The food adventure for this week was to make bagels. The better-half bought a Peter Reinhart book awhile back and we have several recipes we want to try in the future, but we started with bagels.
We started the dough last night. Correction, the better-half started the dough last night. I hardly had anything to do with anything until we formed the dough into bagel shapes.
A baker’s dozen went into the refrigerator overnight and this morning they took a float in boiling water:
Then I sprinkled on the toppings and we baked them.
We ended up with bagels topped with salt, garlic, onions, and my blend of everything. The better-half ate 2 3/4 bagels for breakfast. I had one of my everythings and the 1/4 of the bagel we let go a bit longer in the hot water to see what a “chewier” bagel would be like. It was, in fact, chewier.
Those look so good…way better than any offerings in Frederick that’s for sure. I vaguely remember making bagels while in high school and thinking that boiling bread seemed so very wrong.
The boiling thing was weird, but I’ve heard if you don’t boil then it’s not really a bagel. The recipe had us put a tester in a bowl of water before they spent the night in the refrigerator to make sure it floated. It did immediately and when we boiled they floated immediately too. No idea why that’s important, just glad they turned out so well. Had one toasted this morning.
Yum! You could quit work and go into business!