Tuesdays With Dorie : Bagels

After being absent for almost 2 months, I am back to blogging with a bagel recipe from Baking With Julia.. Writing anything is never easy to me, but today it feels especially difficult.. Here we go..

I never thought I would ever bake bagels at home, especially when I have a bagel store right next to the building I live in.. But I did, thanks to Tuesdays With Dorie (TWD) group.. This is one of the reasons I love baking along with TWD.. It makes me bake the recipes that I would read through but never try by myself.. Especially after watching the youtube videos of this recipe (links are at the second last paragraph) and seeing how sticky the dough is, I would for sure be discouraged..

The process was not as difficult as I expected.. It starts with the usual suspects: flour, yeast, water, some vegetable shortening, sugar, salt, black pepper.. I stirred all with a wooden spoon until I couldn't anymore, and kneaded it on a floured surface with extra flour to prevent sticking.. My dough was not as sticky as the one in the  video although I used less than 5.5 cups flour, including kneading.. I don't know if it is because of the type of flour used (I used bread flour) or the temperature/humidity of our place.. But I was happy with not that sticky dough, no complaints.. Then, the dough rose for an hour, and then waited in the fridge overnight.. The rest is time consuming, but not difficult at all. I made rings from the dough, boiled them for couple of minutes, put them on a baking sheet dusted with corn meal and the toppings used, brushed with egg white wash and sprinkled toppings.. Lastly baked them in very hot oven for 15-20 minutes (the book says 25 minutes but mine baked much earlier than that).. The result: Home baked bagels coming out of my oven :)

I made 3 different types: 3 with sesame and poppy seeds, 4 with sesame, poppy and caraway seeds, and 2 with only coarse salt.. They look like store-bought bagels, all puffed up in the oven.. However, taste and texture of my bagels were different than store-bought ones.. Taste-wise: I like these much better, these were the tastiest bagels with a hint of black pepper.. Texture-wise: Mine were more bread-like than chewy like the real bagels.. I like the chewiness of real ones.. And the verdict is: I liked them.. If I have the time and patience, I will make them again when having guests for breakfast..

If you would like to bake bagels at home, visit this week's host Heather's blog, or buy the book Baking With Julia.. If you want to watch the video of the episode of Julia Child's show where Lauran Grovemen baked these bagels: click here (part1) and here (part2)..

Sesame-poppy seed bagel with cream cheese-lox spread.. 

Thanks for stopping by, see you in 2 weeks..