Sticking with Sourdough

On January 28, 2021January 27, 2021 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Fermenting, Giveaway, Topic5 Comments

Sourdough baking should fit into your lifestyle and let you build a habit of using it. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Another Twice as Tasty sourdough giveaway is winding down; there are just a few days left to get your starter. This month, I delivered jars of bubbly starter to local bakers and shipped dehydrated starter as far away as Slovenia. People have been sharing their creations of longtime and new Twice as Tasty recipes, including this month’s cracker, cookie, and ciabatta recipes and variations. I’m excited to see what everyone makes in the coming months.

For some of you, just remembering your starter may be the biggest challenge as the year takes off. Sourdough baking should fit into your lifestyle and let you build a habit of using your starter often enough to keep it lively. It may take a few attempts, and I’m always happy to resend starter if you need a fresh try. But a sourdough culture is more resilient than you think. So as life distracts you from baking, you have several options to bring your starter back to life.
Read more about sticking with sourdough

Sourdough Ciabatta & Bread Variations

On January 21, 2021January 21, 2021 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Fermenting, Giveaway, Topic1 Comment

With a handful of easily mastered recipes, including Sourdough Ciabatta, you can make every batch of sourdough look and taste unique. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Long before I got hooked on sourdough, I made yeast-based Italian slipper bread using Patricia Wells’s Trattoria. I used the recipe from the 1993 edition of her book without changes because it is so good.

Once I started into sourdough, I fell for the flavor and texture of long-ferment loaves, and Sourdough Cabin Bread, aka Auntie Julie’s Special Bread, became my go-to recipe. But one day I flipped passed the slipper bread recipe and was inspired to create a version that could use sourdough starter.

Wells describes Italian slipper bread, or ciabatta, as “ideal for those who want great flavor in a hurry.” This sourdough version takes a little more time to build than a yeast loaf but far less than long-ferment doughs that spend hours to days in the fridge. It’s definitely a high-hydration dough: expect it to be wet, sticky, and hard to shape. Your final loaf will look different every time, with lots of holes inside, and will cool and be ready to eat more quickly than denser loaves.
Learn to make Sourdough Ciabatta and bread variations

Sourdough Cookies

On January 14, 2021January 14, 2021 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Fermenting, Giveaway, Topic2 Comments

Putting sourdough starter in cookies bumps up against some problems, but you can solve them. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Sourdough cookies, like last week’s sourdough cracker recipe, have two goals: capture some sour flavor and use your starter. Sourdough’s leavening power doesn’t take charge: you’re still relying on baking soda, baking powder, or both to create the cookies’ shape. That puts them in the same category as Sourdough Pancakes, Sourdough Waffles, and quick breads.

But unlike those baked goods, putting sourdough starter in cookies bumps up against some problems. Most cookies have a low hydration level—they have little or no added liquid. The “wet” ingredients they do have usually contain fats, proteins, and other elements that balance the cookie recipe. This week, I focus on things I’ve learned about baking cookies with sourdough and the best recipes to use with your starter.
Learn to make sourdough cookies

Sourdough Crackers

On January 7, 2021January 20, 2021 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Fermenting, Giveaway, Topic3 Comments

My master recipe lets you make cheese, wheat, herb, rye, and more. Get sourdough crackers recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
If you jumped on the sourdough bandwagon last spring by making your own starter from scratch, chances are you’ve already experimented with “discard” recipes like crackers. When you take weeks to build a starter from just flour and water, you end up with a lot weak starter that many instructions advise you to throw out—and in my opinion, it’s the only time you should. Since my sourdough adventures started with a dormant gifted starter, I don’t toss starter, never clamored for discard recipes, and began baking bread long before I fell for sourdough crackers.

I started baking sourdough crackers for one reason: George loves Goldfish crackers. He’ll plow through a box of the cheesy bites in a sitting, so of course my thought was, “How can I make these—and make them better?” This led me to develop a master recipe whose techniques I now use for a variety of crackers: cheese, wheat, herb, rye, and more.
Learn to make cheesy and other sourdough crackers

4th Annual Sourdough Giveaway

On December 31, 2020December 27, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Fermenting, Giveaway, Topic3 Comments

Get free sourdough starter—or wake up your dormant one. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Happy end of 2020 from Twice as Tasty! Celebrating the end of this year seems more important than reveling in the start of a new one—the revels in many ways are still on hold. But January is still Sourdough Month here on the blog, and for the 4th year I’m giving away Twice as Tasty sourdough starter through January 31.

Over the last 4 years, I’ve had a 100% success rate with people receiving, waking up, and baking with their Twice As Tasty sourdough starter. When baking with sourdough became all the rage last spring, I reopened the 2020 giveaway and shared more starter than in all prior years. I hope to do the same again over the next month. Read on to get Twice as Tasty sourdough starter—or wake up your dormant one.
Read more about starting with sourdough

Biscotti

On December 17, 2020December 17, 2020 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Topic4 Comments

Biscotti pair well with tea, coffee, or even an evening alcoholic sipper. Get biscotti recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
At some point in my childhood, my mom started making biscotti at Christmas. As a kid, it was low on my priority list—there were so many other, sweeter cookies in the house. But even though my mom was the household’s master baker, my dad, sister, and I ate most of her creations before she had a chance to enjoy them with a cup of tea and a good book. She probably made biscotti because we tended to leave it for her.

