The Scrumptious Life of Azaleah Lane

I was a good detective. I solved mysteries all the time. But I didn’t have to be a detective to know that these cookies were bad.
I had two hypotheses:
1. The recipe on the convenience-store chocolate chips was no good.
2. The ingredients were no good.
Now I had to find out which one it was.
The big box of chocolate chips was still on the counter. I had already tasted one chocolate chip, so I knew they weren’t the problem.
I read the recipe again. “Eggs, butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla.”
I thought about the times I’d helped Mama bake cookies. We’d used those things too.
I kept reading. “Flour, salt, baking soda.”
Those were all normal ingredients too. There was nothing wrong with the recipe.
I thought back to mixing the dough. We had put all those ingredients in. And I had measured very carefully. There was nothing wrong with my baking either.
That meant it was the strange ingredients from the convenience store. I was suspicious of those ingredients anyway. None of them looked like Mama’s. The strangest one was the salt that came in a box instead of a round container.
I wonder if extra-powerful salt is a thing, I thought. There was only one way to find out. I had to taste it.
I opened the salt canister. I put a tiny pinch in my hand and looked at it very closely. It looked like regular salt.
I licked my hand. It did not taste like regular salt. It was sweet!
That didn’t make sense. Sweet salt wouldn’t make the cookies taste extra salty. But sugar wouldn’t make the cookies taste salty either. Sugar made things taste good.
I was confused, but I couldn’t give up. A good detective had to investigate everything. I needed to use the process of elimination.
I pulled the sugar canister closer to me. I noticed a tiny piece of paper stuck to the side. I pulled it off. It was part of one of Tiana’s stickers from earlier.
It probably got stuck to the canister when she
filled it, I realized.
I took a pinch of sugar and put it in my hand. It looked like regular sugar. I licked my hand again.
“Ugh!” I said. “Salty sugar? Gross.”