Key Lime Pie Truffles

This month's Royal Foodie Joust features the ingredients: almond, lime and raspberry. Elle chose these ingredients after winning last month's joust with her delicious looking Mango Buffalo Wings.

I was very happy she picked almonds since I was already on a mission to clean out the nuts in my freezer. I also immediately knew I wanted to play with one of Alex's favorite snacks, Just Raspberries. These tart dried raspberries were the inspiration for my no-bake, mostly raw, almond "truffles". There is always leftover raspberry dust after Alex has eaten the whole ones and I've thought it would be great to coat the outside of cookies. I based my recipe loosely on this raw chocolate fudge and the Midwest favorite buckeye balls. The balls themselves are sweetened only with dates but I added a little sugar in the raspberry coating to buffer the tartness. The resulting tangy snacks remind me of key lime pie made into a pretty, pink, crispy-centered truffle. They are best stored in the freezer so the rice krispies stay crisp but I'm proud to say it wasn't even two days before mine were all gone. My husband John was a big fan.

Key Lime Pie Truffles
Tart and crispy no-bake treats that remind me of key lime pie.
Makes 36 balls

1/2 cup Just Raspberries* (freeze dried raspberries)
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup raw almonds
3/4 cup chopped dried dates, pits removed
2 1/2 teaspoons key lime zest
3 tablespoons key lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups crisp rice cereal
*You can find Just Raspberries in health food stores, Whole Foods and many larger grocery stores in the health food section. You can also buy them direct here.

1.) Pulse the raspberries, sugar and cinnamon in a food processor until they form a light pink powder. Tap the top of the food processor bowl and allow the dust to settle before opening. Pour the powder into a bowl and set aside. Wipe out the food processor bowl, washing is not necessary.
2.) Add the almonds to the food processor and pulse until they form a coarse meal. Add the chopped dates, lime zest, lime juice and salt. Process until it comes together like a cookie dough and the dates are distributed evenly.
3.) Scrape down the bowl if needed and add half of the rice cereal. Process until incorporated. Add the remaining cereal and repeat. This gives you some smaller cereal crunch and some larger.
4.) Form teaspoon sized balls and roll in the raspberry mixture.
5.) Freeze any uneaten balls. They are great right out of the freezer.

Top Chef Chicago High Steaks

***spoiler warning***
When rail was king, Chicago was known as the "Hog Butcher for the World". This week's theme and challenges were made for this Midwest city. The episode begins this week with clips of the contestants mooning over how close they are to the finals. Stephanie is especially excited over the potential for all three finalists being female. Perhaps Stephanie is really excited about the possibility that Richard will slip up and get eliminated? She has to know he's her biggest competition.

The two part quickfire challenge begins at the Allen Brothers butchery. A dry aged rib rack awaits each chef and they are given 20 minutes to carve out 7 tomahawk steaks, a ginormous frenched rib eye. Spike mentions he's part of a butcher's family and whizzes through his carving. When the time is up they return to the Top Chef kitchen and are introduced guest judge Rick Tramonto (beware, obnoxious music plays on his site). Each chef is then given another 30 minutes to cook one of their steaks medium rare. Various methods are employed by the contestants. Antonia finishes her steak in what has to be 2 pounds of butter! Poor Richard bemoans the fact that with only 30 minutes he's not going to be doing his steak sous vide, but pulls out a torch in the end to improve his steak's crust. Tramonto reviews the cooking of each steak as well as the butchery of the uncooked. Richard and Stephanie both under cook their steaks. Antonia's butter bath works in her favor and she receives an honorable mention for the steak's crust. Spike's wise decision to use the oven to finish his steak along with his superior carving earn him the quickfire win. Finishing a steak that thick in the oven treats it more like a roast and allows for more even cooking. It's a smart move on his part.

