Cliffs rolls

I am not being very faithful to this blog lately, and I apologize to anyone who is checking to see if I can be trusted to post something more than once a week. Thank you for hanging in there with me while I organize myself and arrange interviews with Montana people who are producing our food. And wait for the road to clear so I can actually drive somewhere.

Meanwhile, Im reporting about a great roll recipe from Cliff who lives, as he explains, somewhere in the western part of the state.

Ill let Cliff describe the process of making rolls in his own words. His writing style cannot be duplicated and you should have the pleasure of enjoying it for yourself.

He is right that these are easy to make -- no kneading, and a fluffy, tasty result. But Cliff is all fancy in his little cabin in the wilderness: as the rolls come out of the oven, he rubs the tops with butter. On my ranch, we eat them without all that extra effort. (Right now theres hay to be fed to the cows and waiting for calves to arrive. Yeah, sure, Im not actually involved in this, but I am busy running to the window to watch it all happen.)

OK, Cliffs look nicer, and the butter adds some flavor and tenderness, but I reckon they taste about the same, especially if you spread on some butter at mealtime.

Also, you will notice that my pile of rolls is bigger than Cliffs. I did not mean to try to outdo my neighbor. Rather, as I was mixing the butter, sugar, and salt with hot water I thought that was an awful lot of butter. Then I realized I had used a whole rather than half a stick. I was tempted to see how they would turn out just like that, but I decided to go ahead and double the recipe and so I have plenty of rolls to last a while. Cliff doesnt say, but Im sure they freeze well. (Ill just put them on the back porch; haha!)

Im having mine today with some homemade carrot soup. Pretty, healthy, and delish.

Continue reading

Chocolate cake oh yeah!

To give me energy to dig out of the snow thats been drifting around here, I decided to try the Kings Cupboard Rich and Dreamy Molten Chocolate Cake Mix that I happened to have in my own cupboard.

Kings Cupboard products are made in Red Lodge. The mixes Ive tried are very simple ones, so if youre in a hurry or just want to pull something together quickly, they are perfect. (And by the way, they also make chocolate and caramel sauces, which you will want to eat straight out of the jar -- haha!)

Alas, not everything is foolproof, as I discovered when I eagerly pulled my molten cakes out of the oven. But lets start at the beginning . . .

The basic recipe is: pour cake mix (containing chocolate bits), along with butter, into a pan and stir until everything is melted. The box tells you to divide the batter equally among 8 ramekins. "How big??!!" I cried. Are ramekins supposed to be a standard size?

On a baking sheet I set out four 6-ounce and two 8-ounce Pyrex custard cups, figuring those ought to hold the batter one way or another. I have pretty made-in-France 4-ounce ramekins but didnt want to mess with them for this "how much batter does this make anyway" experiment.

Conclusion: I now figure the 8 ramekins could be 4-ounce or 6-ounce size, so take note of that when you try the mix yourself.

After the suggested time of about 10 minutes, the cakes werent done, so I let them bake another 5 minutes. I dont know exactly when "molten" becomes "cake," but 15 minutes was too long. The cakes were delicious, but not molten.

The directions explain exactly how to check for moltenness, and I suggest doing so every minute or so after the suggested baking time. They also fairly warn that if you do not serve them right away, they will continue cooking inside and become cakey. This is not bad -- the taste is deep, rich chocolate; sort of like a cake-like candy bar -- but you will have to buy another mix and try again to enjoy the molten version.

I leave you with a photo of how these cakes are supposed to look, according to the company Web site.

Continue reading