Here is a recipe for at-home Pop Rocks. Pop Rocks being a candy, a principal ingredient is sugar.
The thing is, Taco Bell had a promotion a while back where they put cayenne-flavored Pop Rocks in a burrito. I want to try this at home, only with considerably-milder peppers than cayenne (cubanelle is my upper-upper limit). Also, sugar in a burrito? No thank you. I can’t seem to find a recipe online for this … condiment.
Is there a way to do this that doesn’t involve sugar?
I’d WAG that it’s the baking soda and citric acid making the popping when they get wet (from being in your mouth). I’d experiment with those two ingredients in some type of dry binder. I’m thinking flour wouldn’t taste very good. Since you want to do this with tacos, maybe corn flour/masa?
I’m guessing that the Taco Bell ones were mostly sugar, just like the candy ones. Way too much sugar is a common trend in all American fast food, even in foods that folks don’t think of as being sugary.
I always thought cubanelle were sweet peppers. I’ve never noticed any type of heat off of them. Are you thinking poblanos? What I might try if you don’t like cayenne or if it’s too hot is to cut it with some quality paprika. Were you going to dry the cubanelles? I’ve never seen them sold as anything but green, and I suspect you don’t want anything with liquid for your pop rocks.
Especially when it’s cut with cayenne pepper that probably take the sweetness down a few notches.
You’d need a binder/coating that is solidly hard at room temperature, but also dissolves quickly in your mouth and won’t break your teeth when you bite down on it.
I genuinely can’t think of anything edible that combines all those properties, except for cooked sugar.
Cornstarch?
I doubt the linked recipe results in much popping. Maybe some fizz. The commercial kind are made under high CO2 pressure.
Some sort of maltose-based oligosaccharide should do the trick.
Some fats would. Chocolate comes to mind (cocoa butter, I mean) - a sugar-free 90% dark chocolate might do the trick.