7/18/2010 - Bagels

This is THE recipe that J4 was most excited about, no contest.  It never would have occurred to me to even try to bake bagels before seeing the formula in this book, but it wasn't really that complicated.  I mixed and kneaded the dough, which was very stiff, so the mixing and kneading were a little more work.  Then I divided the dough into twelve balls and let them rest for 20 minutes to make shaping easier.  I shaped mine by punching a hole through the ball with my thumb and working it to about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, and then let them rise another twenty minutes on pans before putting them in the fridge overnight.  This formula really lends itself to Saturday (or in this case Sunday) morning breakfast because all you have to do the day of baking is boil, top, and bake.  Yes, I said boil.  It turns out that boiling the bagels is what gives that chewy bagel crust.

J4 is partial to the everything bagel, so after 4 minutes of boiling, I scooped the bagels from the water back onto the pans and he sprinkled them with garlic, onion, poppy and sesame seeds, and salt.  10-15 minutes in the oven and out popped these beauties.

We had a hard time waiting 15 minutes for them to cool.  They were pretty good.  The texture was spot-on as far as we are concerned.  They were missing a little of the bagel flavor, which I attribute to the fact that I substituted brown sugar for malt powder.  PR suggested that as a possible substitution, but also said that the malt powder was key to the flavor.  I think we may have to do some searching and obtain some before we make these again.  But that was really a very minor thing; overall they were very good, and the leftovers made excellent sandwiches.