Felicity Jin has always felt like a bit of a failure whenever she compares herself to her mother and grandmother. The rest of the women in her family have magical talents that come out in their baking, but she’s lived nearly three decades without displaying any supernatural ability whatsoever. She’s happy enough to help her mother, Angela, run their family bakery in the small town of Pixie, California, but her lack of magic can’t help but sting.

That all changes the night she has some truly terrible fusion food from a new restaurant in the nearby city of Fresno. The less-than-stellar experience inspires her to whip up a recipe for fortune cookies that come, intriguingly enough, with a side of prophecy when the circumstances are just right.

While her mom specializes in pineapple buns and egg tarts that evoke happiness in those who eat them, Felicity’s abilities are a little less universally positive. Nowhere is this more apparent than when she writes out a fortune for a customer that accidentally predicts his impending doom. Worse, his body is found in the dumpster right behind the bakery with her ominous fortune still in his pocket. This, of course, focuses the attention of Fresno Homicide Detective Rylan Sun on Felicity herself as prime suspect in the unlucky man’s murder.

Unwilling to be railroaded by the big-city detective, Felicity and her best friend, Kelvin Love, begin to make inquiries of their own–much to Angela’s dismay. When the Jin women’s unsettled feelings begin to show up in their baking, souring their goods, Felicity and Kelvin know that they need to hurry up and solve the case before the bakery starts to suffer even more than it already has from the scandal. But what will they do when the trail leads them right to a murderer who won’t hesitate to kill again?

This was a charming, fresh cozy mystery of small-town sleuths vs. a big-city detective with just the right touch of the paranormal. The minority representation throughout is outstanding, and I especially loved the character of half-Black, half-Japanese Kelvin. I also appreciated how the book is honest about how tough it is to run small businesses and the sacrifices that need to be made in order to keep them afloat.

In addition to fun facts and tips about arranging flowers and embellishing candles, there’s a recipe for Felicity’s signature dish included in the back of the book.

Fated Fortune Cookies

Ingredients

3 eggs

¾ c sugar

½ c butter, melted

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp almond extract

2 tbsp water

1 c flour

fortune message (optional–be creative!)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare sheet pan by covering with parchment paper.

Combine eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Whip together for a few minutes.

Add in melted butter, vanilla extract, almond extract, and water.

Mix flour into wet ingredients.

Use a tablespoon to spoon batter onto the parchment paper, making really thin crepe-like circles about 3 inches in diameter.

Bake for 6 minutes. The edges should turn light brown.

Flip the baked circle with a spatula. (If you are putting in a fortune, slip it in at this point.) Fold it in half and gently touch the golden edges together.

Place the middle of the cookie on the edge of a cup. Hold it there for three seconds to create a fortune cookie bend.

Put the shaped fortune cookies into separate spaces in a muffin tin to cool down.

Tips

Bake the cookies two (or three) at a time because you’ll have to fold them quickly.

Use oven gloves if you don’t want to singe your fingers.

The batter should be thin. If it’s too thick, add 2 to 2 tablespoons of water to adjust the consistency.

These are so delicious, but they are not very easy to make–especially if you want to get the thin consistency people typically associate with fortune cookies. I’d say use about half a tablespoon of batter when making each of these, as a whole tablespoon creates something more akin to a fluffy pancake than a sweet cracker. I also found that the thinner the rounds are, the less likely they are to split when you fold them over the cup rim. The muffin tin itself does a great job of helping make that distinctive folded shape, too, even if my presentation with these still left a lot to be desired!

This recipe produces about 24 delicious cookies that crisp up the longer you let them cool. My kids and I loved them so much, though, that we kept gobbling them up almost as soon as they came out of the oven. This is definitely a fun recipe to try at home, especially if you’re going to try your hand at writing your own fortunes.

Next week, we travel back to the East Coast to investigate murderous machinations on a movie set while cooking up a delicious entree. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: A Smoking Bun by Ellie Alexander