This Peppermint Stick Cream might look a little weird with the tapioca pearls in there, but it was really good! It’s a true wartime recipe with no sugar used. Instead you add crushed peppermint candy as the sweetener, giving it that yummy peppermint flavor too!
The recipes calls for Minute Tapioca which is tapioca that cooks quickly and are very small pearls. (Makes sense because the recipe comes from a Minute Tapioca ad!) The downside to the 3 tablespoons of tapioca is that it makes this pudding very gelatinous and not creamy in the textural way that you want in a pudding. Either the tapioca needs to be reduced to 1-2 tablespoons or maybe switching to larger pearls would be better.
Either way, the flavor is great: lightly sweet with the perfect level of peppermint.
The recipe comes from the December 1942 Farm Journal & Farmer’s Wife magazine. It suggests serving the “cream” with a Semi-Sweet Chocolate Sauce. I made this too, because I’m always on the hunt for a good homemade chocolate sauce! And once again, no added sugar!
It was easy and delicious. My sauce turned out pretty thick, almost like a hot fudge sauce for ice cream. Warming it up helps thin it out for pouring. The key for making this sauce work is definitely using hot milk and hot water to keep the chocolate from seizing up. I’d also recommend mixing the water and milk together first before adding it to the chocolate.
Join me tomorrow for Day 3!
I love tapioca pudding but would never have thought of adding the peppermint sticks. I'm going to have to find time to cook this and taste test!
You know, the 1940s had a knack for exploring food texture/flavor combos that I'm just not used to - but this sounds fun!