Padma reveals that the elimination challenge for this week will be to take command of the Tramonto Steak and Seafood restaurant for dinner service. Each contestant will be required to use the supplies at Tramonto to create an appetizer and an entree for a fully packed house. Spike's advantage will be to choose a unique protein for both of his dishes. The contestants go home for the night and are seen chowing down on steak dinners. (I'm hungry.) The next day they head to the restaurant. The interior does look beautiful. Spike makes his pick scallops and the aforementioned tomahawk. The other contestants make their selections and begin prepping for service. Both Richard and Stephanie have chosen sweetbreads and beef tenderloin. Is this a sign they aren't afraid to go head to head? Antonia decides to make an egg and bacon salad for her appetizer and a bone in rib eye for her entree. Lisa makes disparaging remarks over Spike's choice of frozen scallops and picks shrimp and NY strip. When he opens the scallops up, Spike begins to worry and spends time attempting to dry them off. Chef Tom Colicchio looks over the contestants prep and more ominous comments are made about the frozen scallops. He also produces his patented Colicchio flinch when Lisa mentions she's making peanut butter mashed potatoes. I can't blame him, it sounds awful to me. She shrugs it off and claims she knows what she's doing. Colicchio pokes at Richard and wonders if he's playing it too safe. Richard's defense is the restaurant's steak house theme. Further along during prep, Lisa has to bring up "sabotage" again when she gets a little too toasty in front of the wood burning oven. Her whining is generally ignored.

Before dinner service Colicchio announces that he will be expediting this evening and introduces them to their VIP guests. Out pop Harold, Ilan and Hung, the winners of previous seasons of Top Chef. They offer their advice for the competition: be true to yourself (Harold), don't shave any one's head tonight (Ilan) and don't worry about being the fan favorite (Hung). Service begins and each chef is told to create tasting plates for the judges and VIPs. Stephanie and Richard's dishes are enjoyed by all with the sole complaint of Richard's steak cooking being inconsistent. Antonia's salad is well executed but doesn't wow them. Her entree is deemed very rich but good. Lisa's grilled and chilled shrimp come under criticism. She pulls off the peanut butter mashed potatoes but her accompanying steak is flawed. Spike's scallop dish falls flat. He couldn't save the frozen scallops and the dish itself is lacking in texture and flavor. His tomahawk is commended for its execution but the plate itself looks far too spare. Its honeyed sweet potato side is deemed too sweet as well.

The chefs complete their dinner service and leave to go to their last judging in Chicago. Stephanie, Richard and Antonia get positive assessments of their dishes. Both Lisa and Spike have their appetizers critiqued. Spike pushes it a little too far in arguing that if Tramonto had the frozen scallops they shouldn't have been so bad. He has a point but isn't diplomatic enough in the way he brings it up. The contestants are sent back and the judges deliberate. Spike regrets his comments and fiddles a set of worry beads. The contestants are called back in and Stephanie's dishes are both deemed excellent and she takes the win. She receives Tramonto's latest book and a full kitchen of GE Monogram appliances. Even if she doesn't win in the end she has definitely collected some good loot from her various wins! Richard's appetizer is praised and he is in for the finals. Antonia gets her spot for her entree. Finally the choice has to be made and Spike loses his place in the finals to Lisa.

It's off to the finale in Puerto Rico for Stephanie, Richard, Antonia and Lisa! From what I've seen I think Richard and Stephanie are very nearly equal in great ideas, but Stephanie definitely has had more slip ups in execution. Antonia seems like a solid player and deserves her spot but I just don't see the same spark in her. Lisa is my least favorite. I haven't been intrigued by anything she's made all season. In addition she seems like she cooks to please herself not to create pleasure and excitement in others. I find her very much like her antagonist predecessor Tiffani from season one. She does serve to create drama in the show. We'll have to wait and see if there are any surprises in store.

This week's winning dishes: Veal Sweetbreads and Beef Tenderloin with Salsify Puree

Update: I always write my posts before I read other blogs but here's more info I found on the scallops from Hungry Magazine. Turns out Tramonto's not responsible for the scallops, Bravo is.

Donuts with Dad

Yawn, it's time to make the donuts.

My internal clock woke me seconds before the alarm went off at 5:30am this morning. John is headed off to Alex's kindergarten class for their Donuts with Dad event, an early celebration of Father's Day. Last year I made dairy-free Krispy Kreme style yeast donuts but a twist was added this year as John has given up wheat for awhile.

