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

Brine-Braised Breakfast Potatoes

On March 9, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

Two questions come up often when someone lets me ramble on about pickling and fermenting: What do you do with all of those pickles, and what do you do with the leftover brine and whey? In my Twice as Tasty column this week for the Flathead Beacon, I give the basic answer for both questions: Use it.

Pickles can be more than snacks and condiments. I have so many uses for pickles that I created a special recipe collection, The Pickled Picnic, to accompany my pickling cookbook. Once I empty a pickle jar, it still holds brine, a fabulous ingredient for sautés, salad dressings, and more. When I make yogurt and cheese, the leftover whey has multiple uses, giving a two-for-one punch to every gallon of milk I buy.
Learn to make Brine-Braised Breakfast Potatoes

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

Apple-Sweetened Yellow Onions

On February 23, 2023November 19, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Cookbook, picklesLeave a comment

I have to admit: Before I wrote The Complete Guide to Pickling, I rarely thought about pickling onions. Onions land in just about every jar of pickles I make, from Spring Asparagus Pickles and Salt-and-Vinegar Winter Squash, to canned Honeyed Bread-and-Butter Chips, to Southern-Style Pickled Shrimp. If I wanted slices of pickled onions for a sandwich, I just fished them out of one of those jars.

But part of the fun of pickling onions is that red onions are just as readily available as yellow ones, making it easy to create colorful combinations. Lime-Pickled Onions, with thinly slices of red onion immersed in lime juice, become a shocking pink. Red Onions in Wine Vinegar turn a deeper reddish hue. For Fermented Red Onions, weighing down the onion rings with a red beet doubles down on the brightness. I even use red onions, and sometimes just their skins, in other recipes for an extra shot of color.

The pickled onions I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon keep their pale, nearly translucent color, but apple cider vinegar and a little bonus sugar make them a bit sweeter than these more colorful versions.
Learn to make Apple-Sweetened Yellow Onions

Roasted Garlic Hummus

On February 16, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dips2 Comments

You can’t go wrong with the classic pairing of pita bread and hummus. Although hummus has become popular enough to earn cold-case space in most grocery stores, your homemade Pillow Sourdough Pita deserves a homemade spread. Fortunately, you can easily whip up a batch in minutes in your kitchen, as I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

For maximum flavor and creaminess in my hummus, I use roasted garlic, a little Homemade Yogurt, and home-cooked dried chickpeas. My hummus is still ready in minutes because I always have a stash of roasted garlic and fresh yogurt in my fridge for all sorts of uses. Then I’ll cook up a large batch of beans for a couple of meals and throw in an extra 2/3 cup of dried beans to pull out for hummus. But for spontaneous hummus, I always have a can or two of low-sodium chickpeas in my pantry.
Learn to make Roasted Garlic Hummus

Corn and Potato Chowder

On February 9, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, soupsLeave a comment

Just setting at a bowl of chowder on the table cuts my hunger pains. The thick soup immediately looks warming and filling. After a ski day, I don’t even feel guilty about dipping a slice or two of sourdough bread into the bowl.

The chowder recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon has become one of my après ski favorites because it’s so easy to make with ingredients I keep in my house. Even if you don’t grow and store boxes of your own onions, garlic, and potatoes, they’re affordable and keep well. The same goes for frozen corn and stock. With a little butter, and some cream and salsa if it’s on hand, you have everything you need for a filling meal.
Learn to make Corn and Potato Chowder

Frozen Strawberry Syrup

On February 2, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, frozen2 Comments

The first year I canned fruit syrups, I gifted my sister a couple of jars. The next year, she asked for a full box of jars filled with the jewel-toned syrups. In her house, they get used more often than jams: drizzled on pancakes or waffles, stirred into yogurt, blended into smoothies, and more.

I like making summertime fruit syrups because I can pair fruit and herbs in the same way I do for shrubs, ending up with a sweet concoction rather than a sweet-and-tangy vinegar-spiked one. The downside, as with jelly, is that it takes a lot of fruit to fill a canner-load of jars. So I created a recipe for my Twice as Tasty column this week for the Flathead Beacon that takes just one bag of fruit from the freezer and turns it into a jar of syrup you can keep in the fridge.
Learn to make Frozen Strawberry Syrup

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

Sourdough Power Waffles

On January 12, 2023December 27, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, sourdoughLeave a comment

When you think of sourdough, you probably picture a loaf of tangy, tasty bread. But you have so many more ways to use sourdough, as I’ll be sharing all month in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. Some of my favorites can use what many people call sourdough discard. I consider the word “discard” to be a misnomer, because I never actually throw out starter—even when I’m waking up a starter that’s been dormant for months or rehydrating a new-to-me starter, like the one I’m giving away until January 31, 2023. You can learn more about the giveaway here.

Get Starter

Instead of discarding weak starter, I use it in numerous baked goods that don’t need a lot of rising oomph, including pancakes and waffles. Either sourdough breakfast option has enough flavor that you can simply serve them with butter and syrup, but more filling toppings give the waffles in my latest column their “power” name.
Learn to make Sourdough Power Waffles