Archive for June, 2012

Home made bagels

Monday, June 4th, 2012

These boiled circles of bread have been on my “to do” list for a number of years – I have a VERY long to do list by the way, which is why it’s taken me this long to do it.  But having seen Alice do it on Masterchef, I thought hey maybe today’s the day.  I have to admit… i didn’t start off well – the bread mix I had was 7 months past its use by date, and the yeast was 3 YEARS past (LOL – shows how often I make bread ;) ).  But you might know that once you’re committed, you’re committed, and I thought too bad it’ll have to do.  I tested the yeast to see if it activated (frothed) in the warm sugar water mix – it did – so I took that as the go ahead.

I used this recipe:  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1088/bagels-for-brunch

As I didn’t obey the instructions fully where it said to not use ALL the flour, I did – and as a result, the dough was quite dry.  I thought – great… this ain’t going to work, and I was pessimisstic the whole time.  Nevertheless, I kept kneading for the full ten minutes – great upper body workout – and the dough gradually became softer and more malleable – but still not soft like bread dough should be.  I attributed this to the fact that I’ve never made bagels before, and also to the fact that I didn’t follow the instructions and used old yeast.  Well, put it in a warm spot to rise – it didn’t rise much, and at the punch down stage, it was still very solid :(

Still wasn’t looking good, but hey , this far down, might as well continue.  I had fun making the hole  - spinning it around a wooden spoon – and let it rise a bit more – which it sort of did.  The moment of truth came when it came time to boil the bagels. I always wondered how on earth that worked – they kinda just floated to the top and still felt hard.

Drained, sprinkled with sesame and poppy seed, they went into the oven.

Not really caring, I went back to check – WOW!!!  They WORKED!! I was ssooooo amazed that they grew!!!!  I tapped the bottom – hollow – awesome!!!!

The moment of truth – I cut it in half and the texture was also akin to the ones I’ve had in the shops. SO happy :)

And yes, they tasted amazing too. Will definitely become part of my repertoire!!  Give it a go guys!  I cut them in half and froze them and I can confirm they’re still good toasted :)