My sister’s recent trip to Northern Europe helped inspire this recipe. While she was gallivanting around Sweden and Denmark, she was kind enough to periodically email along some photos of her adventures, both culinary and other. One morning I awoke to a picture from a cozy little café where she had ordered a rich, velvety cup of hot cocoa. The clever café had served her what looked like a hard “lollipop” of chocolate sitting in a mug of steamed milk. The photo cruelly captured the ribbony swirl of fudge as the ball of chocolate slowly bled into the hot milk. Approximately one nanosecond later, I vaulted off my couch in search of hot chocolate. So fast did I scramble, that I fear I may have run over a small child, had one been so bold as to get in my way . . . <br /> <br />When I came across the chocolate spice contest here, I thought this would be a fun application. I’ve wanted to cook with “lip-tingling” Sichuan peppercorns for a while now. I’ve seen them in several savory recipes, so naturally I thought, why not give them a go in a sweet recipe . . . There aren’t enough in this recipe to numb your lips, but they do add a dimension of warmth. <br /> <br />You’ll notice that I essentially end up making a truffle here that is melted into hot milk, which is softer than the chocolate from my sister’s photo, so I imagine it tastes a bit different. Such is reality when one has neither the skill, nor the patience, to temper and mold chocolate that will firm up much harder. <br />

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