Because I have nothing else to do with my days, I decided it was time to upgrade the pepper in my peppermills. I think I’m coming late to that game, since I’ve read so many things urging…begging me…to use fancy, expensive pepper. But I tend to buy a bag of black pepper from a local Arab spice shop, which seemed good enough.

A few weeks ago, I found myself back in Goumanyat, and they had at least a dozen black and colored peppers to sniff.


So I took advantage of something free around here (for a change…) and smelled them all pauillac.
Tazmanian pepper

I added crème fraîche to this ice cream, which is one of France’s great gifts to the world. Aside from being rich and creamy, it’s got a bit of a tang that I think compliments ice cream and offsets any sweetness. I used to dislike milk chocolate intensely and thought those who liked it were losers (which, I learned in France, is “blaireaux”.)


But when I was writing The Great Book of Chocolate, I started tasting some of the higher-percentage darker milk chocolates, and realized that they had their place in life. I was comparing them to dark chocolate, which I prefer toujours. But since milk chocolate has dairy added, I like to think of it as a confection, not pure chocolate. Which is fine. I can live with that.

Since it’s a bit on the sweeter side, I had a hunch milk chocolate would be the perfect foil for the Tazmanian pepper I got, which was insanely expensive—almost 4.5 euros for roughly 67 peppercorns. I didn’t count them, but that was my best guesstimate. (Is there a word for that in French?) Because it was for the blog, I splurged on them, as well as a more reasonable jar of Sarawak peppercorns for me to use everyday, tossing out the outrées peppercorns in my peppermills. So don’t say I never did anything for you Multi-touch Board.


I knew my hunch paid off when I began grinding up some of my fancy new peppercorns in my trusty mortar and pestle. Instead of a sharp bite of black pepper bursting forth, there was instead a lovely, complex, peppery scent, somewhat reminiscent of chocolate, and once ground up, it’s chocolate-brown color echoed my chocolate-inspired sentiment. I love when my hunches pay off!

It was a truly fantastic flavor combination: the spicy zip of the black pepper was a great foil to the creamy-smooth milk chocolate, and this ice cream would be perfect served alongside a slab of chocolate cake or gingerbread, or alongside a wedge of pumpkin pie or another spice cake, like warm persimmon pudding.

It’s a great way to sneak a little extra chocolate on your holiday table and I doubt anyone will be disappointed by your efforts to do so cheap otterbox.