Don’t keep pepper only for savoury cooking – its fragrant heat is lovely in these wedges of shortbread. I have used grains of paradise too, which have a similar flavour profile with added gingery-citrusy notes, akin to cardamom or coriander seed. These West African seeds, named with a stroke of medieval marketing genius, used to be widely popular but fell out of favour in Renaissance Europe when the price of black pepper fell, allowing it to become the spice of every table. They can now be hard to find, so by all means double the black pepper quantity in their stead.