Jalapenos | My Haunted Library

Need an appetizer for Thanksgiving? A great snack for the big game? Try these poppers – you won’t be disappointed!

My pepper plants went above and beyond this year: we’re talking pounds of peppers. Many, many pounds of peppers.

So, okay, maybe I over-compensated from years of unsuccessful harvests and I planted a few (a lot) too many plants: Anaheim, Poblano, Serrano, and Jalapeno. I have roasted and frozen them. Pickled them. Made jalapeno jelly. Added them to endless salsas (aided by our equally-prolific tomatoes). I’ve eaten them on everything from eggs to tacos. Stuffed them. Made spicy peanut brittle. I even tried to give them away—free!—at a little table at the end of our country driveway. But, we’re in Ohio. Peppers, apparently, aren’t quite so popular here as our old home state of Colorado. Oh well! More for me.

Here’s an easy recipe we’ve made…three times this season? Four times? That even my not-too-big-a-fan-of-spicy-things husband really enjoys. I think we adapted it from a Pioneer Woman recipe long ago. Non pepper-lovers, don’t be afraid: all the heat comes out of the pepper when you scrape out the inner white membrane and the seeds and the peppers have a mild, almost fruity flavor. Want more heat? Leave in the membrane, or some seeds. These poppers are fabulous right when you make them and they also warm up fine the next day. If you have any left. (You won’t!)

Ingredients

8oz package cream cheese

10 slices regular bacon, cut in half

10 fresh jalapenos

20 toothpicks

How to Make Them

Preheat your oven to 300F. You’re going to cook these low and slow. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack over it.

Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and use a spoon to scrape out the white membrane and the seeds—unless you want your poppers really hot!

Spread about a tablespoon of cream cheese into each pepper half.

Wrap a half-slice of bacon around each jalapeno. Stick a toothpick horizontally through the center of the pepper to hold everything together. Set each pepper on the wire rack.

Bake for 35-40 minutes at 300F. Keep an eye on them: They may need a little more or a little less time for the bacon to get brown and delicious.

Eat them. Be happy.

This delicious and easy candy will spice up your Halloween. The jalapeños aren’t hot (unless you want them to be!) but instead give more of a warm, mellow flavor to this sweet brittle. If you do want to spike the heat—and go for more of a trick—add extra jalapeños right at the end.

Ingredients:

¼ cup jalapeño pepper, finely chopped. No seeds, no white part. Chop extra jalapeño to add at the end for more heat

1 cup peanuts. I use lightly-salted, dry roasted peanuts, because that’s what I usually have on hand, but raw nuts are classic

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, divided. Plus more for buttering the pan.

¼ cup light corn syrup

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

Green food coloring (optional) if you want things to look a little creepier for Halloween

½ teaspoon baking soda

How to Make It:

Butter a 15 x 10-inch jellyroll pan. I have a silpat, so I use that instead for zero stick/cleanup problems. They’re a bit expensive, but truly worth it. Here it is on Amazon if you’re interested: Silpat Premium Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat, Half Sheet Size, 11-5/8″ x 16-1/2″. Put the silpat on a cookie sheet.

In a skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the jalapeños and the nuts and cook over low heat until the peppers are soft.

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup. Bring it to a boil over medium heat. This looks bizarre. It will liquefy, don’t worry. Meanwhile, have all your other ingredients at hand and ready to go.

When the sugar mixture is boiling, add the jalapeños and the nuts. Stir well and cook until the mixture reaches 290 F on a candy thermometer. This is the soft crack stage. Trust me, it is good to have a candy thermometer.

Remove from heat.

Stir in the butter, almond, and vanilla extract, a few drops of green food coloring if you’re using it, and any extra jalapeño, if you’re adding any. Stir until everything is mixed in.

Sprinkle the baking soda over the top of your cooked mixture and stir until the mixture is foamy. Immediately pour it onto your buttered pan or onto your silpat. Use the back of a spoon to spread it out into a thin layer. Work fast, but be careful! The stuff is like napalm at this point!