Chocolate Pudding Cake, Snack or Stacked

On June 29, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn cakes, ColumnLeave a comment

Seven years! Seven years ago, I started writing the Twice as Tasty blog. What started as a personal project led to workshops and house concerts, a cookbook and a column, and the launchpad for so much of the other food writing I do today. I’m especially appreciative of those of you who have been following my journey from the beginning, and I’m thrilled that so many more of you have joined in over the years.

To celebrate, I share my favorite chocolate cake recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. When I say “my favorite,” really I mean that unless I have a surplus of zucchini, this is the only chocolate cake I make. My mom discovered the original recipe when I was still a teenager. I’ve made a few tweaks but I’ve never needed another technique because this one is that good.
Learn to make Chocolate Pudding Cake, Snack or Stacked

Snickerdoodles

On March 30, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, cookies2 Comments

Snickerdoodles have been one of my favorites ever since I raided Grandma Tiny’s cookie jar as a kid. I’d like to say that the recipe I use today, and shared this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, follows her original one closely, but I can’t be certain: in all the times I watched her bake these cookies, I never saw a cookbook or recipe card. She knew all of the ingredients and measurements by heart.

The only change I knowingly made to her recipe was to replace vegetable shortening with butter and coconut oil, a blend I prefer for pie crust too. I’ve also come up with a sourdough snickerdoodle variation that replaces an egg and some of the flour with sourdough starter. The cookies’ defining tanginess, normally created just by the cream of tartar, becomes even stronger, yet they remain sweet and chewy.
Learn to make Snickerdoodles

Honey-Chili Butter Biscuits

On March 16, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, quick breadsLeave a comment

At my recent fermentation workshop for Free the Seeds, we talked not just sourdough and vegetable ferments but dairy ones too. Cultured buttermilk, which I use in the biscuit recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, is among the easiest dairy products to make at home.

Homemade yogurt is a close second: Buttermilk takes less hands-on time but requires a powdered starter culture; yogurt can be made with what’s left from your last batch but needs slightly more monitoring. I bring it up here because you can drain its whey and use that in the biscuits instead.

The biscuits themselves are flaky and tasty, but smearing on a bit of butter flavored with honey and ground chili makes them irresistible.
Learn to make Honey-Chili Butter Biscuits

Cranberry-Orange Quick Bread

On December 22, 2022November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, quick breads1 Comment

After endless hours in coffeeshops, I have a soft spot for muffins and scones, but Montana life has taught me to favor quick breads. It’s their mobility I admire. Where muffins can get squished if they aren’t well packaged and scones can crumble after the first day, quick breads can be sliced once cool and slid into a gallon zip-close bag, where they hold their shape well. Better yet, presliced loaves can be frozen so that I can pull out a couple of slices, warm them in the toaster oven, and devour them as I’m driving up the ski hill.

In my Twice as Tasty column this week for the Flathead Beacon, I share a wintertime quick bread that packs a flavor punch from cranberries and orange. I usually buy at least two bags of cranberries as soon as I see them in stores and immediately freeze one with the berries whole and unwashed, since water causes the skins to blister. I can then make this bread on a whim, chopping still-frozen cranberries in a food processor.
Learn to make Cranberry-Orange Quick Bread

Vanilla Bean Cookies

On December 1, 2022November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, cookiesLeave a comment

To kick off the December holiday season, I shared a favorite family cookie recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. Vanilla Bean Cookies are an appropriate way to start a month that emphasizes baking not only for their flavor but also because of how you create them: by making the cookies and letting them sit for several weeks. They’re the first cookies I make each holiday season, quickly followed by Chocolate Rum Balls, and they’re some of the first to be devoured when I crack open the cookie tins.

