Key Lime Truffles for a Citrusy #SundaySupper

Out of all the fruit types in the world, I think I consume the most citrus. Granted, I love my Asian pears in the winter and my Ontario-grown apples in the fall, and if offered an in-season strawberry shortcake or cherry pie I'm certainly not going to turn it down! But generally for me, you'll find lemons and limes (as well as their juice components) in my grocery cart most weeks, since I add it to herbal tea, water, jam, salad, soup and baked treats as much as I can. My mom, though she doesn't mind the occasional orange or lemon treat, definitely has a favourite flavour in the citrus world: the key lime. Actually (unless Blogger is lying to me), the last limey treat I baked was an homage to her favourite Summer dessert - Key Lime Pie.

With the popularity of "cake" and "cookie" ball confections (and my experience making a bunch of recipes from Cake Balls: More Than 60 Delectable and Whimsical Sweet Spheres of Goodness back in December), it's no wonder that when I saw these cookies on Tales of an Overtime Cook turning the baked goody into an eggless, extra tangy "truffle" popped into my head immediately! Amusingly, very little of the original cookie recipe translated into the dark chocolate balls you see here. For one, they're covered in dark, luscious chocolate, and they aren't baked. Then of course, there are the facts that they're eggless, have almost no flour, a lot less sugar and have a mixed base of butter and cream cheese! The finished (uncoated) truffle centres keep almost forever in the freezer, and I just pull out a few of these and dunk them in chocolate whenever I need a quick gift or party tray item. That said - it's worth making a double (or triple) batch!

This week the fabulous #SundaySupper team is sharing any and all things citrus! Jen is our wonderful hostess this week - thanks Jen! Check out all the good eats below:

Better with Citrus Breakfasts:

• Orange Ricotta Pancakes from Gotta Get Baked

Big On Citrus Breads & Condiments:

• Honey Lime Dressing from Ruffles & Truffles
• Lemon Poppyseed Sweet Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Meyer Lemon Pistachio Loaf from The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
• Moroccan Preserved Lemons from MarocMama

Make You Pucker Salads, Sides, & Main Dishes:

• Ceviche from Cookistry
• Cilantro Lime Rice from Crazy Foodie Stunts
• Citrus Ginger Chicken from Kudos Kitchen
• Easy Indian Lemon Chicken from Soni’s Food
• Grilled Orange & Lime Chicken Thighs from Big Bear’s Wife
• Meyer Lemon-Garlic Shrimp & Asparagus with Brown Rice from Daily Dish Recipes
• Orange Chicken from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Red Cabbage and Red Pepper Salad with Citrus Dressing from Family Foodie
• Seared Cod with Grapefruit Fennel Slaw from Magnolia Days
• Tangy Lemon Rice with Grated Mango & Roasted Cashew from Sue’s Nutrition Buzz

Sour Citrusy Sweets & Desserts:

• Blood Orange Sorbet from My Cute Bride
• Broiled Oranges with Toasted Coconut from Neighborfood
• Clementine Curd from Small Wallet Big Appetite
• Creamsicle Cupcakes from The Meltaways
• Dairyfree Key Lime Meringue Bliss from The Not So Cheesy Kitchen
• Fresh Lemon Mousse from Comfy Cuisine
• Frozen Lemon Dessert from Gourmet Drizzles
• Gluten Free Orange Pound Cake from Simply Gourmet
• Honey and Lemon Cake from Happy Baking Days
• Key Lime Biscotti from Juanita’s Cocina
• Key Lime Cheesecake from Flour on My Face
• Key Lime Cookie Bars from Supper for a Steal
• Key Lime Truffles from What Smells So Good?
• Lemon Blueberry Polenta Cake from Vintage Kitchen Notes
• Lemon Coconut Cinnamon Rolls from Chocolate Moosey
• Lemon Cookies from Basic N Delicious
• Lemon Cream Pie Push Pops from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Lemon Layer Cake from Crispy Bits & Burnt Ends
• Lemon Ricotta Cake from The Urban Mrs.
• Meyer Lemon Snack Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting from Peanut Butter and Peppers
• Mini Meyer Lemon Pies from Cravings of a Lunatic
• Mini Orange Cream & Lemon Cream Scones from The Foodie Army Wife
• No-Bake Lemon Cheese Cakes w/Blueberry-Lemon Sauce from Momma’s Meals
• Olive Oil Cake with Orange Marmalade from Hip Foodie Mom
• Omiyage California Citrus Cake from Ninja Baking
• Orange Cake with Orange Syrup from The Lovely Pantry
• Pink Grapefruit Pie from In the Kitchen With Audrey and Maurene
• Pink Lemonade Pound Cake from In the Kitchen with KP
• Sugar-Free Lemon Meringue Pie from Webicurean
• Tarte au Citron from That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Sour Sips & Drinks:

• {DIY} Arancello and Limoncello from girlichef
• Orange Creamsicle Smoothies from Mama.Mommy.Mom

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on Twitter tonight (Sunday, March 31st) to talk all about citrus recipes! Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm EST. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag, and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. Check out our #SundaySupper Pinterest board for more delicious recipes and food photos.

What's your favourite citrus food or recipe?

