Aztec Brownies
So this is another one of those not really recipes recipes because I basically started with a box mix. What can I say? Ghirardelli and Hershey’s can make a much better boxed brownie that I can from scratch…plus I’m lazy. However, we got on a kick about a month ago wondering why we couldn’t have hot pepper brownies. They make cayenne pepper chocolate bars so why not the same in a brownie? So we embarked on a quest to formulate the perfect Aztec brownie.
This took several iterations in which we came up with…hot brownies but not *the* brownie recipe. Our first experiment was subbing out half the oil for Mongolian Fire oil which did indeed give the brownie a nice peppery bite. It also gave the brownie a weird savory smoky taste which didn’t mesh well with the chocolaty chocolate at all. I recommend against this route.
Try 2 we decided to add 1 TBL of Cayenne and 2 TBL of cinnamon to the mix. If have asbestos cajones then you may want to stick with this ratio. The rest of us decided that 1 TBL of cayenne pepper was a little on the hot! hot! hot! side.
Try 3 we knocked down the cayenne and cinnamon to 2 tsp cayenne and 4 tsp of cinnamon. That was less destruction to the taste buds but still not *it*. Finally, for batch 4 we upped the cinnamon and that was the magic ratio (although some people who liked the hot will tell you that take 3 was sublime and even take 2 was tasty).
AZTEC BROWNIES
Follow the box instructions:
Ghirardelli (brownie pic above happened to be Ghirardelli this time out if you are at all curious)
Hersheys
and add:
5 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
Easy as pie. It doesn’t seem to matter when you add the extra spices but I like to add them just after dumping the bag of mix in the bowl. We also had an iteration wherein we mixed all the wet ingredients and then added the extra spices and that didn’t seem to affect the brownie in any noticeable way.
2008: Are cobras aquatic?
2007: JSFR: Bourbon Petit Series Chip (teriyakimayonnaise)
2006: “Little Kitty, you alright?” PA-CHOOOOOOOO! “Awww Little Kitty yuck! It’s too early in the morning to deal with cat snot!!”
2005: In the middle of bite hand, he wigged completely out and launched himself into the top of my pants and then kept on going right down a pant leg.
2004: I asked DQ whether she knew what the voltage to her house was and how many cycles it had or if I needed to call her Electric Light Company to get the information.
2003: Parshallville. Hee. I love that name, like the place isn’t big enough to be a real ville.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I feel that I must note that despite my extensive testing of the varieties, my preferred amount of cayenne in brownies is none.