2010-09-12

Bagels !!

A friend of mine posted a challenge to make bagels. She made hers yesterday and they looked fabulous! I set out the challenge to make a whole wheat version since I'm not a regular flour fan. She found a recipe that gave me a baseline but I wanted to research more. Seemed the ingredient list was different than of regular bagels.

I have to say, I never had this much fun making bread before. *laughs at self*

I did something I've never done before, a narrative photo blog entry. I hope you decide to make this. It looks complicated but truly it's not. Does have more steps than I normally would make in a recipe. Time is precious to me so I don't like to spend my time with tedious steps but this is worth the extra couple of steps!!

Enjoy!

First...the ingredients!

4.5 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons raw honey
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoon oatmeal (not instant!)
2 tablespoon sesame seeds
1.5 water (boiling)

2 tablespoon yeast
1/3 cup lukewarm water




















Boil water, add salt and honey. Turn off heat and allow to cool. Mix yeast and lukewarm water well. Add yeast to honey mixture when reached lukewarm temperature.

Add 2.5 cups of flour, oatmeal and sesame seeds to the liquid mixture. Stirring frequently for approx. 5 mins. Should look a little gloppy like picture below.



















Transfer dough to a flat surface with approx 1 cup of flour. Knead flour into dough.



















This is the longest process of the whole recipe. The kneading. I believe I kneaded for approx 15 mins. Working approximately 1 more cup of flour into the dough.

See? I'm a kneading fiend. 



















See how nice and shiny it is? That is when you know you've kneaded the dough correctly.
















Divide into 12 balls, stick your finger down the middle and spread out a bit. Should resemble a doughnut. Knowing it will rise a bit, I make sure the hole is a little big and shape it as I work my fingers around the outside of the bagel dough.

Once you have them all shaped, allow to lay flat covered with a cloth towel for approx 30 mins. One of the things I love about working with a whole wheat recipe, you do not have to rise the dough first before shaping. This is only needed after you've shaped them.



















I'll admit, this part just freaked the hell out of me. Boil a large pot of water (I added a little salt). Once you have a rolling boil, turn down to a low boil. Drop about 3 bagels (my picture shows 4 and it got a bit crowded as you can see) in the water. Yes, IN.THE.WATER. Weird, I know! I thought for sure my dough was going to turn to mush. Sure enough, they didn't! After about 4 mins, with a slotted spoon, turn them over. Cook for an additional 4-5 mins. Lay onto a cookie sheet until all bagels are boiled.




















Bake them on a ungreased cookie sheet (basically the pan you set them on after boiling) at 350 degrees for approx 20 mins or until nice and golden brown.



















For lunch, I made sandwiches out of them! Egg, ham and spinach bagel sandwiches with fried green tomatoes and fresh blueberries! Yum!


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