Zucchini Bread with Sesame Seeds

On September 13, 2024September 13, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, quick breadsLeave a comment

When zucchini plants are putting out fresh squash every day that seem to double in size if you leave them on the vine just one more night, it’s time to make the quick bread recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. Almost every cook seems to have a favored recipe for zucchini bread, partly because the bread is so adaptable. I base mine on a quick bread ratio that works for all sorts of flavors.

As I mention in my column, the long list of ingredients in my zucchini bread recipe gives my preferred taste and texture to the loaves—and still uses up plenty of the squash. If you compare it to my Ratio Quick Bread recipe, you’ll see that any ingredients that you don’t have at hand can be replaced by other types of flour, sweetener, and add-ins.
Learn to make Zucchini Bread with Sesame Seeds

Triple Ginger Cake

On June 20, 2024June 20, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn cakes, ColumnLeave a comment

Cake has been on my mind these last few weeks as I’ve been celebrating milestones. My family calendar includes numerous May birthdays, which are always occasions to bake a cake or pie. This year, we also celebrated my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. I baked them the stacked version of Chocolate Pudding Cake filled with homemade strawberry-rhubarb-lilac jam, coated with Chocolate Ganache, and topped with fresh strawberries.

This month, I’m celebrating 8 years of Twice as Tasty, so I’m sharing yet another cake recipe in my latest Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. I developed this recipe to use three forms of ginger, mimicking the layers of flavor in my favorite Triple Gingersnaps. But unlike the crisp cookies, I always want my cakes to be moist and soft. This cake achieves that through molasses, eggs, and baking soda dissolved in hot water.
Learn to make Triple Ginger Cake

Berry Chocolate Muffins

On April 5, 2024April 4, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, quick breadsLeave a comment

As much as I enjoy baked goods, I don’t really have a sweet tooth. My favorite pastries minimize the sugar and boost the flavor, so I incorporate some unexpected ingredients into my recipes. One of those ingredients appears in the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. I make Berry Chocolate Muffins with the whey left from draining Homemade Yogurt to thicken it. Not only does it add nutrients and tanginess to the muffins, but I avoid pouring the whey down the drain, a practice that can lead to environmental problems when dumped on a commercial scale.

My next choice for the liquid in these muffins is Cultured Buttermilk, the tastier and thicker version of an artificially thickened store-bought buttermilk or the milk you hastily spike with lemon juice to hint at the soured flavor. Once you start baking with these liquids, you’ll find a place for them in everything from biscuits to cake.
Learn to make Berry Chocolate Muffins

Golden Baked Custard

On March 29, 2024March 29, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn baked, Column1 Comment

Although my family probably ate baked custard for dessert, I mostly remember it as an afterschool snack, scooped from a well-worn casserole dish and served without ceremony. It seemed like the homemade, comforting equivalent of vanilla pudding.

It wasn’t until I started experimenting with custard-based desserts at home, like flan and crème brûlée, that I realized the creations that can fetch high prices at an upscale restaurant are really just stylish versions of old-fashioned baked custard. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, once you become comfortable with making custard, fancier desserts are just a topping away. The main transition from old-fashioned baked custard to the more exotic sounding desserts is a caramel sauce, made by simply heating sugar until it melts and becomes golden, or a crunchy caramelized sugar shell, best achieved with a kitchen torch.
Learn to make Golden Baked Custard

Fresh Ground Peanut Butter Cookies

On February 22, 2024March 15, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, cookiesLeave a comment

Every since I first encountered a bright red nut-grinding machine in a grocery store, I’ve been a fan of fresh ground peanut butter. You can see the shelled peanuts in the hopper (and often almonds in a neighboring machine) and watch them come out the dispenser as creamy nut butter. The result isn’t the ground peanut clump submerged under an inch of oil that you often find when opening jarred natural peanut butter, and it lacks the added butter, sugar, salt, and preservatives of aggressively marketed brands. It’s just nuts.

Peanut butter features in all sorts of baked goods, but as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, many recipes were originally written for peanut butter spreads already heavy in butter and sugar. It took me several batches of cookies to adapt the recipe I grew up with for fresh ground peanut butter. It was well worth all that sampling and experimenting: these cookies are easy enough to make for everyday snacking yet tasty enough that I can add them to a holiday cookie tray.

