A Cup of Holiday Fear by Ellie Alexander

Author:Ellie Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Chapter Fifteen

The morning wore into early afternoon. More and more people appeared on the plaza as the skies cleared and the cold winter sun shone down on the glittery newly fallen snow. The view from Torte’s front windows made me want to pull on a pair of snow boots and drag my old sled out of the attic.

The chicken cordon bleu crescent pie was such a hit that we sold out of it in an hour. One customer begged Rosa to make it a daily feature. Since our primary focus at the bakeshop was our artisan coffee and pastries, we rotated our lunch specials. It was a way to keep the menu fresh and give my team a chance to try new recipes. I overheard Rosa promise that we would feature it again soon.

I went downstairs to check in on the kitchen. Marty was on lunch break. Stephanie was out delivering two custom cakes, Sterling was scrubbing the stove, and Bethany was dipping shortbread cookies into melted dark chocolate. The kitchen was divided into sections to make workflow as smooth as possible. On the far wall the built-in wood-fired oven smoldered with red coals. Long, stainless steel pizza paddles hung next to it. The brick oven was the jewel of the kitchen. When we had started renovations on the basement, we had no idea our contractors would unearth the oven under decades of old Sheetrock. Everything that we baked in the pizza oven tasted better infused with the scent of hickory or applewood.

The center of the rectangular kitchen housed our baking stations with rows of powerful mixers and ample countertops for rolling dough. We had installed extra overhead lighting above the decorating station where Bethany was dipping shortbread. The meticulous task of design work required specialized tools like frosting tips, paintbrushes, edible-icing pens, and silicone molds. The opposite end of the kitchen was Sterling’s domain with the gas range and space for chopping and dicing veggies.

“Are those the winter solstice cookies?” I asked Bethany after washing my hands with lavender soap and tying on a clean apron.

“Yeah.” Bethany plunged half of a cookie in bowl of melted chocolate. “They’re looking cute, aren’t they?”

“For sure.” I was impressed with her perfectly tempered chocolate and even lines on the cookies. Each had been dipped to the midpoint in the shiny dark chocolate.

“When the chocolate cools, I’ll dip the other side in white chocolate.” Bethany looked over her shoulder to the sink where Sterling washed dishes to the beat of whatever was playing on his headphones. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure. Here or do you want to go sit down?” I glanced to the seating area. The couch was empty, but there was a group of teens hanging in the lounge chairs.

“No. Here is fine. I’ll keep working and Sterling isn’t listening anyway.” She made sure to allow any excess chocolate to drip before placing a cookie on parchment paper. “I have a confession to make.”

“What’s that?” I was glad that Bethany felt comfortable confiding in me.

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