Barely a few hours to leave for the Food Bloggers Connect in London and I am still hopelessly distracted. So much to do, so little time. And then the hair brained idea to use pink pepper in cookies.It keeps taking over my insane imagination, even though I knew I had so much more to do. Loose ends to tie, brownies to bake for the kids snack box, a pound cake to make for them too, apples that are lying on the kitchen counter crying themselves hoarse to be baked into dessert. I thought I would do no such thing, leave in a calm composed manner, let them miss me & dessert…realise my true worth etc!
In the meantime, the ‘mama‘ mode in Mr PAB hasn’t kicked in yet . He’s been trying to take over Mama duties in my absence, and it just isn’t happening. I’m still doing the laundry, making BIG eyes at him, saying this is what ‘Mama PAB’ should be doing now. Poor guy … he’s overwhelmed at the thought of running home & looking after the kids for 4 days. Ain’t easy to deal with a teen; thankfully the boy at 10 is a blessing; always a smile. And suddenly, with an uneasy feeling of her mother going, the daughter has begun to be rather nice, unlike the edgy teen we get to see!!
I’ve been in baking mode all of yesterday… something like jump into a bag & bake myself to death mode. Made them a coffee pound cake, made them brownies & made them some shortbread cookies. I have to admit they’re having a field day, & have had a good go at the pound cake & cookies.
The shortbread cookies are a sudden obsession. Of course I shouldn’t have made them as I didn’t have time … but the pink peppercorn that this lovely Mumbai blogger Anushruti @ Divine Taste mailed has had me mesmerised. It’s from her mother’s garden down in South India & the flavours are entirely intriguing. Mildly spicy, but with a lingering aroma. Used them in a pink peppercorn chicken curry a few days ago, but had cookies on my mind. Cookies for Anushruti because I know she’s a vegatarian, and bakes eggless too. Had an idea developing in my mind for a bit, and couldn’t resist throwing these together. They have a hint of a surprise if you are expecting just ‘sweet’ shortbread. The kids were slightly taken aback, but sports that they are, the taste grew on them. I like the idea of pepper, chili, chocolate in cookies desserts, and these were yum, simple & different. Without much ado, here we go…
Pink Peppercorn & Chocolate Chip Shortbread Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter (room temperature) 5 tbsps vanilla or Castor Sugar 2 tbsps pink peppercorn + 1/2 tsp granulated sugar 1 1/2 cup flour Powdered sugar for sifting on top Dark melted chocolate for topping if desired Method: Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. Coarsely grind the pepper in a pestle & mortar with 1/2 a tsp of granulated sugar. Beat the butter & sugar till creamy & soft. I do this by hand. Mix in the pink peppercorn coarsely ground. (I do this too by hand & don’t use the mixer at all for this recipe). Gradually add the flour and gently pull the dough in together to form a soft ball. Chill for an hour. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/2 ” thickness, and cut into shapes. Put on the baking sheet, bake for 12-15 minutes until light golden brown. Remove to a cookie rack to cool. Dip into melted chocolate & leave to set. Makes about 2-3 dozen 3″ cookies.
