Spruce and Pink Peppercorn Bon Bons

Alright, you've got me.  I whine all the time about how I don't have a sweet tooth, and how I tend to crave big bloody piece of meat.  And I live in near constant fear that people want to stone me because I don't belong to the chocophilic association.

So why oh why did I come up with a recipe for chocolate candies?

Here's why.  It's because spruce is the featured herb of the month for the Wild Things Round Up.  And being as passionate as I am about spruce as an ingredient, I feel it would be a crime for people not to experience it's delightfully pungent and citrusy flavor together with desserts.  The flavor of spruce pairs so well with sweets that I find it near criminal that it's not as common as cinnamon in confections.

Again, I repeat, I'm not a chocolate person.  But in my humble opinion, these are good enough to make legions of chocofreaks foam at the mouth (or do chocozombies howl at the moon?).

If you don't own a candy mold, you're gonna have to roll the filling into balls, chill, and then dip into melted chocolate.  However, (with a local coupon that I stole from my neighbor) I was able to get a candy mold at the craft store for $1.  And it was worth the investment.  I think my spruce and pink peppercorn bon bons look pretty slick.

To Make Spruce and Pink Peppercorn Bon Bons

Cream together 1/2 c. (room temp) butter, 1/2 c. spruce syrup (look for the recipe here), and 2 c. powdered sugar.  I'm a powdered sugar snob, and think the commercial version tastes naff.  I always make my own by dumping plain old sugar into the blender and whizzing it up until it looks right.  But of course, you can use the store-bought version as well.

Stir in 1 Tbsp. very finely chopped spruce tips, and 1/2 tsp. freshly cracked pink peppercorns.

Prepare your chocolate molds by brushing them with melted chocolate.  I melted chocolate chips using my coffee mug warmer, then used a baby spoon the coat the molds.  Place the mold in the freezer for a few minutes to harden the chocolate shells.

Spoon the spruce filling into the chocolate molds, not quite to the level of the top.  Return the molds to the freezer for twenty minutes.

The last step is to finish enclosing the candy filling in the chocolate shell by brushing a final coating of choclate over the top (which will eventually be the bottom once the candies are un-molded).


I apologize for not snapping a pic of the candy filling before I let everyone loose on the spruce bon bons.  The spruce and pink peppercorn filling is ever-so-slightly oozy, sort of like the goopy bit in chocolate covered cherries.

You've still got time to come up with a spuce/fir/pine recipe to participate in the Wild Things Round Up.  Visit my partner Bek at Cauldrons and Crockpots for more inspiration.  Then send your link (or questions) to wildthings.roundup@gmail.com

I'm sharing these little delights with the Hearth and Soul hop, and This Week's Cravings (chocolate!).