Cheese-Stuffed Grilled Sourdough Breadsticks

On August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, sourdoughLeave a comment

From the first year of the Twice as Tasty blog, I set aside January as Sourdough Month. The cold winter window after the holidays and before the first seed packets arrived seems ideal for sharing starter and recipes that bake sourdough in the oven. But when the temperatures hit the other extreme, I do a lot of my sourdough baking on the grill. So I decided to share a sourdough recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

This grilled breadstick recipe comes on the heels of Grilled Tomato Pizza Sauce, my favorite dipping sauce for these breadsticks—although if you’re a fan of roasted sweet peppers, they’re delicious dipped into Grilled Sweet Pepper Sauce too. The grilled breadsticks start with a ball of pizza dough; you can find my sourdough recipe here if you’re just getting started on your sourdough adventures, or you can swap in your favorite yeast-based pizza dough recipe. For a full mozzarella upgrade, use Cold-Smoked Cheese.
Learn to make Cheese-Stuffed Grilled Sourdough Breadsticks

Twice-Baked Sourdough Pita Chips

On January 25, 2024February 22, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdough2 Comments

We’re winding down this year’s Sourdough Month here at Twice as Tasty. I’ve been sending out far fewer packets than in the last couple of years, but it’s been exciting to see others sharing and receiving sourdough starter locally and through the Sharing fermented starters Facebook group. One of the things I love about this online group is that people are sharing so many ferments, with kefir grains some of the more popular at the moment. The other thing to love is that this group is active all year, around the world. So if January wasn’t your sourdough month, you can request starter within the group whenever you’re ready to join in the fermentation fun.

I put a different spin on that fun this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. It pushes beyond soft, chewy loaves like Herb-and-Salt Sourdough Focaccia to a bake that satisfies the craving for something crispy and crunchy.
Learn to make Twice-Baked Sourdough Pita Chips

Herb-and-Salt Sourdough Focaccia

On January 18, 2024January 25, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdoughLeave a comment

Since I started baking with sourdough starter and developing my own recipes, my go-to loaf has been Sourdough Cabin Bread: freeform, crusty, and the right shape and texture for everything from a sandwich or French toast to chunks for dipping in soup and cubes for turning into Panzanella. If this bread has a fault, it’s that it keeps cooking through to the center after you pull it from the oven, which means it really should cool completely before you slice it.

A desire for hot-from-the-oven bread tops my reasons for making the sourdough focaccia recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. Not only can it be eaten hot, but it prefers to be eaten as fresh as possible. Focaccia becomes stale quickly, so I intentionally scaled the recipe to a small pan.
Learn to make Herb-and-Salt Sourdough Focaccia

Sourdough Empanadas

On January 11, 2024January 25, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdough1 Comment

When I first started baking with a sourdough starter, I was eager to bake loaves of tangy fermented bread with a cracking crust and tender crumb. Since then, baking bread has become a habit that ensures I always have a fresh homemade loaf ready to slice. Yet I probably make Sourdough Pizza Dough even more frequently because it can be transformed in so many ways. As I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, mastering this recipe opens opportunities to make everything from baked and grilled pizza to stuffed pastries like empanadas.

I teach people how to make homemade sourdough pizzas in one of my most popular workshops, because learning to make this dough is such an easy way to become comfortable baking with wild yeast. I also recommend it for new bakers who are just learning on their own to care for and use a sourdough starter.
Learn to make Sourdough Empanadas

7th Annual Sourdough Month and Sharing Starters

On January 4, 2024December 31, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdoughLeave a comment

Since 2017, I have declared each January to be Sourdough Month here at Twice as Tasty. What began as encouragement to fill chilly winter kitchens with the aroma and warmth of baking fermented bread—by sharing recipes and giving away the sourdough starter needed to follow them—has grown into a record-breaking annual giveaway. Hundreds of people in northwest Montana and around the world have had the opportunity to bake with my personal sourdough starter.

As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, the numbers show more than the giveaway’s success. If you need starter, there’s now a large group of people to tap into who have made their Twice as Tasty sourdough starter their own. If you’re among that group, you’re all set to share your love of sourdough—and your starter.

