** This post was imported as a part of my top 30 from my old blog – What’s Cooking in the Orange Kitchen**
Anytime I find out that I can “home make” something I get excited. There is just something very rewarding about making something that you would normally have to buy at the store. The other day a coworker and I were talking about our gardens and I told her that the plants that were doing the best were my pepper plants. My Serrano pepper plant was probably the healthiest plant in my garden this summer. Of course, the one plant that I really had no plans for when I planted it. I just planted it for fun. So my coworker mentioned drying the peppers and my eyes lit up. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. Making my own red pepper flakes!
After doing a little research online I decided I wanted to go the quickest route and dry the peppers in the oven. I started by collecting all of my red colored peppers, which included serrano peppers, slim red chile peppers, and then some banana peppers that for some reason had turned red. I cleaned them all and cut the tops off. Then I put them on an air bake pizza pan and then in the oven at 170 degrees. I planned on leaving them to dry over night but Jesse was uncomfortable with that. So I dried them for 5 hours, then let them rest in the OFF oven overnight. The next evening I turned the oven back on to 170 and let them go for another 4 hours. So total it took about 9 hours.
After the 9 hours of drying in the oven, I let the peppers cool and rest and for a few more hours. Finally, I put the dried peppers in a ziploc bag and went to town with a rolling pin. I am storing the flakes in little .5 cup rubbermaid containers.
*I have to warn you. For the first few hours the smell was POTENT. The whole house smelled spicy and I felt almost like I was covered in hot peppers. I would recommend turning on a fan and opening a window. Luckily after a few hours it mellowed out some.
*I think this would make a really cute gift in a homemade gift basket. You could even use empty baby food jars and decorate the lids. I plan on putting together a few of these for Christmas.
>Wow, how neat! 🙂 I LOVE red pepper flakes and them to pretty much everything. I might plant pepper plants next summer just so I can give this a shot! Thanks for sharing!
>No WAY! I love that! I also add red pepper flakes to almost everything, and I have a ton of dehydrated cayenne peppers from the garden in the freezer. I'm so doing this!
>That's so neat! What a great idea! I'm sad now I didn't plant any red peppers, just green ones!
>HOW COOL IS THIS?!
>Lovely. Be they in flakes or whole. Thanks.
>I did this a few years ago, although I was trying to make ground cayenne pepper, which my brothers love, as Christmas gifts. I hung mine to dry in a cool dark closet. I was not as smart as you and used a mortar and pestle. It was horrible! The cayenne pepper "dust" from squashing the peppers floated up and got in my eyes. At one point, my husband almost had to take me to the emergency room! But I kept going because, darn it, I was going to make that ground pepper! I ended up making a small amount for each brother and telling them they better be happy with that amount because I almost went blind. 🙂 Should have used a spice grinder!
>Best news ever for me! Living in Argentina the crushed red pepper flake available here have no heat!! My folks sent me some pepper seeds to plant! This will be the first thing I do with them! thank you:)
>Love it, but 9 hours!!! I guess it's all worth it!
>This is so cool – crushed red pepper flakes are a favorite spice in our home. We use them on pizza so fervently it should be a crime. I am so proud of you for taking on this really cool recipe!
>No way! How awesome. Jessica you rock, what an awesome idea. If Tony and I end up moving I *might* plant a garden next year. 🙂