I'm right.'
'No need for that,' Hannah said, shaking her head when Winnie offered her the spoon. 'I can see you're right. The batter's much too stiff and it probably won't rise at all. Are you sure you measured everything correctly?'
Geraldine Goetz, who was the measurer in the group, nodded quickly. 'I know we did. Luanne stood next to me and we double-checked everything.'
'How about the flour. Did you sift it?'
'No,' it was Lolly Kramer's turn to answer. 'It called for unsifted flour. I scooped it out and leveled it off with a knife just the way you told us to.'
Hannah smiled. 'You did that exactly right, Lolly. And if you measured correctly and used all the right ingredients, the fault has to be with the recipe. Whose is it?'
'Regina Todd's,' Winnie handed her copy of the recipe to Hannah. 'Do you think we should call her to see if she left out something?'
'Don't bother. If this is Regina's recipe, I know what's wrong. Show me the eggs you used, Patsy.'
Patsy Beringer opened the refrigerator, took out a carton of eggs, and handed them to Hannah. 'I used these. They're okay, aren't they?'
'They would be if this weren't Regina's recipe.' Hannah breathed a sigh of relief now that she'd arrived at the answer to the problem. There would have been big fireworks between the two families if Hannah had failed to put Andrea's mother-in-law's recipe in the Lake Eden Cookbook.
'Why is Regina's recipe different?' Winnie asked, and Hannah realized that she hadn't explained her cryptic comment.
'Regina raises laying hens and the eggs she gets are at least double the size of the large eggs you can buy at the Red Owl. When she said three eggs, she meant three of
Understanding dawned in Winnie's eyes. 'I get it. More eggs would be more liquid. But how much more liquid can an egg add?'
'You'd be surprised. If a recipe doesn't specify the size, always use medium to large eggs. Each medium to large egg should yield a quarter of a cup.'
'Then three eggs is three-fourths of a cup?' Winnie sounded surprised.
'It's supposed to be.' Hannah handed the carton of eggs to Lolly Kramer. 'Let's test it out. I think doubling the eggs ought to fix up that banana bread batter. Break three into a measuring cup, Lolly, and whisk them up with a fork. Then we'll see how much we get. We have to mix them up anyway, since we're trying to incorporate them after the fact.' Lolly broke three eggs into a measuring cup and whisked them until they were a uniform color. Then she set the cup down on the counter so the contents could settle and she could read the measurement.
'Three-quarters of a cup,' she announced stepping back so that the others in her group could move closer and see for themselves. 'Do you always measure your eggs this way, Hannah?'
Hannah shook her head. 'I don't measure mine unless they seem unusually small or unusually large. And I always mix them up before I measure them. That way I can pour out some if I have too much, or add another egg if I don't have enough.'
Winnie, who was a lot stronger than her small size would indicate, dumped the extra eggs into the bowl and mixed them into the batter. It took a few minutes, but soon they were incorporated.
'This feels about right,' Winnie said, giving the mixture another stir and then handing the spoon to Hannah. 'You try it.'
Hannah stirred the batter. 'It should work now. Pour it into the pans and let's bake it. If it turns out all right, we'll revise the recipe by doubling the eggs.'
Several other groups asked for Hannah's opinion on various aspects of baking and soon the Jordan High Home Economics room was filled with delicious smells. There was an apple pie, a pan of pecan bars, a lemon poppy seed cake, Hannah's own recipe for German Chocolate Cake Cookies, and Andrea's mother-in-law's banana bread. All these different sweets baking at once had everyone's mouth watering.
Hannah walked from group to group, making sure she made contact with each of her students. She answered the occasional question, gave advice where it was needed, and offered her expert opinion when Donna Lempke couldn't decide if her group's lemon poppy seed cake was ready to take out of the oven. Then, when everything was cooling including the ovens, Hannah sat down at the teacher's desk and assembled recipes for her students to take home and test.
It was quiet in the huge room, even though the members of her class were chattering among themselves. Hannah was puzzled for a moment and then she realized that she was comparing the noise level this week with the noise level last week. Mike was no longer teaching the class next door and there were no more yells and whistles. Rick Murphy had taken over as the self-defense instructor and he'd told Hannah,, before his class had started, that he planned to take his students outside during the second half of the period so that they could practice approaching a parked car and walking in a dark parking lot.
Once Hannah's class received their homework and divided up the goodies from the night's baking, everyone except Hannah headed for home. When the last of her students had left, Hannah checked the workstations to make sure everything was shipshape. That done, the only chore that remained was taking out the garbage.
Hannah picked up the garbage bag and headed for the outside door. She opened it, took one step toward the Dumpster, and stopped in her tracks. She knew she was being silly, but it seemed like tempting fate to approach the same Dumpster where she'd found Sheriff Grant.
'Hannah?'
A voice called out behind her and Hannah almost spilled the garbage. She whirled, then gave a sigh of relief as she saw Rick Murphy. 'You scared me, Rick!'
'Sorry. I meant to get here earlier, but one of my students wanted some advice on home security. Just hand me that bag and I'll carry the garbage out for you.'
'You will?' Hannah was puzzled. 'But I can do it, Rick. It's not like my arm's broken or anything.'
'I know, but Mike asked me to stop by after class and do it. And then I'm supposed to walk you out to your car. Mike said that since he couldn't be here, he wanted me to make sure you weren't alone.'
Five minutes later, Hannah was in her cookie truck, driving home, and there was smile on her face that had enough wattage to light up Eden Lake's official Christmas Tree. Mike had been concerned and he'd asked Rick
