Buffalo Chips – better than cinnamon rolls

Every Spring, my mother would bake dozens and dozens of buffalo chips. The Home Culture Club, which was founded in the Dirty Thirties, sold their signature Buffalo Chips at the Country Store. It was a fundraiser full of baked goods and homemade crafts that ran during the Santa Fe Trail Daze in Cimarron County, OK. The Home Culture Club has since disbanded, and a sorority now runs the Country Store during the annual festivities.

With all this talk of Spring, I got a craving for my mom’s Buffalo Chips. I can’t wait for June to get a bite! So I threw together this version.

I made my usual bread recipe in the bread machine. Usually, I let the machine bake it, but today I wanted rolls. Half of the dough went in the cast iron for that.

The rest of the dough, I rolled out between parchment papers, and sprinkled brown sugar and cinnamon on it.

Then, I rolled that up and cut sections from the roll like cinnamon rolls.

Only, this gets much better than cinnamon rolls! I flattened the rolls between the parchment papers as thin as possible. Then, I sprinkled more cinnamon and sugar.

A bit of butter makes everything better!

Originally, they would sprinkle cinnamon-sugar out of a shaker onto the rolls before flattening them. There’s less waste and more time that way. This isn’t the real recipe, either; I’m just winging it!

Next, it was time to bake it till crisp.

Not as awesome as Mom’s, but it’ll hit the spot. A treat shaped like refuse. “Ain’t nuth’n beder ‘en at” to have with your coffee!

P.S. I forgot the walnuts.

Rolls turned out good, as well.

Thoughts for Purim

Just as I think I know a lot about the Book of Esther, I find another detail that makes it even more dramatic.

Haman’s edict to destroy the Jews was written and sent on the 13th of the 1st month. The news was spreading just as people were getting ready for Passover on the 14th-15th.

The edict would have been read in Jerusalem 17 days later, according to my estimation of the distance from Shushan and the speed of a horse.

Just as people in the Holy Land were settled in their homes after Unleavened bread, the word of their demise would have reached them. Right after they had celebrated the coming redemption of the Lamb, doubts may have risen about whether there would be a people left from which the Lamb could rise.

Or perhaps the recent celebration was a reassurance that surely YHWH would keep His promise to preserve them, no matter what the threat.

Dramatic.