Last week I made brownies flavored with spicy chipotle peppers. Okay, before you start in on me about how weird it is to make chipotle brownies, I’ve heard it all already. Especially from Jo! And despite the fact that half of the people who tasted them thought they were way too weird, I happen to love the spicy-smoky-sweet taste so I’m sharing the recipe with you anyway. Hopefully there are a few of you out there who like it!

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

• 4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate (4 squares)
• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13″ x 9″ pan with foil and grease with butter or non-stick cooking spray.

Put the butter and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in the microwave just until melted. Stir until smooth.

Now let’s do something with that chipotle pepper. If you don’t know much about them, chipotles are smoked jalapeno peppers and have a wonderfully rich, smoky, and spicy taste. They are most often found canned in Adobo sauce. You’ll only need one pepper, which will provide plenty of spice for this recipe.

Oh man, do I love chipotles. Save the rest of the can in the fridge and use them to flavor Mexican dishes. I also absolutely love chipotles in cream sauce on pasta. Yum!

We can’t use the pepper whole, of course, and chopping it with a knife doesn’t seem like it would make the bits small enough to blend well with the brownie batter, so I came up with a solution. Put the pepper and half of the sugar into a mini food processor and give it a whirl. The sugar will help grind the pepper up into a fine paste that will mix beautifully into the batter.

Now dump the chipotle sugar as well as the rest of the white sugar into the chocolate/butter mixture in the bowl and stir until mixed. Then add the eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each one. Finally, stir in the vanilla extract.

Now add the last ingredient, the flour, and mix well. Brownie batter is the best, isn’t it?

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth it out.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs.

If you’re brave enough to try this recipe, please let me know what you think of it. It’s definitely not for everyone, but I sure love it!