I always split the peppers and remove seeds before smoking/drying. Some say the seeds will make your powder bitter, but I've never tried it myself.

what I do is grind them up in the blender to break it up, then put it thru a mesh strainer with spacing just barely small enough to stop the seeds but big enough to let most of the pepper "meat" through, then grind it into a fine powder in the coffee grinder.

I find the seeds entirely without taste, so I don't think they make it bitter.

Thanks guys. Appreciate the input. I think I will just remove the seeds. I have a a couple pounds of Caribbean Red Habs to go through yet, so that will the be the base.

Do you dry thoroughly to the point you could snap them in half? I read one site that suggested leaving them with a little moisture so they are somewhat pliable still.

I read that if you dry them brittle they lose their flavor, and you need to leave some moisture, but without a meter to measure moisture, how do you know when it's too much? I leave the seeds in, but like I've said before, I'm lazy. ;-)
Pam

If I'm drying to GRIND, I let them get completely dry. Cut up a bit, in the grinder, seeds and all, and grind to a powder. This is mainly for supoerhots. If I'm going to dry WHOLE pods, I leave a bit of moisture in them.

With certain varieties, like Ancho and Guajillo, I always dry whole with the intent of reconstituting them later into a slurry for dishes. In this case, I always leave moisture so that they're pliable and leathery.

I never notice any bitterness in the ones with seeds. Maybe it's because superhots have very little seeds. On the other hand, when i reconstitute an Ancho et al, I remove the seeds before I toast and reconstitute. If I were to make powder with the soft and pliable varieties, I'd let them dry to crunchy.

Kevin

Found this.

Here is a link that might be useful: How Do You Dry Peppers? Thread

Pam, I can't speak for basic dehydrated peppers, but my smoke-dried pepper flavor lasts a long time. I'm just now finishing up a jar of powder that's two years old. The flavor may not be quite as strong (hard to remember that far back), but the heat is still there and the aroma when opening the jar is still fantastic.

Well of course we know that pepper seeds have no heat. But I believe they contains some kind of flavor, We love them on pizza. So I would not remove seeds for powder.

I just cut in half and dry with seeds and all and then grind with the seeds...I never noticed any bitterness in my chili powders.

RECIPE: "Orange Blend" which is peruvian yellow peppers (really orange) and pumpkin habaneros. I use a ratio of 1 peruvian yellow to 2 pumpkin habs, but you can increase the habs if you want more heat. I think the peruvians add nice flavor and the habs awesome heat... give it a try and let me know what you think.