These cookies are special to me because of their history in my family and because friends continue to adopt them and include them in their own holiday traditions. My grandmother’s original recipe seemed untouchable, but I recently improved on it by switching to organic ingredients, especially a tapioca-based powdered sugar instead of one laced with cornstarch to prevent caking. After years of making this recipe, the flavor and texture were better than ever, making the extra cost well worth it.
Learn to make Vanilla Bean Cookies

Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Pie

On November 24, 2022November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Ingredient, piesLeave a comment

This week, I share my favorite pumpkin pie recipe in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. It seems fitting not just for the season but also because the introduction to my first column a year ago began with Mike Kordenbrock’s story and Hunter D’Antuono’s photos of another family favorite: Crumble-Top Deep-Dish Apple Pie.

I almost always make one or both of these pies for Thanksgiving gatherings, and they’re delicious for other winter holiday feasts, birthday parties, family meals, and more. If you’re just now stumbling on this recipe, don’t worry: read it completely, decide how many of the components you want to make from scratch, and then remember it for a future holiday.
Learn to make Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Pie

Cinnamon-and-Sugar Pie Crust

On November 17, 2022November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, pies3 Comments

My family has a long history of homemade pie fillings and crusts, as I’ve shared in the past and this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. I can’t remember when I ate or even exactly when I helped to make my first pie, but in my mother’s and grandmother’s kitchen, the crust was always mixed from scratch and the extra dough was always rerolled, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and baked as a treasured snack.

These homemade pie crusts tended to consist of the same simple ingredients—the ideal setup for mastering the technique of making them. Once you find a pie dough recipe you like, whether it’s the one I share in my column this week or from another source, I recommend sticking with it and using it for everything from fruit and cream pies to quiche. When it becomes your go-to recipe, you’ll never worry about making a mistake, and you’ll never need to buy a premade shell.
Learn to make Cinnamon-and-Sugar Pie Crust

Sour Cream and Cherry Scones

On July 28, 2022November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, quick breads2 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’re well aware of my love to tart fruits, including cherries. I share some of my childhood cherry memories this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon—and more importantly, an easy scone recipe that combines the tang of sour cream and sour cherries. If you prefer sweeter cherry varieties, they work well in the scones, and you can use the same recipe but swap in fruits ranging from apricots to huckleberries to peaches in keeping with the summer harvest cycle.

The sour cream doesn’t just add flavor: it keeps the scones moist, in the same way it does for Savory Herb and Sour Cream Scones and Sour Cream–Applesauce Coffee Cake or Muffins. For the ultimate Twice as Tasty flavor, you can make the sour cream from scratch.
Learn to make Sour Cream and Cherry Scones

Strawberry Shortcake with Lilac Cream

On June 9, 2022November 19, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, quick breads5 Comments

It’s hard to believe: Twice as Tasty turns 6 this month! If you’ve been following the blog from the beginning, you’ll know that every year I celebrate by sharing a birthday dessert recipe. In past years, I’ve shared highlights and recipes from the most recent year and plans for the future. This year, it’s just about the cake—shortcake, to be exact.

I’ve gone back to a favorite, and the blog’s first, birthday dessert and shared a streamlined version this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. The delicious scratch-made strawberry shortcake can be ready in less than an hour. Alternatively, you can go big on flavor the way I did in the original recipe by topping the dessert with lilac-infused cream, using the techniques I share in this post.
Learn to make Strawberry Shortcake with Lilac Cream

Rhubarb–Apple Crisp

On May 26, 2022November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn baked, Column2 Comments

To me, nothing says spring like fresh rhubarb. I share the history of my fourth-generation rhubarb plants and my love for their ruby-red stalks this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. But what I’m really saying is that you couldn’t eat as much rhubarb as I have, and from such a young age, without becoming hooked on its tart fruit.

My pie-making grandmother baked plenty of those stalks between layers of her flaky crusts, but my mom was the master of rhubarb crisps. My column features a hybrid version of her recipe, mixed with apples and sweetened with a little honey, but you can find a pure rhubarb version here on the blog.
Learn to make Rhubarb–Apple Crisp