Learn to make Fresh Ground Peanut Butter Cookies

Dutch Baby

On December 21, 2023December 21, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn baked, ColumnLeave a comment

If you want a Christmas morning breakfast that comes together quickly, can feed a crowd, and looks like a special treat (even though you could make it any morning you aren’t rushing out the door), look no further than the baked pancake recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. Known as a Dutch baby (or “Dutch babies,” as we always say it in my family), this puffy, family-style pancake looks as impressive as a souffle when it comes out of the oven yet is far easier to prepare.

The dreaded collapse of a souffle is actually welcome here. It leaves part of the pancake high and slightly crisp, part creamy like custard, and all perfect for serving with an array of toppings. You can scale up the recipe for as many servings as you need and gather around the table to enjoy it or balance it on your lap (perhaps served in a shallow bowl) beside the tree.
Learn to make Dutch Baby

Pumpkin Quick Bread

On December 15, 2023December 15, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, quick breadsLeave a comment

While most people of think of pumpkins for pie late in the year—I shared each homemade component over several weeks last year in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon—many of my homegrown sugar pumpkins end up in less labor-intensive dishes, like the quick bread recipe I share this week. I explain in my column how “quick” can be a bit misleading, since it still takes time to put the recipe together and an hour for the bread to bake, but compared with a yeast or sourdough bread or an all-scratch pie, it’s a speedy creation.

Quick breads have lots of advantages over other baked goods: they’re easy to store and transport, and I generally create two-loaf recipes so that I can slice and then freeze one to enjoy later, piece by piece. This time of year, the extra loaf also makes an easy holiday gift.
Learn to make Pumpkin Quick Bread

Chocolate Rum Balls

On November 30, 2023November 30, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, cookiesLeave a comment

Just last night, I finished preparing my make-ahead cookies for the holidays. I rolled the last balls in powdered sugar and stacked them in a cookie tin, where they will sit untouched for the next 3 weeks to age before they are ready to be shared and eaten by family and friends.

Each year, in the days after Thanksgiving, I bake two kinds of cookies that taste better the longer they sit: Vanilla Bean Cookies and Chocolate Rum Balls, the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. I’m at least the third generation in my family to create these cookies, and friends have adopted them as part of their own holiday tradition. These recipes are such a sweet way to end the year and remember past baking days with my grandmother, mom, sister, and others.
Learn to make Chocolate Rum Balls

Pumpkin–Chocolate Cookies

On October 27, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, cookiesLeave a comment

When I shared my technique for Roasted Winter Squash Puree last November in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, I made it part of a series leading up to a classic Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Pie, just in time for Thanksgiving. It’s one of the many delicious reasons I grow, roast, puree, and freeze pumpkins and winter squash. The cookie recipe I share this week (in my 100th column) is another.

With dense pumpkin puree at the heart of these cookies, they’re almost cake-like in their consistency. They come out of the oven domed with soft centers, especially if you take the time to chill the dough before baking so that they hold their shape. I drop them onto cookie trays by the spoonful when I’m baking them for daily enjoyment. For a fancier presentation, you can use dampened fingertips to shape them into smoother balls and drizzle them with melted chocolate.
Learn to make Pumpkin–Chocolate Cookies

Huckleberry–Rhubarb Galette

On July 20, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn baked, Column4 Comments

Huckleberries are the flavor of summer in Montana, whether you venture into the woods to find your own or not. Pickers horde them to enjoy all year, reliving memories of summer days with each burst of the sweet, intense fruit. As I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, once I’ve left a mountainside with purple-stained fingers and tongue and a bellyful—perhaps too full—of huckleberries, I use my haul judiciously to stretch out the berry season.

This week’s recipe, pairing huckleberries and rhubarb in a freeform tart, does just that. If you freeze hucks on a tray and then bag them for the freezer, and if you chop and bag rhubarb to freeze, you can make this tart off-season too. Blueberries can stand in for huckleberries if you don’t harvest the wild fruit, and tart apples can stand in for the rhubarb if you don’t grow and freeze the stalks.
Learn to make Huckleberry–Rhubarb Galette