Cristen Clark shares how she balances time between work on her family farm and cooking in her family kitchen.
When she’s not hauling purebred pigs across the country or working on her family’s 150-year-old farm, this Iowa mom is mixing up blueribbon baking recipes.
Cristen Clark does not believe in stashing cooking appliances out of sight—at least not when it comes to her Kitchenaid stand mixers. Enter the kitchen of her central Iowa home and you’ll spot three of the beloved mixers—two in candy apple red and one in gleaming copper—lined up on her counter. “They take up way too much space but I never put them away,” Cristen says. “I love to stare at them because they’re so pretty.”
In mid-august, when the Iowa State Fair takes place, all three mixers are busy kneading batches of dough. There are 15 classes of yeast rolls—white, wheat, potato, whole grains, rye and more—and Cristen likes to compete in them all. “Yeast rolls are kind of my jam,” she says. She’s collected too many blue ribbons to count, starting with her first competition in 2010, when she took top honors for her cinnamon roll recipe.
That award led to a new family business. With the money from the win, Cristen bought a red female pig, a Duroc gilt, and named her Cinnamon. Then she and her husband, Mike, launched Clark Families, a purebred-pig farm.
While those animals are raised primarily for breeding and fair showing, the Clarks also manage a larger commercial pig farm.
But during the fall harvest, Cristen’s focus is on the corn and soybean farm near Prairie City, Iowa, that has been in her family for more than 150 years.
Working alongside her father, she operates the grain cart that’s attached to her tractor. “In the fall I’m basically a grain jockey,” she says. “I chase the combine so we don’t have to drive it all the way across the field to empty the crops into the semis that are going into town. You’re burning the daylight to get as much done as quickly as possible.”
In late afternoon, her brother-in-law takes her place in the tractor and Cristen heads out to coach the basketball team her 12-year-old daughter, Halle, plays on, or to cheer her son, Barrett, 9, on the football field. “I was an athlete in high school and college, and once that’s in your blood, it’s always there,” Cristen says. Back home at 7 or so, she makes dinner.
“I’m a big fan of skillet meals, like smothered pork chops,” she says. “My kids love them, too. Then it’s brush your teeth and get your bones to bed.”
Once harvest is over and she’ has a little more time to spare, Cristen will be back to sharing recipes on her blog, Food and Swine. And she’ll fire up those mixers again, perhaps teaching her daughter how to “feel” when the dough is right. “Halle loves to bake anything she can dream up, and I really enjoy helping her,” Cristen says. “We entered a family baking competition, and she made patriotic pies that had red (raspberry), white (pear) and blue (blueberry) filling.
She won $100 and will never forget that day!”
“In the fall I’m basically a grain jockey.”
—CRISTEN CLARK
“I’m a big fan of skillet meals, like smothered pork chops. My kids love that.” —CRISTEN CLARK
Cristen’s Giant Cinnamon Rolls
As a young newlywed, I decided I’d take it upon myself to make cinnamon rolls because I thought that was the hallmark of a good baker. The rolls were like hockey pucks and somewhat flavorless. Even our dear black lab, Annie, wouldn’t eat one. I practiced for a couple of months and entered a contest at the Iowa State Fair. I won! —Cristen Clark, Runnells, IA
Prep: 45 min. + rising Bake: 25 min. + cooling Makes: 1 dozen
2 pkg. (1/4 oz. each) quick-rise yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110° to 115°) 2 tsp. honey
11/2 cups warm 2% milk
(110° to 115°) 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup mashed potatoes 3 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten 2 tsp. salt
71/2 to 8 cups all-purpose flour
FILLING
1 cup packed brown sugar 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon 11/2 tsp. all-purpose flour Dash salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
VANILLA ICING
3 cups confectioners’ sugar 1/4 cup 2% milk
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
Dash salt
1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and honey. In a large bowl, combine milk, sugar, butter, potatoes, eggs, salt, yeast mixture and 4 cups flour; beat on medium speed until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky). Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased large bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. For filling, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and salt. Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; roll into a 24x12-in. rectangle. Spread butter to within 1/2 in. of edges; sprinkle with brown sugar mixture. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 slices. Place in 2 greased 13x9-in. baking pans (6 slices per pan), cut side down. Cover with kitchen towels; let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350°. Bake until lightly browned, 25-30 minutes, covering loosely with foil during the last 10 minutes of baking. Cool in pan 30 minutes. In a small bowl, mix icing ingredients; drizzle over rolls.
1 ROLL 695 cal., 18g fat (11g sat. fat), 90mg chol., 588mg sod., 122g carb. (59g sugars, 3g fiber), 11g pro.