Pepper Cheese Bread - Without the Cheese?

Pepper cheese bread (made with serrano peppers and sharp cheddar cheese) is very nice, particularly the day it is baked.  Soft with that peppery taste dotted with chewy cheese.  It spices up a sandwich, but it is risky to stick in the toaster because of the cheese.  What would pepper cheese bread be without the cheese?

In addition to sandwiches, toasted it would welcome jelly.  That mix of sweet and spicy sounds great.

But, how would this be done?  In the pepper cheese bread, the pepper is sliced raw and placed in the dough before it is kneaded.  The result is that the pepper pieces are spread throughout the crumb, but the flavor is spotty.  That is, if you get a bite of pepper, you really know it.  If you get a bite without a pepper, there is barely a hint of pepper taste.  Wouldn't it be better if the flavor was more uniform - without being too spread out?  Thinking of spreading the jelly on the bread where the sweet/spicy flavor came through in every bite makes me hungry.

So, to disperse the pepper throughout the dough, how about placing the sliced pepper into a blender with the water which will be added to the dough and then mixing the 'pepper/water' with the flour.  The proper ratio of pepper to water should give the bread great flavor - and make the platform for that sweet jelly.



So - I mixed it.  and here's a photo before and after it was cut.

The taste was more subtle than I expected.  I think I need to double the peppers for next attempt.

I toasted it and, when I added a little fig jam, it was very good - but not the hot/sweet flavors I expected.

The texture was outstanding.  Good crust and soft crumb.  I had to have half a sandwich (one slice cut in half) to try it out.  Very good.

But, to be spicier - back to the drawing board.