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!