Dungeon Bars–the featured recipe for this month’s Book Bites selection.
Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson
“Diane Mott Davidson’s winning recipe of first-class suspense and five-star fare has won her and caterer Goldy critical raves and a regular place on major bestseller lists across the country. In Goldy’s tantalizing debut, she serves up a savory dish of secrets, suspicions, and murder….
Catering a wake is not Goldy’s idea of fun. Yet the Colorado caterer throws herself into preparing a savory feast including Poached Salmon and Strawberry Shortcake Buffet designed to soothe forty mourners. And her culinary efforts seem to be exactly what the doctor ordered…until her ex-father-in-law gynecologist Fritz Korman is struck down and Goldy is accused of adding poison to the menu.
Now, with the Department of Health impounding her leftovers, her ex-husband proclaiming her guilt, and her business about to be shut down, Goldy knows she can’t wait for the police to serve up the answers. She’ll soon uncover more than one family skeleton and a veritable stew of unpalatable secrets–the kind that could make Goldy the main course in an unsavory killer’s next murder!”
The Book
I love a good mystery. Throw in a caterer as the main character and I’m doubly interested. After all, as a teenager I had the very idealistic dream of being a caterer. My only issue with starting this book? It was on Audible. Not that I have anything against Audible; I am just not much of an auditory person. I’m super visual, so my concern is always getting distracted while listening. I was able to solve that pretty easily by listening in the car while driving, or while I was cleaning at home. Now I’m totally into this character and am on to another of her adventures. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Goldy, the main character, is a single mom with an eleven year old son; she’s just trying to make ends meet while running a small catering business and getting haphazard child support payments from her doctor ex-husband. Her son’s school teacher dies (supposedly a suicide) and Goldy caters her wake. At the wake her former father-in-law gets poisoned and, of course, Goldy becomes a main suspect as she served all the food and drink. Subsequently, her catering business gets shut down temporarily while the authorities try to sort things out.
As you can probably guess, Goldy becomes very interested in figuring out not only who tried to kill her ex-father-in-law. She also searches for what really happened to her son’s schoolteacher. Along this mystery journey you get to learn some of Goldy’s favorites recipes such as Toffee (tried it and loved it but it came out different each of the three times…still working on that one), Goldy’s Dream Cake, Honey Gingersnaps, and Dungeon Bars.
Dungeon Bars
Because the toffee hasn’t been consistent thus far (but man, is it super tasty when it is!) I have decided to share a different recipe. Dungeon Bars. In the book, Goldy’s son loves to play Dungeons & Dragons and she makes these bars for him when it’s time for a game. To me they seem to be a cross between a cookie bar and a cake bar.
Whatever you want to call them, they are delicious! It’s a very simple recipe with simple ingredients. And sometimes in the midst of recipes that want to dazzle and show-off their ingredients list, recipes like this are a refreshing change. To me anyway. I really enjoy a more old-fashioned, simple recipe.
These Dungeon Bars are at their most delicious when they are still warm from the oven. I cooled them for about 20 or so minutes. I baked them for the exact time on Goldy’s recipe, and I think they are perfect that way. Just know that they are slightly fragile and are not solid bars. But man, are they good!
I’ll for sure make these again and while I do love them as is, I may try to add some mini chocolate chips. Or coconut. Or not.
Book Bites: Dungeon Bars
- March 21, 2020
- 32 bars
- Print this
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1 cup raisins
Directions
- Step 1
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9″x13″ pan and set aside.
- Step 2
- Cream the butter with the sugars using a stand mixer or hand mixer, scrape down often.
- Step 3
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
- Step 4
- Add in the flour, salt, and baking soda and mix until combined.
- Step 5
- STIR in the oats and raisins.
- Step 6
- Spread into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 20 minutes or so, then cut into bars.
