Chocolate Covered, Cream Cheese Stuffed, Jalapeño Peppers

So, apparently chocolate covered peppers are a thing in places like Texas and new Mexico, but I had never heard of them until my brother told me one about he got while on vacation a few weeks ago. I had to try them out for myself. The combination of sweet and spicy was great but I still felt like it needed a little something extra, so I decided to one up the recipe by stuffng them with spicy cream cheese. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out; the way the combination of flavors explode in your mouth is perfect. So read on if you wanna try out this easy and delicious snack for yourself.

Step 1: Ingredients/supplies

For this recipe you will need:

-Peppers; how many and what variety is up to you, but the spicier the better. Home grown is best, but my pepper garden isn't exactly producing this time of year so unfortunately I had to go with store bought which is always a little bit watery it seems. Oh well.

-Cream cheese

-Cayenne pepper

-Ginger powder (home made is more flavorful/spicy, but I understand if you don't want to spend a day dehydrating and grinding a bunch of ginger)

-Cumin powder

-Chocolate for melting

-Syringe* or heavy duty piping bag and tip

*I recommend using the syringe, you can get culinary ones for $10-20 at any cooking specialty store or you can get veterinary ones at places like cal-ranch, Murdocks, or IFA for less than a dollar(just be sure to wash it well before using)

Step 2: Put It Together

This recipe uses the whole 8oz package of cream cheese which will fill about 20 peppers; so if you don't want that many, either reduce the recipe or plan on finding something else to do with the remaining cream cheese.
Start by softening the cream cheese and then adding 1/2 tsp ginger powder, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne powder once the cream cheese is soft enough mix all of that in to a smooth consistency. Also, if you want it more or less spicy feel free to change the amount of cayanne powder you use.
Next throughly wash the peppers in warm water, they naturally have a wax on them that makes it a little hard for chocolate to stick to them, plus some producers will add wax to make them shinier (another reason to grow your own). Pat them dry and with a sharp knife cut off the tip, you don't need to remove much, just enough that you can get the syringe or piping tip in to fill it.
Fill the peppers with the cream cheese; at first it will feel like it's just going to squish out the sides but once it gets going it's a smoother process. If it does actually squish out the sides then either slice a little more off the end or use a knife to kind of whittle a little hole. Depending on the size, each pepper will hold about 1 1/2 Tbsp and I recommend filling it as much as you can because the cream cheese is so good.
Once the peppers are filled you can melt the chocolate and dip them.
If you like you can also drizzle another color of chocolate on like I did, but it really doesn't change the flavor so it's totally optional.
And that's it! Pretty easy and really tasty, you can serve them warm(not too warm) or cold and they go great as an appetizer or dessert. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Step 3: A Few Tips for Chocolate Dipping

-If you don't have a double boiler and are melting your chocolate in the microwave, be sure to do it in small increments(like 10-15 seconds) and stir in between to avoid scalding or separation.
-If you are noticing that your chocolate is not going on smooth then heat it up a little more.
-Chill the peppers for just a few minutes before dipping them to get the cream cheese nice and solid, otherwise it may ooze out while you are dipping them (this does mean however that you will probably have to reheat your chocolate more often during the process).