Making and Using Sourdough Starter

On November 7, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn sourdoughLeave a comment

I’ve been baking with my sourdough starter for more than 9 years and teaching others to do so for nearly as long, but there’s always so much more to learn. So I was excited for the opportunity to research, write, and now share a sourdough guide on The Old Farmer’s Almanac website based on historical sourdough recipes from their archive.

This guide includes instructions for making a sourdough starter from scratch, which was a new project for me. I was gifted my existing sourdough starter in May 2014, and I’ve been baking with it, and sharing it with hundreds of people, ever since. The Beginner Sourdough Starter in the guide, which I based on archival recipes, is also fed and maintained a little differently from how I manage my established starter, which may appeal to sourdough bakers who don’t want to buy a kitchen scale or weigh out ingredients in grams. The four recipes in the guide use this scratch-made sourdough starter in quick breads and even a crusty white loaf.
Learn more about making and using sourdough starter

How To Make Cheese, Step by Step

On April 25, 2023November 19, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn cheese, FermentingLeave a comment

I’m excited to share my first pieces for The Old Farmer’s Almanac website—all about cheese! I created a basic cheese making guide to help beginners make their first cheese and experienced cheese makers learn some of the history and details about the process. It includes a recipe for a classic cheese from pioneer days: Farmer’s Cheese. You’ll also find that recipe in a separate post that includes step-by-step photos of the process.

I’m just as excited that by creating these pieces for Almanac.com, the editors have added more recipes to their website for making cheese and other dairy products. The website’s collection now includes recipes for homemade ricotta, yogurt, and butter. I have another piece in the works for their website, too.
Learn how to make cheese, step-by-step

Making Friends with Ferments

On March 2, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, fermented, Workshops1 Comment

One of my favorite spring-transition traditions in Montana is Free the Seeds, a free, daylong seed giveaway and workshop fair that teaches about real seeds, real food, and real skills. I’ve been teaching workshops at the event for several years and am excited to be back in person for the 8th annual Free the Seeds on March 4.

As I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, my Making Friends with Ferments workshop is just 1 of 27 on the day’s schedule for this year, with the others ranging from garden plants and skills, to keeping bees and chickens, to topics aimed at this year’s theme: cultivating community.
Learn to make more about making friends with ferments

Stovetop Sourdough English Muffins

On January 26, 2023December 27, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, sourdough3 Comments

I baked up a batch of sourdough English muffins a few weeks ago and rediscovered just how easy they are to make. That’s not how I had remembered them, and looking back over my notes, I realized it was because it took several tries to create a recipe that had almost no kneading, allowed a long ferment time, and could be cooked entirely on the stovetop.

That latter quality was the reason I pulled out the recipe after ignoring it for so long: we’re in the middle of a house remodel, so I’ve been a bit transient for the last few months, most recently staying in a family guesthouse with a functioning stovetop but a nonworking oven. I’m now baking a new batch of sourdough English muffins every time we polish off the last one. It seemed well worth sharing as the final Sourdough Month recipe in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

The 6th Annual Sourdough Giveaway has been a huge success; so far, I’ve sent out more than 250 packets of sourdough starter! It is winding down, so sign up by January 31, 2023, if you want me to send you a free packet of my own sourdough starter.
Learn to make Stovetop Sourdough English Muffins

Pillowy Sourdough Pita

On January 19, 2023January 4, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, sourdoughLeave a comment

It’s always rewarding to pull a sourdough creation from the oven, but pita bread has a bonus fun factor. As they bake, sourdough pitas puff into floury pillows, holding their shape until they hit the cooling rack. When they cool, they collapse into flatbread ready to be stuffed with fillings or rebaked as chips.

As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, a few tricks help with the rise and fall of sourdough pita bread, but don’t worry if a few pita rounds refuse to puff evenly—they’ll still be tasty, and with practice, you’ll become better at rolling the rounds and timing the baking for pillowy sourdough pita.
Learn to make Pillowy Sourdough Pita