Pickled Chipotle Peppers

Pickled Chipotle Peppers

1 pounds ripe, red jalapeños (~50 of them)
1 cups red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
2 bay leaves
olive oil

Smoking the peppers
1. Prepare a bbq grill for smoking.  Once smoking is prepared, lightly coat the jalapenos in olive oil and slow smoke them for about 30-40 minutes.  Turn them periodically.

2.  Peeling/seeding.  WERE LATEX GLOVES!  The capsaicin will seep into your fingers otherwise and you'll have burning fingers for hours.  Peel all the peppers and remove the stems.  Remove the seeds and slice them into strips.  Do this all over a large plate and try to save as much pepper juice/oil as you can. This should all go into the jars and has a lot of flavor.

3.  Pour vinegar and honey into a saucepan, add the garlic, peppercorns, herbs, bay leaves, and salt.  Bring to a light boil.  Add the peppers and stir around, letting the pickling mixture saturate the peppers.  Simmer for 5 minutes.

4.  Ladel the peppers and pickle solution to sterilized jars, leaving 3/4 inch head space.  Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into each jar, which will float on top of the syrup in a thin film. Wipe the rims clean with a paper towel moistened with vinegar. Seal.

5. Process in a hot-water bath of 180-185 degrees for 30 minutes.

Bret's Black Pepper Butter cookies with Chocolate Drizzle

Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 c. dark brown sugar
1 c. sweet unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 - 2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
extra sugar, for dipping glass
Directions:

1
Mix all ingredients (except for the extra sugar for dipping the glass) together.

Roll into balls of 1 to 1/12 inch size.  Place on cookie sheet.

Use a flat-bottomed glass that has been dipped into sugar to flatten each dough ball on the cookie sheets.

Bake in a preheated 350 F (or 180 C) oven for 9-10 minutes or until lighly browned on the edges- do not overbake.

Remove to wire racks to cool.

Drizzle
1 c. chocolate chips
4 tsp coconut oil or shortening (non-hydrogenated)

Method:
melt chocolate and oil/shortening in a double boiler on soft heat.  Stir till smooth.

Arrange cookies on wax paper and then drizzle chocolate with a spoon until all chocolate is used.  Sprinkle with colored mini-non-pareils.

Danish PebernØdder Cookies

http://klappekage.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/pebernodder-madness/

So today I decided to make pebernødder (pronounced [something like] pey-wa-nudler), as the second half of the “double feature.” I have to admit, I usually have a bit of an obsession with them, especially when sitting and writing exam papers so I’m super excited that it’s Christmas and they’re all over the stores. They’re an awesome snack while studying and I usually just eat the whole bag when I have them sitting next to my computer. Before today, I’ve always bought them and was surprised to find that they’re actually quite easy to make and, furthermore, you can make a ton of them for quite cheap!

The recipe I used for pebernødder is as follows (with the English in parentheses):

Ingredienser:

250 g. smør (250 grams of butter)
250 g. sukker (250 grams of sugar)
2 æg (2 eggs)
2 tsk natron (2 teaspoons of baking soda)
1 tsk ingefær (1 teaspoon of ginger)
1.5 tsk kanel (1.5 teaspoon of cinnamon)
2 knsp hvid peber (2 pinches of [white] pepper)
500 g. hvedemel (500 grams of flour)

1) The first step is to mix the sugar and the butter together. An awesome thing about it being so cold and snowy is that it’s super easy to get really soft butter by setting it for a few minutes on the heater. That way, mixing it with the sugar was really easy. Blend together until the sugar and butter are completely mixed.

2) Once you’ve mixed the sugar and butter, it’s time to add the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing the egg in with the sugar and butter mixture well.

3)After you’ve mixed the eggs in, add the flour and other spice ingredients in a separate bowl. Though the directions call for certain amounts, how you do this here (except for the baking soda) really just goes with your taste. If you really like ginger, add a bit more. If you like a peppery taste, add a few more shakes of pepper. The recipe calls for white pepper – I used black but not too much of it as I’m not too crazy about the pepper flavor if it’s too strong, but again – it’s up to you!

4) After mixing the spices with the flour, add that mixture in with the egg and sugar.

5) Once you’ve mixed all the flour mixture in, take the dough and roll it out into finger sized or so logs.

6) After you’ve rolled them out, cut them into small pieces. The recipe calls that you cut them in 1/2 – 2 cm pieces, and I think it works great when you cut them into varying sizes.

7) After you’ve cut them out, place them on a baking sheet and bake them for about 10-15 minutes at 200°C (400°F).

8) After around 10-15 minutes, take the pebernødder out and let them cool.

9) Once they’ve cooled, place them in a bowl and enjoy this Danish Christmas snack!