Chili Brownies

Spicy brownies with habanero that are wonderfully sticky and that warm both body and soul. :)

Suddenly it was time to do something with all the chili my plants produced this year. In addition to a lot of chili sauce, there will of course also be brownies that I really like. Even if the recipe contains a whole habanero, you should not be afraid to try as it generally does not get as hot as you might think. Both butter and sugar have a dampening effect on the heat, so after a bit of testing I finally chose to use a whole habanero, but without seeds. The result was a warm and clear heat in the back of the mouth, but without being overwhelming and annoying. My mother also ate these and thought they were very good and not too spicy. Of course, most chili fruits have the ability to vary a lot in heat, so feel free to try with your own combinations, replace the habanero with a milder chili or reduce the amount used if you are worried that it may be too much.

Although it is possible to use dried chili for this recipe, I think it gives an extra dimension of using fresh chili instead. You can also combine this recipe with a number of different toppings and accessories, but sometimes I think its best to have a good brownie without any extra oddities. However, what I think is important is to use a cocoa powder of good quality such as Valrhona as it gives extra fullness and flavor to the brownie.

I tested around a bit with different temperatures and times in the oven and in the end I chose 24 minutes for the best results in my oven and the baking tin I used. The edges were well baked, while the middle was still a bit sticky. Keep in mind that this can vary from oven to oven, so feel free to try a few different times and use a test pin / toothpick while everything is baking in the oven to see if the brownie is baked as much as you want.

After the brownie has cooled down a bit, it is excellent to eat it immediately, but it can be a bit messy to cut into pieces so I usually leave everything in the fridge for an hour to facilitate this. It is excellent to freeze the pieces and have them ready for the next "fika" - they only need to be thawed about half an hour before serving.

• Top with salt and caramel sauce.
• Top with chocolate truffle (melted dark chocolate and cream in equal weight) and flake salt.
• Top with condensed milk / dulce de leche (which becomes a kind of caramel layer) and melted chocolate.
• Use dried chili instead. I only tried cayenne powder and had to take a tablespoon to make it noticeable.
• Roughly chop some dark chocolate and partially press into the batter so that it melts in the oven.
• Mix in 100g chopped roasted walnuts, peanuts or hazelnuts in the batter.