Former actress turned chocolatier Becca Ransome is settling happily into life in her hometown of Larch Haven, Vermont. Making chocolates for her family’s candy store True Confections takes up most of her time, especially with the holiday season turning the charming town with its picturesque canals into a true winter wonderland. But when she’s challenged to enter the annual Baking Spirits Bright competition, the idea of bringing more publicity to her family business proves irresistible–even if Becca’s less confident of her baking skills than of her chocolate-making.

Becca is thus pleasantly surprised to make it through the first round of the contest and into the finals. She’s up against some pretty stiff competition though, facing off against Roman Kafka, the pastry chef from her older brother’s restaurant; cupcake maven Stephanie Kang, and Irma Jones, the perennially sour owner of an otherwise excellent local bakery. Despite this, she thinks she has a pretty decent shot—especially with the brilliant idea she has for her final presentation. All thoughts of baking are driven right out of her head, however, when she stumbles across Irma’s dead body while getting her supplies together for the competition.

Irma had never been the most popular resident of Larch Haven, but she certainly hadn’t deserved to be murdered so brutally. There’s no shortage of suspects, especially since Irma was notorious for keeping a notebook filled with incriminating secrets involving the rest of the townsfolk. But after a threatening note is found when the competition finally restarts and Becca is subsequently pushed down a flight of stairs, things start getting personal for our amateur sleuth. Can she figure out whodunnit before she and her friends are put in even graver danger?

This was a very cute cozy mystery, with a terrific setting, lovable characters, and an utterly charming slow-burn romance. It also features tight plotting and execution, making for the perfect holiday read. As if that weren’t enough, there are two candy recipes included! I decided to try out the slightly more seasonal confection of the two.

Candy Cane Truffles

Ingredients

4 oz milk chocolate

4 oz whipping cream

1 9-inch candy cane

2 tablespoons crushed candy cane

8 oz white chocolate

Instructions

Finely chop the milk chocolate and place it in a heatproof bowl. In the top of a double boiler, heat the cream over medium-low heat until it’s just starting to bubble. Remove the cream from the heat, add the 9-inch candy cane, and let the cream steep for approximately 5 minutes. Then return the cream to the stove and heat again until it’s just starting to bubble. Remove and discard any undissolved candy cane. Pour the cream into the bowl of milk chocolate. Mix the cream and chocolate together until all the chocolate has melted and the ganache is smooth. Add the crushed candy cane and stir to combine. Leave the ganache to cool to room temperature. Then put the ganache in the fridge until it is chilled and completely set.

Remove the ganache from the fridge and use your hands to quickly roll it into 1-inch balls. Set the balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Place the tray in the fridge and chill the ganache balls. Leave them in the fridge until you’re ready to dip them.

Roughly chop the white chocolate and set approximately one-third of it aside (this is the seed chocolate). Put the remainder of the chopped chocolate in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water. Melt the chocolate and heat it until it reaches 113-122°F (45-50°C). Remove the bowl from the double boiler. Add the seed chocolate and stir until the chocolate cools to 84-86°F (29-30°C). At this point, the chocolate should be in temper.

Line another baking tray with parchment paper. Using a truffle fork or regular fork, dip each ganache ball into the tempered chocolate, making sure it is completely coated, and then set it on the prepared tray. Leave the truffles to set at room temperature or, if necessary, chill the truffles just long enough to set the chocolate.

Makes approximately 24 truffles.

So I knew going into this recipe that I would be diverging somewhat from the recommended steps, as I got chocolate melts that didn’t need tempering. I also couldn’t find candy canes and figured I could just substitute regular peppermint candy rounds. Those substitutions all worked out even better than expected. Alas, I could not for the life of me get the ganache to set into anything remotely workable into a ball.

Online sleuthing assured me that the reason for this is because in order to get a semi-solid ganache, the ratio of chocolate to cream needs to be 3:1, not 1:1 as this recipe suggests. I didn’t have any extra milk chocolate on hand, so I decided to improvise by using a chocolate mold to help the finished candy retain its shape. I poured a thin layer of white chocolate into each mold and let that harden before adding first the chocolate-mint ganache and then another layer of white chocolate on top. I think my truffles came out quite nicely in the end. The flavors were certainly extraordinary, especially to someone who rarely enjoys the combination of mint and chocolate. If you try out this recipe, please let me know how it goes, and your own opinions of the measurements.

Next week, I’ll be cooking a yummy dish reminiscent of warmer weather while reading about a murder in a bookstore. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Bulletproof Barista by Cleo Coyle