It’s terrific to be back.
The last few months have been technologically harrowing, to say the least. The story begins with this: I decided to redesign the site, and ends with this: Everything went wrong. As for the bloody middle, I imagine you can get from point A to point B without my help. I’ve cried, screamed, fumed, and cowed over the spilt milk and it’s time to get a sponge and finish cleaning up.
As with all digital disasters this was poorly timed. The pixelated gremlins really know when to tangle your wires or send you down a rabbit hole, they never seem to do it when you have the time and freedom to go after them with a chainsaw. My last two months have been busy and delightful and packed and exciting but I always felt a specter of doom hanging in the corner. I had no way to communicate, no forum to tell my stories and it was stifling. I never realized how much I enjoyed this digital platform until it was missing.
As for now, I’m back. I owe many thanks to my designer and friend,Andrew Hyde, for reassembling the Humpty Dumpty of a mess I was left holding when another designer couldn’t finish the job. I ask for your patience as I catch you up on my recent fooding around. From IACP in Austin to a new shoot with Rudi’s Gluten Free Bakery in Boulder, I’ve been traveling often and filming oftener. Aside from the website falling to pieces life has been quite brimming.
But let’s get to the important bit, a new recipe. Last Summer I was charmed to be a guest at @kthread’sfried green tomato bash. To contribute, I toted a tray of my lime bars. Adapted from my lemon bar recipe, this iteration contains no agave and is all the more Summery by swapping limes for lemons. Why no agave? When I started this site I upheld agave as a fantastic sugar alternative. Unfortunately for agave, it has come to my attention that as an alternative it is just as highly processed as corn syrup. In fact, some of the same chemical processing that turns corn into syrup is used to produce agave nectar. I aim to keep the crap out of my kitchen so I updated these bars with palm sugar and unrefined cane sugar instead. Agave, you’ve had your warning. Pack your things and vacate my kitchen, s’il vous plait.
I'm going on a date tonight and I’ll be bringing a couple of these to snack on when the lights dim. I’ve wrapped a few in parchment paper and chucked ‘em in the freezer. They’ll be cool and creamy, tart and sweet, and if my date doesn’t like them then to heck with him-more for me. Of course, he will like them. And so will you. That’s an order.
Free of Gluten, Dairy, Soy and Nuts.
Crust:
- 1 cup Brown Rice Flour
- ¾ cup Masa Harina (Corn Flour)
- ¼ cup Tapioca Flour
- ½ cup Palm Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- ¾ cup Coconut Oil (melted and cooled)
Filling:
- 4 Whole Eggs
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 1 cup Unrefined Cane Sugar
- ⅔ cup Lime Juice (~5 limes)
- ½ cup Coconut milk
- ⅓ cup White Rice Flour
- Zest of 1 ½ limes
- ½ teaspoon Salt
Get Busy
- Preheat your oven to 350. Start making the crust.
- In the bowl of a food processor add all the dry ingredients, saving only the coconut oil. Buzz the dry goods together until they are well blended.
- With the processor on, pour the coconut oil into the dry mixture in a thin stream. The dough should come together looking like wet sand.
- Press the sandy dough into a 9×13 baking dish. Be careful, patch any holes you see while pressing out the crust. You don’t want the filling to seep under, it’s rather unpretty.
- Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, or until it is browned around the edges. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool before pouring in the filling.
- As for that filling, here it goes: whisk everything together. Make sure the flour isn’t clumped up and that the sugar is well dissolved, all of which comes from simply whisking. So there you have it. Whisk it. Whisk it good.
- Pour the filling into the cooled crust and slide the baking dish back into your over for another 15-20 minutes, or until the middle of the tray is just set.
- Let the lime bars cool before you cut them, otherwise they get messy and you’ll have to eat the whole tray in one sitting.
Prep. Time: 15-20 minutes
Baking Time: 30-40 minutes (crust and filling separately)
Yield: One 9×13 dish