Bagels

Bagel Making

We're always on the hunt for a fun new food project. Somehow all food experimentation becomes a project, complete with research, shopping expeditions for unusual ingredients, and full-fledged destruction of the kitchen.

So. Bagels.

Why bagels? Well, why not bagels? They have great potential for yumminess. Onward.

The Mr. did the research - I don't have the patience for it. He came up with what was described as a recipe for the genuine article, which is apparently more genuine in Montreal than it is in New York these days. Whatever. Go read the writeup about it; I'm not going to get into an argument. At the end of this long article of discovery and experimentation is a recipe, which we followed almost to the letter. I substituted bread flour for all-purpose. The weird ingredient requiring a shopping expedition was barley malt syrup, which we found at Whole Foods in the baking aisle, next to things like molasses.

Here's a note for technologically advanced cooks: if you have an iPad 2 with the smart cover, you can use the magnets in the smart cover to stick it to your fridge and use the iPad to read recipes off of. Magic!

Bagel Making

The dough was pretty easy to make and nice to work with. It rose nicely. We had a little trouble making it into nice-looking rings, but that can come with practice. The boiling wasn't as bad as I'd feared - what if the rings fell apart into some kind of mush? Nope, no problems there either.

Bagel Making

A little glaze and some toppings later, and they went into the oven.

Bagel Making

I have approximately the world's crappiest oven, so to counteract everything burning, I have to double all my baking sheets for an air cushion.

All the prep was well rewarded. We ended up with a dozen small bagels (about the size of your average donut), and they will be all gone in 24 hours. I'd make them again. They were chewy and soft and fluffy and crunchy on the bottom. The only thing I'd change in the future is maybe the salt/sugar ratios - these were a little sweet for my taste.

Thanks to mom for the home-grown poppy seeds.

Bagel Making

Comments

Marie said…
In our house we call it "stunt cooking". Our last big project was BBQ steamed pork buns. We had to buy three different kinds of soy sauce.
The bagels look delish!
9:44 PM
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