A few weeks ago my wife came home with 3 lbs of cayenne peppers from a farmers market she just happened to walk by. Aside from many, many jars of hot sauce, I wanted to take a shot at doing something creative with the cayennes.
I figured I'd try to candy a few cayenne peppers and see how they turned out. For some reason I decided use use maple syrup instead of sugar and they turned out pretty good!
Steps:
I've noticed when making sauces that Cayenne peppers seem to have a high oil content. My cayenne sauces have no added oil but they have a pleasant oily thickness and viscosity that my other sauces don't have.
This oil really came through in these little candies, giving them a pleasant buttery flavor. This combined with the maple was really nice.
The heat of the peppers was fairly subdued from the cooking process (I guess). I'd like to try this with hotter peppers to get more heat, but I love the flavor of cayennes. Next time I may put some habanero powdered in the syrup to add some heat, but still use cayennes for the flavor.
NOTE: I'll add pictures as soon as I figure out how!
I figured I'd try to candy a few cayenne peppers and see how they turned out. For some reason I decided use use maple syrup instead of sugar and they turned out pretty good!
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 200F
- Slice Cayennes into 1/4 inch thick slices.
- Bring 1/2 cup maple syrup to a low boil using medium heat (be careful not to burn syrup).
- Toss the pepper slices into syrup.
- Cook peppers for about 3-5 minutes, stirring softly and often. Make sure the syrup doesn't burn or bubble over.
- Once pepper slices start to look translucent, use a slotted spatula or a fork to gently pull them out of the pan and put on silicone mat or wax paper.
- Put mat/wax paper on a cookie sheet and put peppers in the oven to cook. One hour in the oven will give you candies that have a slight crunch to them but are still chewy. If you keep them in for another hour they will probably be brittle and crispy. Just depends on what you like.
I've noticed when making sauces that Cayenne peppers seem to have a high oil content. My cayenne sauces have no added oil but they have a pleasant oily thickness and viscosity that my other sauces don't have.
This oil really came through in these little candies, giving them a pleasant buttery flavor. This combined with the maple was really nice.
The heat of the peppers was fairly subdued from the cooking process (I guess). I'd like to try this with hotter peppers to get more heat, but I love the flavor of cayennes. Next time I may put some habanero powdered in the syrup to add some heat, but still use cayennes for the flavor.
NOTE: I'll add pictures as soon as I figure out how!