Parmesan Sourdough Bagel Chips

On January 22, 2026January 22, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdoughLeave a comment

I have to admit that bagels rarely go stale at my house. Even when I bake a full-dozen batch of Sourdough Bagels, we eat them before the week’s end as breakfast and lunch sandwiches. But after a disappointing snack of store-bought bagel chips, I had to turn some of my next sourdough bagel batch into a homemade version, which I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. They are so delicious that I might have to start making double batches of bagels just so I can have the dense rolls and crispy chips on hand.

Sourdough bagel chips are just as easy to make as Twice-Baked Sourdough Pita Chips and just as irresistible as a crunchy snack. Along with the recipe in my column, I offer plenty of topping ideas, for both the original boiled bagels and the second baking into chips. Of course, I recommend making the bagels yourself with a sourdough starter, but you can bake store-bought bagels into chips in the same way.
Learn to make Parmesan Sourdough Bagel Chips

Sourdough Bagels

On January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdoughLeave a comment

Sourdough bagels are a multistep process, as you can see in this week’s long recipe in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. But that’s bagels in general, whether you make them with active dry or wild yeast. If you want dense, chewy bagels, you need to boil and then bake the dough.

I learned when I first started making sourdough bagels that many commercial bakeries steam rather than boiling, which creates soft, fluffy bagels that seem more like hamburger buns. Immersing the dough in boiling water causes its starches to gel and form a firm crust over a dense interior after baking. This step is particularly important with long-ferment sourdough, which becomes so stretchy and acidic that it wants to rise—and then potentially deflate—if it goes straight into the oven.

Over years of making sourdough bagels, I’ve adjusted my technique to minimize tools and active time and consistently created the classic bagel shape. So the recipe in this week’s column is really Sourdough Bagels 2.0.
Learn to make Sourdough Bagels

Low-Gluten Sourdough Naan

On January 8, 2026January 8, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdough2 Comments

When I first started sharing my sourdough recipes and teaching sourdough workshops, I was often asked about gluten-free baking. I experimented with a gluten-free sourdough starter and discovered a completely different behavior and interactions of the wild yeast and flour. I had to make so many changes to the ratios and techniques that simply substituting a gluten-free starter for a traditional one was not possible.

Instead of becoming an expert in gluten-free sourdough, I learned more about how a traditional sourdough starter could be used to make bread that’s more easily digestible than mass-produced versions. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, mixing in low-gluten flours and extending the fermentation time encourages the wild yeast to break down the proteins that some people find challenging to digest.
Learn to make Low-Gluten Sourdough Naan

9th Annual Sourdough Month

On January 1, 2026January 8, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdoughLeave a comment

Happy New Year! What better way to start it off than with the yeasty, tangy aroma of baking sourdough? Since 2017, I’ve dedicated January to the joys of keeping and baking with a sourdough starter. This year, in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, I’ll share some of my favorite doughs that use different types of flour to make flavorful flatbread, loaves, and other baked goods.

My sourdough starter has been going strong since 2014. Through feedings after my own baking and sharing the starter with others—hundreds of new bakers around the world over the years—it has developed into a robust and lively wild culture. I explain in this week’s column how I’ve made sourdough baking fit my lifestyle without being overwhelmed by copious volumes of starter and endless loaves of bread, as well as how easily my starter wakes up when I leave it in the fridge for weeks at a time as I travel. I also share ways to get free sourdough starter so that you can make the recipes I’ll be providing this month.

8th Annual Sourdough Month

On January 3, 2025January 3, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdoughLeave a comment

It’s January, which means Sourdough Month here at Twice as Tasty. Since 2017, I’ve dedicated this month to encouraging you to keep a sourdough starter in your kitchen and use it to bake all sorts of tasty doughs. This year, my recipes in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon will focus on a couple of sweet mother doughs that can be used in countless ways. I’ll share some of my favorite loaf and roll shapes to get you excited about using sourdough starter when you bake brioche-style doughs.

I’ve been maintaining my sourdough starter since 2014, through weeks of constant feeding as I built it up to share with hundreds of new bakers—and months of neglect as I traveled. If life got in the way of your sourdough habit, you might not have had the same faith in your unused jar of starter. But as I explain in this week’s column, wild yeast is unbelievably resilient, and an ugly starter lurking at the back of your fridge might still be full of life. If you’re still skeptical after reading this week’s column, just check out this post and photos of a sourdough starter I woke up after 2 years of dormancy.

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.

6th Annual Sourdough Giveaway

On January 5, 2023December 27, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Giveaway, sourdough2 Comments

Welcome to the 6th Annual Sourdough Giveaway! I’ve been sharing my starter every January since I started this blog, but last year’s giveaway broke all of my records, with 154 sourdough packets leaving my kitchen and heading out into the world.

Many of those packets went to readers of my Twice as Tasty column in the Flathead Beacon, so thank you for supporting local journalism, as well as reading my column and blog. Twice as Tasty starter has now traveled to Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Slovenia, and throughout the United States, and I hope to share it with even more new sourdough bakers this year. Request your starter by the end of January to get in on the sourdough adventures.
Read more about starting with sourdough