Your Choice Berry Curd

On May 8, 2025May 8, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, refrigeratedLeave a comment

The first time you tasted fruit curd, it was most likely made with lemons or perhaps limes. But as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, it can be made with a range of berries and other fruits—a big advantage if you don’t have access to backyard citrus but do grow or live in an area where berry crops are popular. Plus, you can make berry curd with frozen fruit.

Raspberries are my personal favorite for berry curd, but I’ve made it with everything from strawberries to gooseberries and huckleberries. Rhubarb Curd is another delicious variation this time of year. I get the best texture by using just egg yolks in the curd, so when I developed a recipe for Gingerbread Pancakes, one of my preferred pairings for fruit curd, I used the remaining egg whites in the pancake batter.
Learn to make Your Choice Berry Curd

Gingerbread Pancakes

On May 1, 2025May 1, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, grains1 Comment

Some foods stick with you not only because they’re delicious but because of the fond memories they evoke. Gingerbread pancakes fall in that category for me, as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. I was thrilled when I checked up on Zazie, where I first tasted these pancakes, to find that not only was it still open but thriving. Brunch at this French-style bistro was always a calm, relaxed affair amid San Francisco’s bustle, and I recommend a visit if you’re in the city.

Now that I’m more than 1,100 miles away, I’ve replaced that experience with this week’s pancake recipe and a quiet morning on my cabin’s deck. The spices and molasses give these pancakes their distinctive flavor, and Cultured Buttermilk and egg whites make them ultra-fluffy. The buttermilk gives them just a hint of the tang that dominates Overnight Sourdough Pancakes and Sourdough–Yogurt Pancakes.
Learn to make Gingerbread Pancakes

Tangy Rhubarb Muffins

On April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, quick breadsLeave a comment

When I want to bake muffins, I reach for whichever homemade dairy product happens to be in my fridge that day: cultured buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, each has a different texture and flavor but can be used interchangeably in many baked goods.

Cultured buttermilk tends to be just slightly thicker than heavy cream, and it adds flavor not just to sweet rhubarb muffins but also to savory Corn Kernel Muffins with Sage. My favorite substitute for it is the whey from Homemade Small-Batch Yogurt: Drain the yogurt through a fine-mesh strainer and capture the tangy liquid in a measuring cup. If the whey seems too thin, stir in a couple of tablespoons of the yogurt before using it in Berry Chocolate Muffins.
Learn to make Tangy Rhubarb Muffins

Homemade Sour Cream

On April 18, 2025April 18, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn cheese, ColumnLeave a comment

I rounded out a collection of homemade dairy products this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon with sour cream. I love the tangy richness of sour cream and spoon it over everything from nachos to baked potatoes to Sourdough Empanadas. It’s an essential flavor on and in Mushroom-Filled Blini and makes Onion Lover’s Dip irresistible.

I bake with sour cream as often as buttermilk, because it provides loft in recipes like Chocolate–Sour Cream Cookies and lightens scones, including Savory Herb and Sour Cream Scones. But homemade sour cream, cultured buttermilk, and fresh yogurt are just the starting point. Once you become comfortable with the techniques and ingredients for soft creations, your first homemade cheese is just a recipe away.
Learn to make Homemade Sour Cream

Cultured Buttermilk

On April 11, 2025April 11, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn cheese, ColumnLeave a comment

There’s a distinct difference between the baking shortcut of using vinegar or lemon juice to sour milk and the creamy, tang taste of cultured buttermilk. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, the former has its uses. For example, in Loaf-Pan Lemon Cake, the double dose of lemon boosts the citrusy flavor. But in icings and salad dressings, and even baked goods and savory dishes, it’s worth splurging for cultured buttermilk—or making your own.

Homemade buttermilk takes less effort than homemade small-batch yogurt, but it does require a powdered starter culture. That shouldn’t be a deal breaker; buttermilk is an easy way to see just how powdered starters work. Once you try it, you’ll be far more comfortable making your first batch of Dry-Salted Feta or Homemade Fromage Blanc.
Learn to make Cultured Buttermilk

Homemade Small-Batch Yogurt

On April 4, 2025April 4, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn cheese, ColumnLeave a comment

Dairy fermentation is a bit different from fermenting vegetables for pickles or sourdough for bread, but all of these techniques have a gateway recipe that opens a whole new food world. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, yogurt was my fermented dairy gateway. Once I realized how easy it is to turn milk into fresh yogurt at home, the idea of making cheese and other dairy products became far less daunting.