Yesterday, I picked up a box of Whole Foods' gluten-free baking mix. Then, after a quick search online I chose this recipe for gluten-free donuts. Since there is tapioca starch and xantham gum in the WF mix I skipped the first three ingredients in favor of 1 3/4 cup of the WF mix. A 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg joined the cinnamon. The first set out of the oil seemed a little dense so I added an extra 1/4 cup of soy milk. The resulting donuts were perfect. Crispy, sweet, soft and fluffy inside and very beignet-like. John came home and told me Alex had to fight to get the 11 donuts he ate!! The others were gobbled up without any of the other kids or dads guessing they were gluten and dairy free. Of course only at a dad event would a child be allowed to eat 11 donuts. So far he hasn't exploded.

Opera Cake

It's Daring Baker time again! This month's recipe is the Opera Cake co-hosted by: Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie, Whiskful, Cream Puffs in Venice, or La Mia Cucina. Head over to one of their sites to find the original recipe and see what their version looks like.

Traditionally an opera cake is almond jaconde cake soaked in coffee syrup with layers of espresso butter cream, chocolate ganache and topped with chocolate glaze. In honor of Barbara of Winos and Foodies, we were told to mix things up and choose all light colored flavorings for our opera cakes. Barbara hosts the Taste of Yellow event in honor of the LiveStrong foundation.

I made my opera cakes for a Mother's Day lunch I had with my mom, grandmother, and godmother. Since I didn't want a ton of cake leftover, I decided to try and halve the recipe and then cut out circles of cake for individual mini opera cakes. The halved recipe gave me (8) 2 1/4 inch mini cakes plus scraps that I used in mini trifles. The day before the lunch I attempted to make the jaconde (the almond cake) with coconut flake since my grandmother loves coconut. When I tried to beat the coconut flakes, powdered sugar and whole eggs together they never got fluffy. I think the coconut flakes were too sharp and broke all of the forming air bubbles. The baked coconut jaconde was too heavy and flat, though it tasted great. I gave in and made another jaconde with almond and it came out tasty and light.

Per suggestions on the Daring Baker site, I used Dorie's Perfect Party Cake frosting as an alternative to the whole egg butercream in the opera cake recipe. Since I'm baking dairy-free, I made my "butter" cream with Earth Balance margarine. Half of the batch I flavored with raspberry juice and half with lime zest and juice. I wasn't thrilled with the taste of either. You could really taste the margarine, more so than in the frostings I make with just powdered sugar. It also seemed too sweet for me.

I cut out circles of jaconde and layered them with the two butter creams. I used grated ginger to flavor my syrup and the taste was wonderful! I rushed a little and when making this again I would freeze the cakes for a few minutes after applying each layer of butter cream filling. Some of my mini cakes leaned a bit and I had to trim them again with the cookie cutter. I tried using soy milk and margarine combined to replace the cream in the glaze with dairy-free white chocolate chips from Chocolate Emporium. My glaze was far too runny and never set up even after storing the extra in the fridge overnight. I think I would experiment with much smaller amounts of soy milk for the glaze next time.

I love the jaconde and I want to try using it again. I'm thinking of trying to whip the whole eggs and powdered sugar til fluffy before adding the coconut. I loved the ginger syrup and want to use that again. So even though I wouldn't make this exact version of an opera cake again I will definitely save the syrup and cake components for future recipes. It was a fun and interesting experiment.

Pimenton Spiced Walnuts

I've been looking at my over packed freezer pantry for awhile and thinking about trying to clean it out so containers of Tofutti don't attack us every time we open it. I stock all kinds of nuts in the freezer but all too often use them only in sweet preparations. I decided to make some spiced nuts and use up the remainder of a bag of walnut halves. After pondering several flavor combinations I settled on smoked paprika, thyme and lemon. My thyme plant was in desperate need of a haircut! Alex had to try these because he loves trying spicy things and then dramatically running for water. I think he actually liked the spice but doesn't care for walnuts so they weren't a hit with him. I thought they were wonderful so I'm taking them to a Memorial Day barbecue so I don't end up eating them all myself.

Pimenton Spiced Walnuts

Makes 2 cups

2 cups walnut halves

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon smoked hot paprika (pimenton picante)

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

-Lay walnut halves in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes.

-While the walnuts are baking mix the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl.

-Remove the walnuts from the oven and toss in spice mixture while still hot. Spread the coated walnuts back onto the baking sheet in a single layer.

-Turn the oven to 300 degrees F and bake 3 minutes. Stir the nuts and bake for a final 3 minutes.

-Remove from the oven and cool.