bagels

Last night I got everything read to make bagels. I have found that there are no decent bagel places within probably about 200-1000 miles from here. Seriously. The bagels you get at the store are really airy. Panera's bagels are so sweet. Nothing like the chewy, sour bagel taste of New York bagels that you get from the deli. I still haven't had bagels as good as New York bagels--ever.

Well, I think with some work this recipe will come close. It is made with practically 4 pounds of flour, some honey, salt and yeast. I used a mixture of gluten flour, all purpose organic unbleached flour and organic unbleached bread flour. The sponge that sits for the first few hours looks very similar to pancake batter. Then when another two pounds of flour gets added the dough becomes very tough. It was fairly difficult to work with; I had to really use my whole body for kneading (I am still insisting on kneading everything by hand and not using the bread attachment for my food processor or stand mixer). Shaping the bagels was fun. I made each one 4.5 ounces (I love my digital kitchen scale!). They were pretty decent sized. Once I had 13 bagels, which I thought was pretty neat, being a baker's dozen, I put them in the fridge until this morning.



When I woke up I just boiled them for 1 minute 30 seconds per side in a big old pot full of water made more alkaline with baking soda. They took 18 minutes in a hot oven and then fresh bagels for breakfast!! It was awesome. I was a total pig and ate two! They filled me up all day though, clear through the quick 1:30 hike we took this afternoon.




And a very full belly on the hike!

Ciabatta!

I did it! I finally made a ciabatta! It took my third try, but it tastes delicious. It has been four days since I first started trying this bread, so biting into the harder crust followed by the chewy inside was very delcious. Even though it does bake at 450 degrees and it is really hot out. All still worth it.

Cherry Wine

One of the things I am looking forward to the most about summer is sitting on my new deck and drinking ice cold cherry wine in the evenings. I have a bottle of Tabor Hill wine I am saving for the last day of the school year.

I love this wine because it has a tang that is similar to the same taste as cherry pie (which I don't love nearly as much). Not that this is a good thing, but it is easy to drink a whole bottle over the course of an afternoon/evening.

A bonus: It's regional! I have been trying to only drink regional alcohol, just like local produce, the benefits are widespread. It is not organic, but their employment practices seem to be very fair. Plus, they have free tastings of whatever wines you want.


(from the website: taborhill.com)

first greens!

Today was very productive. Our local Famer's Market opened today and there were so many awesome plant starts to buy. We also went to the local food co-op's plant sale. We ended up with 10 tomato plants and 4 basils. I will be putting more herbs into pots in a few weeks, but our garden is finally started!

We got a great variety of tomato plants; two red heirlooms, pineapple, green zebra, brandywine, husky gold, garden peach and yellow pear. I can't wait for the fruit!


Our spinach is ready to eat so I planted the second rotation in today as well.

Yeast Bread

In my somewhat lofty goal of eating locally this coming summer I decided to tackle the ideas of breads. If I could make a bread with local flours and butters, I wouldn't have to make one more exception. Yeast breads to me have always been similar to bricks. I try and try and the bread smells delicious. And weighs about 18 pounds. It's deadly!

This time, for some reason it worked. I let the bread rise in the oven with the light on and it rose over the bowl!

Here is the recipe that I was able to use as the yeast-challenged:

2 packages yeast disolved in 2.5 cups warm water for 5 minutes

Add 2 tablespoons of honey and one of salt and mix together. Add 2 tablespoons oil and mix.
Add 3 cups of flour and mix until smooth
Add additional 3 cups of flour until doughy.

On a floured surface (I found that I needed two more cups of flour for the kneading) knead the bread until springy.
Let rise in a greased bowl for 1.5 hours (this is where letting it rise in the oven with the light on helped!)

After it has doubled, divide into two balls, rolling out into loaf shapes. Put them on a cooking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal and allow to rise until double (it took me about 45 minutes). Then bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Simple! And it worked!

The effect was more of a cheaper white bread than a good artisanal bread like the ones I always get sucked into paying $4.50 a loaf for, but it was cheap and made with local flour and honey!