These days, about half of the fermented dairy products in my fridge are homemade. I make sour cream every time I reach the bottom of the jar and fresh yogurt nearly as often. Cheeses come and go as the whim hits me: sometimes I crave Dry-Salted Feta for shakshuka, and sometimes I’m pressing Homemade Farmer’s Cheese for Paneer Tikka Masala or cutting and salting squeaky cheese curds to serve over oven fries with Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy as poutine. I gained the confidence to make these and even pressed and aged cheeses after mastering homemade yogurt.
Learn to make Homemade Small-Batch Yogurt

Vegan Oven-Baked Beans

On March 27, 2025March 27, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

I dare you to make the recipe for baked beans in this week’s Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon and tell me you can’t taste the difference between it and a store-bought can of baked beans. That can might be convenient, but it has nothing on the flavor and texture of beans you bake yourself in the oven. The canned version probably wasn’t even baked; instead, it was boiled or steamed before being tossed in sauce and sealed.

Good baked beans are a multilayer process. The techniques I shared earlier this month for Brined and Seasoned Pot Beans help to speed up the steps and intensify the flavor of the final dish. I pair these with my favorite shortcut when cooking dried beans at home: using one pot of cooked beans as the base for several distinctly different meals.
Learn to make Vegan Oven-Baked Beans

Brined and Seasoned Pot Beans

On March 20, 2025March 20, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

When people tell me they never cook dried beans, their most common excuse is that it takes too much time. I get it. When I need a quick dinner, I often pop open a store-bought can of beans. But the more I cook dried beans, the more I savor the improved texture and expanded variety compared with commercially canned beans. The techniques for preparing dried beans that I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon play a big part in my preference for home-cooked beans.

I make the best beans when I soak them for at least 6 hours in a cold-water brine and then simmer them on the stovetop. They keep their plump shape and have a consistent, creamy interior once cooked. I sometimes quick-soak them in warm brine or cook them in a pressure cooker, but only when I don’t mind that the skins will split.
Learn to make Brined and Seasoned Pot Beans

Loaf-Pan Lemon Cake

On March 13, 2025March 13, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn cakes, ColumnLeave a comment

The recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column on the Flathead Beacon website was intended for another Beacon publication: the Flathead Valley Family magazine. The latest edition of the magazine—in all its printed-page, glossy glory—hit the valley’s streets about a week ago. It includes an article that I filled with kid-friendly recipes, with the help of some of my favorite kid chefs.

My “Cooking with Kids!” feature offers breakfast, dinner, pickle, and cookie recipes all easily made by kids (with adult help, depending on the head chef’s age and experience). Be sure to pick up a printed copy of Flathead Valley Family or, if you’re not local, check out the full article online.

The Russell, Steck, and Van Ness families had so many great ideas that I knew we wouldn’t fit all of the recipes in the printed space. I tested and perfected this lemon loaf cake recipe anyway, and the Beacon’s media director, Hunter D’Antuono, took mouth-watering pictures of it during our photo shoot. My niece, who was making cheese with me at the age of 4, is an experienced-enough baker in her middle school years to make this cake on her own.
Learn to make Loaf-Pan Lemon Cake

Sweet Spice Mix

On March 6, 2025March 6, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

We had such fun playing with spices in my Free the Seeds workshop last weekend. Attendees watched as I toasted, ground, and bloomed a spice blend, and then they sampled the results on Zesty Baked Chickpea Snacks. Afterward, I could smell the aroma of the spices emanating from the classroom almost all of the way down the college building’s long hall. I hope I made the people attending the next workshop in that space hungry and curious.

The curious can find the handout from my Seeds of Flavor workshop here. I share a bonus spice blend recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.
Learn to make Sweet Spice Mix