I mentioned ABTs to my wife a couple weeks ago. To my surprise, she fixed a batch of them which she made in the oven. They were very good. And this is where things went wrong; you see, I am quite competitive and had to try to one-up her.
My spouse does not like really hot food, she had used mild peppers. I thought jalapeno peppers would be a better choice, once some of their heat had been taken out of them. Some people soak the peppers in Sprite to take the edge off them, but I had to try something different. Juice was made from 4 medium oranges and a pound of key-limes. The juice, along with the de-seeded jalapeno peppers were put in a food saver vacuum seal container for 12 hours. The intent was to take some heat out, but it went way too far. All traces of heat was eradicated from the peppers. It also changed the color of the peppers to have a faint orange (over ripened) cast. Worse yet, the peppers had a massively pronounced citrus taste. Next mistake, the cream cheese filling. Cream cheese was mixed with jack cheese to give it some variety, which was a good choice. Where it went really bad was when I decided to mix some seasoning with the cheese blend (smoky chipotle paprika). At one and half teaspoons of seasoning, it was too much; especially when paired with the citrus-tasting un-hot peppers. The final failure was the Bacon and Temperature choice. At 280 degrees, the thick-cut bacon ended up with a chewy texture. This could have been fixed by either regular cut bacon, or a higher smoking temperature. Needless to say, they turned out as a major disappointment. These approaches might have worked, had they been moderated, or reduced to a level where they were a hint, instead of the sledgehammer to the pallet.
My spouse does not like really hot food, she had used mild peppers. I thought jalapeno peppers would be a better choice, once some of their heat had been taken out of them. Some people soak the peppers in Sprite to take the edge off them, but I had to try something different. Juice was made from 4 medium oranges and a pound of key-limes. The juice, along with the de-seeded jalapeno peppers were put in a food saver vacuum seal container for 12 hours. The intent was to take some heat out, but it went way too far. All traces of heat was eradicated from the peppers. It also changed the color of the peppers to have a faint orange (over ripened) cast. Worse yet, the peppers had a massively pronounced citrus taste. Next mistake, the cream cheese filling. Cream cheese was mixed with jack cheese to give it some variety, which was a good choice. Where it went really bad was when I decided to mix some seasoning with the cheese blend (smoky chipotle paprika). At one and half teaspoons of seasoning, it was too much; especially when paired with the citrus-tasting un-hot peppers. The final failure was the Bacon and Temperature choice. At 280 degrees, the thick-cut bacon ended up with a chewy texture. This could have been fixed by either regular cut bacon, or a higher smoking temperature. Needless to say, they turned out as a major disappointment. These approaches might have worked, had they been moderated, or reduced to a level where they were a hint, instead of the sledgehammer to the pallet.
