Thursday, January 29, 2009

Bagels – I never knew. . .



Sixteen years ago a family moved into our neighborhood. They came from out of state and had retired from one job and decided to open a bagel shop. I remember thinking wow how do you go from one career to a starting a totally different business in a different state just like that. Where did they learn to make bagels?? I’m just a little slow too often. It finally dawned on me this past week that maybe I could actually make my own bagels. So today after gutting the front entry closet to search for Sam’s glasses without success, other than having a cleaner closet, I decided it was bagel time! I searched the internet, read comments and got to work. I opted for the recipe that said 90 min from start to finish. Is also said Authentic NY Bagels. Every comment gave it top ratings and even their own adjustments for this or that. I learned there are two schools of forming a bagel. There is the “snake and pinch” or the “ball and poke”. No, those aren’t official terms but my take on the process. If I had a kitchen aid it would have been much easier but I found my little hand mixer still did a great job with my bread hooks for most of the kneeding. Kneeding is not my favorite thing. I hate cleaning dough off my fingers. But bagel dough is stiff so wasn’t too bad. In fact I was having fun because it wasn’t sticky and messy. Basically I mixed, let it rise, divided, formed into bagel shapes (I opted for the ball and poke as I was doing this part with one hand while talking on the phone), let rise again, boiled them, dried them, egg white wash (to make extra crispy and golden brown) and baked. So I thought morning bagels from a bagel shop were good. Now the truth is known. I don’t need a bagel shop. I could open my own!

UPDATE: There are requests for the recipe. CLICK HERE
Also note that I did not have malt syrup and used brown sugar as one advised. Someone sayd you can use Molasses. The recipe does not call for doing an egg white wash. This really does make it look better. Simply use 1 egg white to 1 TB water. It goes a LONG way. Also if you use parchment to cook on be sure to cover VERY well with corn meal or they will stick. I might try cooking on a stone next time!!

5 comments:

Mindy and Garry said...

You need to post the recipe or add a link to the site you found it on! I read an article in the newspaper a few years ago on making bagels. It looked fun and not too hard, but I didn't save it and I just haven't thought to look at how to make them since. They look yummy! I love bagels and anything homemade it better than store bought!

highdeekay said...

I've always been intimidated by bagel-making. Now I think I might have to try it! Cool.

also cool: the word verification for me to leave this message is: smslersh. Cool!

Kristin said...

They look yummy!

Debbie and Bobby said...

why am i not surprised! You always make yummy things. they look great!

Chieko said...

They look yuuuuuuuuuuuuuumy! I must try! Thanks for sharing. So, are you going to open a store? ;)