Now that I’m older, I’ve come to appreciate these twice-baked cookies. They pair well with tea, coffee, or even an evening alcoholic sipper. When I traveled in Italy, I ate them with straight espresso and once with a dry Italian dessert wine I assumed was a type of sherry but later discovered was called vin santo (holy wine). The Italians are biscotti masters, traditionally flavoring them with almonds. But the technique works with many flavors, from nuts and dried fruit to my mom’s favorite gingerbread biscotti. And because they’re so dry, they can be stored a long time, making them ideal for sending to others.
Learn to make my Biscotti Master Recipe and several flavors

Sending Cookies, With Love

On December 3, 2020December 3, 2020 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Topic2 Comments

This year, I think it’s more important than ever that we send food, with love. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
There’s no point in sugarcoating it: The winter holidays will look different for almost all of us this year. For most of us, holiday parties, cookie and gift exchanges, and family gatherings will be smaller, virtual, or nonexistent. But there are still plenty of ways to share the holiday cheer—particularly with food.

Despite concerns early in the COVID-19 pandemic about food and packaging contact that had us wiping down milk jugs with bleach and putting store-bought goods in short-term quarantine, we now know that food and its packaging are among the least of our virus-spread concerns. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, “Currently, no cases of COVID-19 have been identified where infection was thought to have occurred by touching food, food packaging, or shopping bags.” We also know that food, particularly homemade food, can provide comfort, remembrance, joy, and more. So this year, I think it’s more important than ever that we send food, with love.

Since I’ve been on a pickling rampage most of the year, much to my cookie-loving sister’s disappointment, it’s time to bring some sweets to the Twice as Tasty table. Here are some foods I’ll be shipping to family and friends this holiday season.
Read more about sending holiday treats

Storing Pickles

On November 26, 2020September 9, 2021 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Canning, Cookbook, Fermenting, Refrigerating, Topic2 Comments

Now that you’re eager to or have successfully made pickles from the recipes in my new cookbook, The Complete Guide to Pickling, where and how should you store them? I talk briefly about pickle storage in the book, but several more tricks and tools will help you keep your pickled foods fresh and crisp.

As I mentioned in my post about pickling hacks earlier this month, you need two basic tools to make and store pickles: a container and a way to cover it. To ensure your pickles and their container stay clean and fresh, inside and out, choose nonreactive containers and lids—in other words, ones made of glass, stainless steel, food-grade plastic, or silicone.

Sure, you can cap your pickles with old metal mayonnaise lids or reuse tin-plated canning lids and rings; I did this, and recommended this repurposing, for years. But both will rust and break down over time as the acid in the pickle brine eats away at them, leaving an unattractive sticky mess around the jar threads, on your refrigerator shelves, and even potentially on the underside of the lid, where it can flake down into the food. Instead, I now save those old lids for dry storage and have switched to nonreactive options for high-acid foods.
Read more about storing pickles

Fermenting Tools

On November 19, 2020September 9, 2021 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Cookbook, Fermenting, Topic1 Comment

When I was testing tools for The Complete Guide to Pickling, I had the most fun with tools for fermentation. Until I started writing the book, I had mostly fermented using tools and equipment already in my kitchen, relying on zip-close bags, small glass jars, and airlocks cobbled together with old canning lids. But when I realized I would be including more than 30 fermented recipes in the book, it was time to research and test some fermenting tools.

The surge of interested in fermented foods has opened opportunities for companies and entrepreneurs to present tools designed to make fermentation easy, manageable, and trouble free. Some of those companies were willing to send me their products to test as I created the recipes in the book.

My main takeaway was this: If you catch the fermentation bug, it’s worth investing in some tools. To create a healthy fermentation, you must keep the food submerged in the brine. You’ll get the best results if you can also limit airflow. Here are some of my favorite tools to help with both.
Read more about fermenting tools

Canning Tools for Picklers

On November 12, 2020September 9, 2021 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Canning, Cookbook, Topic2 Comments

Start making pickles, and you may quickly run out of refrigerator space. But don’t let that slow you down. Instead, consider canning your pickles.

As I explain in the opening chapter of my new book, The Complete Guide to Pickling, space is the primary reason I process pickles. Many pickles taste better and stay crisper, and fermented ones keep their probiotic goodness, when you don’t subject them to a boiling water bath. But some pickles hold up well to high heat, including beets, snap beans, and (when handled properly) cucumbers. Other pickled foods are ideal for canning, including many of the chutneys, sauces, relishes, and sauces in my book.

If you already can jams, jellies, and fruit in a boiling water bath, you likely have everything you need in your kitchen to can pickles. But if you’re new to canning or have been using some tool hacks to process your jars, a few tools will make your home canning easier, safer, and more reliable.
Read more about canning tools for picklers