Spicy Jalapeño Bread

Lex C
Mar 5
2 min read

The Problem:

Time for a spicy treat.

I love spicy foods. Give me Habanero chilies, give me the hot Kim Chee, give me Nashville Hot Chicken.

Nothing satisfies me more that chowing down tongue-scorching, sweat inducing delights. Love it.

But how about bread? I had read somewhere in the vast wasteland of the interwebs that spice kills yeast, making spicy bread problematic.

Does it really, though?

The Hypothesis:

Spice killing yeast is an exaggeration.
I can create a hot bread with a consistent flavor profile.
Adding Jalapeños before adding liquid will let them diffuse evenly through the loaf.

The Experiment:

The spice. And a view of my instant pot.

Materials:

2 cups warm water

1 1/2 tbsp. sugar

3 1/2 cups bread flower

1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 4oz can hot jalapeños

2 tbsp. cayenne pepper

1 tbsp. red pepper flakes

Procedure:

1) Mix the water, sugar and yeast together, let sit for 10 minutes to proof

2) Whisk flour, salt, jalapeños, cayenne and red pepper flakes together.

3) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until fully incorporated.

4) Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.

5) Turn out dough onto a floured surface, stretch and fold 8 times or so.

6) Shape into a round.

7) Place the round on parchment paper.

8) Lightly cover the round and let sit for an hour until dough doubles in size.

8) While waiting, put a Dutch oven on the middle rack of your oven and preheat to 450 degrees.

9) Carefully remove the Dutch oven, take off the lid, and lower the round (and the parchment paper) into the Dutch oven.

10) Replace the lid, put the Dutch oven back in your oven and let bake for 15 minutes.

11) Remove the Dutch oven lid, lower the temperature to 370 degrees, and bake another 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature is at least 200 degrees.

12) Remove the Dutch oven and, using the parchment paper, remove the bread and place it on a rack.

13) Slide the parchment paper out from under the bread.

14) Let cool for at least 45 minutes.

Results:

Spice affected the yeast very little, if at all. Success!
Thin crust, loose crumb. Success!
Jalapeños and spice evenly distributed. Success!
The loaf is delicious. Success!
Consistent flavor profile, not quite. Near miss!
Overall result: Success!

Conclusions:

So close to a complete success.

The flavor profile is good all around, and very spicy, but doesn't have a consistent level of heat.

I was hoping for an initial BAM (to use the technical term), which would fall off to a slightly less hot (but still spicy) finish. I didn't get that initial bam. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderfully hot, the heat just creeps up on you.

Neither the jalapeños nor the red pepper made an initial impression, despite their individual heat levels before baking. The cayenne certainly kicked in afterward and lifted the taste to the neigh painful level that I crave.

Next attempt, I'll up the red pepper flake to 2 tbsp. I'll also use chopped fresh jalapeños, or if I'm in a 'devil take the hindmost' mood, habaneros.

Covered in four,

-- Lex