Pink peppercorns look like regular peppercorns and have a peppery flavour, but are not actually related to regular peppercorns. These pinkish-red dried berries can often be found in gourmet stores or bulk food stores (where I found my supply) and are sometimes even found mixed in with regular peppercorns. I was a little nervous using these in a recipe – this was something I had never really even heard of before! I mean, I remember seeing a few pink/reddish peppercorns in my pepper mill, but I was supposed to create something with them?
I experimented with a few different tastes by taking recipes I’ve used before and substituting pink peppercorns into them as the main flavour. This one ended up as one of our favourites – it’s a savoury twist to the always popular hot chocolate.
ingredients
- 1 teaspoon pink peppercorns
- 1 cup 10% cream
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
- whipped cream (optional)
directions
- Using a mortar and pestle (I improvised and used a cutting board, parchment paper and a mallet), lightly crush the peppercorns.
- In a small saucepan, heat the cream, sugar and crushed peppercorns on medium-low heat, whisking occasionally. Once the mixture starts to simmer, pour the mixture through a strainer to remove the crushed peppercorns.
- Return the mixture to the saucepan and continue heating on low. Whisk in the chocolate syrup. Continue heating and whisking for another 5 minutes.
- Pour the hot chocolate into a cup and top with whipped cream (optional).
