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After a long wait, the first of my chilli seeds are germinating and starting to look like they might make plants. For the second year running, chilli seed germination has been poor. I’d bought fresh seed this year in an attempt to hurry things along a little, but chilli seeds are prone to taking their own sweet time over germination. They like a bit of cosseting too – a heated propagator is useful to encourage growth, along with regular checks to see that the compost hasn’t dried out too much.
Some varieties are easier to get going than others. ‘Hungarian Yellow Wax’ has always been reliable for me – just as well really, being as it’s one of my favourites. It produces good sized, well-flavoured chillies that get hotter as they ripen from a jazzy green to red. For smaller fruit, I grow the varieties ‘Etna’ and ‘Prairie Fire’. These smaller chillies can be fiddly to deseed, not so easy to work with if you are in a hurry, but they are good for drying to use later in the year when the fresh chillies are gone.
The dried chillies came in useful yesterday. Stuck for something to do (it was grey and cold, and not at all inviting outdoors…), I made a batch of blondies, which are a lot like brownies but with less chocolate involved. I used a recipe from Joy the Baker and stuck fairly closely to the original, but adapted it for a British kitchen by changing the cup measurements to weights. I did omit the nuts – daughter doesn’t like them, and added a sprinkling of last year’s dried chilli flakes. I used a teaspoon of chilli which was enough to give the blondies a bit of heat – you can adjust the amount you use depending on how much of a kick you want.
This month’s ingredient for the One Ingredient challenge is the chilli, so these blondies are being linked in. The challenge is jointly hosted by Laura at How to Cook Good Food and Nazima at Franglais Kitchen, and there’s already a tasty selection of entries – worth a look if you’re a chilli fan…
Ginger & chilli blondies
115g unsalted butter, melted
165g light brown soft sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp red chilli flakes
4 knobs stem ginger, chopped
75g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 180oC, 350F, gas 4. Line an 8″ square baking tin with parchment.
Whisk the melted butter and sugar together in a bowl until you get a pale and creamy mixture. Add the egg and vanilla extract and whisk them in.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl, add the salt and chilli flakes and stir to mix well. Add these dry ingredients to the sugar and butter mixture and fold in until there is no dry flour left. Add the stem ginger and chocolate and stir them through the mixture.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin, and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Test the blondies by sticking a skewer into the centre – if it comes out clean they are ready. Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes (hard to do I know, but they firm up as they cool and trying to cut them sooner will lead to a gloopy mess).
Laura@howtocookgoodfood said:
What a delicious sounding blondie. I don’t think I have ever made them before but adding some spice to them certainly makes me want to try them. I love the idea of pairing the chilli with the ginger and dark chocolate. Perfect match!
Thanks for entering One Ingredient Sarah :))
thegardendeli said:
Thanks Laura. I love cooking with chillies – it was good to be able to use the One Ingredient as an excuse to try something new!
gardenfreshtomatoes said:
Ah, so it’s not just me? I’ve got jalapenos and bell peppers that sprouted quickly, but the cayennes are taking their sweet time, even with the heat mat. It’s my first time growing them from seed…
thegardendeli said:
They can take forever to germinate – then, just when you’re about to give up and throw the compost out, they’ll put in an appearance and and make like they’ve been hard at work growing all that time!
andreamynard said:
Hadn’t heard of blondies before but these look good and I love the idea of the ginger, chilli and chocolate combination. Using lots of ginger and chilli in the belief it’s good to ward off all the cold germs in our house at the moment, so a sweet option that I can justify on health grounds sounds a fab idea!
thegardendeli said:
Hadn’t thought of the health benefits of all that chilli and ginger, but now you’ve pointed them out – I’d bettter make another batch…
Cathy said:
They look very good, and easy to make as well. (I always have problems waiting for cakes to cool down too!) 😀
thegardendeli said:
Leaving them to cool is probably the most difficult part! I was thinking though, that a spoonful of warm from the oven blondie with some thick cream would make a lovely pudding.
Cathy said:
Mmmm! I do that with banana bread – goes well with vanilla ice cream!
Anne ~ Uni Homemaker said:
What a unique combination of flavors for a blondie! Love it, thanks for sharing this recipe Sarah.
thegardendeli said:
Thanks Anne. I think blondies are maybe more popular in the US – here we usually stick with chocolate brownies, but I was really pleased with how these turned out… might need to do some experimenting with other flavours!
Promenade Claire said:
Chillies and peppers can be slow to start can’t they! But worth it.
Loving the idea of blondies and with chilli added
thegardendeli said:
I ended up having to buy in some chilli plants last year because some of the seeds were just so slow I gave up. But you’re right – they’re worth the wait!
Liz said:
I quite like the idea of creating a gloopy mess and eating that….. a good excuses not to save any for later.
thegardendeli said:
I like the way you think Liz! We have done that with brownies that were still a bit gooey in the middle… sometimes there just isn’t time to let them cool!
PJ said:
mmm… gloopy mess and vanilla icecream for me please!
thegardendeli said:
If it wasn’t so darned cold, I’d agree with you on the ice cream… maybe in a couple of months time!
Jacqueline @How to be a Gourmand said:
Ginger and chilli blondies? How delicious and a welcome change to the traditional brownies. Isn’t Etna a great name for a chilli? It really depicts an explosive flavour!
thegardendeli said:
There are some chillies with great names out there – when I was selling plants a few years ago, ‘Sweet wrinkled old man’ was very popular…
HELEN said:
Wow, i love the sound of these, love blondies & the addition of the ginger & chilli sounds so good!
thegardendeli said:
Thanks Helen, they were good – I think the basic mixture would work well with a whole range of flavours. Do you have a favourite blondie flavouring? – I’m shamelessly looking to pinch ideas here!
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