Clare Cosi is more than thrilled that the Greenwich Village cafe she part owns is about to be a featured location on the hit streaming series Only Murders in Gotham. Aside from the exposure and uptick in business that being on the show will definitely bring to the Village Blend, being featured means she’ll get a chance to meet its star, Jerry Sullivan, in person. Clare has long been a fan of the veteran comic and is awed when their first meeting is nearly everything she’d ever dreamed.

Jerry not only loves her cafe but wants to add the staff to his cast too. As if this weren’t amazing enough, Jerry is soon forced to fire Driftwood Coffee—the Village Blend rival who originally snagged the craft services contract for the show—when the prop master is hospitalized in the wake of drinking Driftwood’s (admittedly inferior) coffee. He happily offers the contract to Clare and her cafe instead.

Giddy as she is at how well the experience is going, even Clare has to start to wonder whether something sinister is afoot when further mishaps and accidents–some near-fatal–continue to plague the set. Jerry is convinced it’s all bad luck, but Clare soon has good reason to believe that someone is deliberately sabotaging the series–and that a new, illegal street drug is somehow involved. When people start dying, will Clare be able to get to the bottom of what’s going on before she becomes the next victim of a murderous mastermind?

This 20th book in the Coffeehouse Mystery series is one of its most wildly entertaining, as Clare mingles with some of the biggest names in Hollywood in order to catch a cunning killer. The behind the scenes action is so much fun, with an excellently plotted mystery to boot. I love the callbacks to some of Clare and her ex-husband Matt’s previous exploits in navigating the perilous heights of New York City.

There were over 15 recipes included here, with others available to reference online. After last week’s delicious savory dish, I decided to try out a sweet treat, lightly edited here for format.

The Village Blend’s Cafe-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies with Hints of Caramel and Sea Salt

Makes about 8 large flat cookies (or 16 medium-sized)

Ingredients

1 stick (½ cup or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

⅛ teaspoon finely ground sea salt

4 large egg yolks (lightly beaten with fork)

½ cup white, granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup + 2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips (see recipe note below)

Instructions

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and set it into the freezer to cool for 5 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350°F and separate the eggs. You’re only using the yolks for this recipe. Lightly beat them with a fork.

Once the butter feels cool to the touch, whisk in the following ingredients in this order: the vanilla and salt; the beaten egg yolks; and the two sugars (white and light brown.) Measure in the flour, sprinkle on the baking soda, and switch to a rubber spatula to stir into a sticky, loose dough. Finally, fold in the mini chocolate chips.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop the dough in large, equal-sized mounds on the lined pan, leaving plenty of space between the cookies for spreading. For perfect-looking, cafe-style rounds, flatten the mounds very slightly with the back of a spoon and shape them into circles. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes. Remove cookies when golden brown but still slightly underdone.

Allow to finish cooking by sitting on the hot baking sheet, outside of the oven, for another 8 minutes, and eat with chocolate chip joy!

Recipe note: For best results, use mini chocolate chips. If you only have standard chips, discs, or chocolate chunks on hand, chop them into smaller pieces and measure after chopping.

Oh, dear! I’m not sure if it was because my kitchen was unusually cold, but these did not bake quite as well as I wanted them to. They definitely did not cook much more while sitting on the hot baking sheet. I actually had to pop the whole sheet back into the oven for five more minutes to get them closer to done.

I was also a little surprised at how widely the cookies spread. I thought I’d given them enough space, but since I’m a fan of cookie cakes regardless, I didn’t mind so much that they all ran together. While the increase in area didn’t really help in getting the dough cooked through, the end result was good enough, especially after the extra time in the oven. My family happily broke off large cookie-sized pieces and ate them all.

Next week, we get into the holiday spirit while crafting some delicious candy and investigating the death of a cooking contest competitor. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Bruno’s Cookbook: Recipes and Traditions from a French Family Kitchen by Martin Walker and Julia Watson