Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Real Food Wednesday: Adventures in Bagel-Making

I hope this counts as real food! These are made with white bread flour, because I wanted to follow the recipe exactly this first time. If I can find whole wheat bread flour, I will try that next time. Real Food Wednesday is brought to you by Kelly the Kitchen Kop. Check out her site for tons of links to other Real Food Wednesday posts :)

My husband lovingly got me The Bread Baker's Apprentice a little while back and I've been slowly working my way through the recipes. I've been telling my almost 4-year old that I will make bagels, because every time we go to the store she asks for bagels and every time I pick up a package and look at the ingredients list, I am dismayed. Plus the ones in the package just taste gross - soft and mushy compared to real, chewy, bagel-shop bagels. Well, the recipe in the book promises to deliver real bagel shop bagels, and I've been wanting to try them for a while. It's a long, 2-day process, hence the reason it's taken me a while to give it a go. Yesterday was the day. I got the dough made, shaped, and in the fridge for "retarding" overnight. This morning I boiled, sprinkled toppings, and baked. And tasted. And tasted some more. These are so, so worth the effort and delayed gratification! And the whole house smells like a bagel shop :)

I am not posting the recipe here because it's 4 pages long in the book! However, a friend found it written up on The Fresh Loaf. It's basically the same but w/out all the nuances you get in the book. If you're really interested in bread making, I'd highly recommend getting The Bread Baker's Apprentice and then following the recipe exactly. Have fun and enjoy your bagels!

Shaped and ready to boil.
Boiling (1-2 mins per side)

Sprinkled with yummy goodness.
Out of the oven, cooling on a wire rack.
Close-up of the wonderful bagel shop blisters.
Toasted, smeared w/cream cheese, and ready to eat.

5 comments:

  1. Wow, this looks fantastic! I have never even considered making my own bagels! Delish! Thanks for posting this. I found you through Real Food Wednesday, by the way (I, too, posted my name instead of my blog title).
    http://mindofthemother.blogspot.com/

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  2. Sorry guys, the recipe is 4 big pages long! You'll have to get the book if you want the recipe. Or maybe google it??

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  3. Looks AMAZING!!!! Driving over there now....

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