Black Jack Cocoa Cupcakes

I'm a dark, bitter, strong and simple girl... at least when it comes to chocolate. In fact, I like my chocolate with characteristics almost directly opposite to mine! I'd most definitely take a square of high quality, bittersweet chocolate (like my favourite Amedei "Bar 9") over anything laced with fruit, nuts, caramel or "bits". Likewise, when it comes to chocolate desserts, I'll go for the plain chocolate cheesecake, molten lava cake or fudge brownie before the meringues, creme brulees and mousse fabrications.

Chocolate cupcakes are no different - by far, the best ones I remember having were made with the oh-so-easy Black Magic batter, which baked up moist, rich and pure. When it came around to making a batch of treats for one of my relatives' birthday parties, I immediately turned to that recipe for inspiration knowing that the vanilla side of things was already being taken care of (sadly, by a box mix... sigh!). Because it was, after all, a birthday, I tweaked the recipe just enough to bump up the "wow" factor and really let the rich chocolate shine. A touch of dark brown sugar and barley flour added depth, melted butter added a great "luxury" mouthfeel, and the merest hint of heat from black and ancho peppers broke up any possibility of cavity-inducing sugary taste. While they were perfect to look at (and eat) naked out of the oven, a dainty swirl of rich chocolate fudge frosting and a few silver baubles took them up to casino-party worthy status. Their name came from the fact that I got precisely 21 of these cakes from the batch, and with their elegant look and coffee content you can keep them passing around your next card-shark event until well into the wee hours of the morning!

Sugar Free Coconut Candies

With Easter just a few short days away, teachers and parents alike are bracing themselves for the inevitable sugar rush little Peter Rabbit and his friends will be giving to the kids (obviously the Easter Bunny never had children!). I have nothing against having a treat or two for a special occasion, but seeing the size of some of the baskets, boxes and bags of candy out there I can only imagine what the situation is going to be like at school come Tuesday!

I figured that if kids are going to be eating candy anyways, the best I could do was give them a slightly less sugary version that they would still enjoy, but wouldn't cause them to fly away after eating. I picked the relatively seasonal coconut as a base and bumped up the flavour by using both a rich, virgin coconut oil and organic shredded coconut for the "body" of the candy. Of course, since I was billing these balls as candy, I needed to sweeten them somehow, and I didn't want to add a bucket of sugar, corn syrup or honey to do so. On a whim a while back, I had picked up some xylitol to play with and figured I could try combining that with some stevia and see what happened.

I was extremely pleased with the result! While the candy is sweet, it is not cloyingly so, allowing the nuttiness and fruity flavours of the coconut to shine through. I even made my own sugar free chocolate coating by melting a few squares of unsweetened chocolate and mixing it with the same combination of xylitol and stevia. I left mine blissfully dark, but if you like milky chocolate, a dash of full fat coconut milk would do the trick and taste fabulous!

Shared with Wellness Weekends and Foodie Friday.

Super Safe Carrot Cake (Gluten, Corn, Soy and Nut Free, Vegan)

One of the quintessential spring desserts seems to be carrot cake. Now, I'm no stranger to carrot cake - it's definitely in my top 3 favourite (non-cheesecake) cakes of all time. I also love that it's not cloyingly sweet (at least when it's homemade by me!) and is almost infinitely variable in the things you can include or not depending on your taste. I wanted to give all the girls at my hair salon a treat they could enjoy for the Easter season, and since many of them are vegan, some of them are allergic to nuts or corn and still others are gluten free it looked like I had my work cut out for me.

Then I checked out The Gluten Free Vegan from the library and spotted this gem. I adapted it to suit my needs and pantry, but it remains a "safe" dessert to serve (or eat yourself) to mixed company, especially if you don't want the fuss and bother of a fancy cake! My version uses juicer pulp in place of grated carrots since I had it in my freezer, but I'm sure finely shredded carrots, squeezed dry, would work too!

Shared with Allergy-Free Wednesdays, Wellness Weekends, Gluten Free Wednesdays and Gluten Free Friday.

13 Grain Flour

Making my own flour blends was one of those things that I never really thought about doing before getting into the whole special needs nutrition thing. I mean, you can buy whole wheat, multi-grain and regular flour at the store, so why bother? But then I started doing gluten free baking and seeing how much better homemade mixes "behaved" than store bought "all purpose" mixes, and that sparked an idea - why not make my own "glutened" multi-grain flour? I had all the different individual flours and grains at home anyway! I've got to say this is my new favourite blend for things like pancakes and banana bread, and it would probably be fantastic as a partial flour ingredient in rustic breads too.

Being able to make this in bulk really saves me a bundle while cooking healthier! The recipe as written makes 20 cups but if you don't bake much, you can easily turn it into it's more practical "parts".

You'll note that there are actually 15 ingredients, not the "13" that the title alludes to... but I used both the whole and ground forms of two items. Granted, a lot of the ingredients aren't even grains technically, but it's far too complicated and wordy to say "6 grain 7 seed flour" - so 13 Grain Flour it is!

13 Grain Flour
Makes 20 cups
6 cups whole wheat flour
3 1/2 cups spelt flour
3 cups Kamut flour
1 cup large-flake oats
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup whole flaxseed
1/4 cup whole quinoa
1/3 cup whole amaranth
2 1/2 cups barley flour
1 cup dark rye flour
1 cup dark buckwheat flour
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup whole millet
5 tsp whole chia or Salba seed
1/3 cup toasted buckwheat kasha

1. Mix together and store in an airtight container.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 467.9
Total Fat: 4.8 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 6.5 mg
Total Carbs: 94.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 15.2 g
Protein: 18.0 g