bagels!!!!

so while browsing the book section at our local grocery store, rémy came across this lovely book. i flipped through it and fell in love. marc grossman, the author, is an american living in paris and the creator of bob's juice bar and kitchen (both restaurants in paris). apparently when he first came to france he missed bagels as much as i do & decided to do something about it. years of trial & error led to this fabulous book.

i highly recommend this book to anyone, although it is written in french. i'm not sure if there is an english version available, but with recipes it's pretty straight forward anyway.

i will not be sharing the amounts required, you've gotta buy the book for that. but i will show you the steps on my very own first bagel-making journey!

the ingredients:
the bagels: flour, wheat gluten, yeast, salt, tepid water, malt syrup or molasses, olive oil
for the baking sheet: corn flour, butter
for poaching: water, potato starch, malt syrup or molasses or brown sugar, salt
as garnish: poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic, onions, salt, whatever you want!

directions:
mix up the dry ingredients.
(flour, salt, yeast, wheat gluten)

mix up the wet ingredients.
(water, molasses, olive oil)

mix the wet into the dry.


knead, twist, pull, punch for a good ten minutes.


form ten even round little balls.


roll each one into a nice thick worm.




wrap it around your fist and gently pinch the edges together.
(if the dough is too dry, you might need to add a bit of water to make the ends stick.)

your rings should look something like this.

place them on a well-oiled sheet, cover them with a clean dish towel & let them rise for an hour or two, until they're about 80% of their final size.

add all the poaching ingredients to a big pot & bring the liquid to a boil.
plop a few of the uncooked, risen bagels in there. after a few seconds they'll float to the surface.

let them poach for one minute, then flip them over for 30 more seconds on the other side.

butter & corn flour a sheet of wax paper (which you'll use to cover the baking sheet).

garnish the still-wet-from-poaching bagels with whatever you fancy.

here we have (from l to r) natural, poppy seed, sesame seed.

and onion (top) & garlic (bottom).

preheat the oven, pop those babies in there & let them cook for 20 - 25 minutes,
until they're nice & golden brown.

ta-dah!!! my first attempt at bagels was a major success!!!

delish!

homemade plain bagels with homemade chive/coriander cream cheese.

rémy thinks they're mmm mmm good!

then we made delicious tuna melts.

after two giant bagel tuna melts, mateo was pretty satisfied.
(& might i add that mateo had never tasted a bagel before mine...)

too many bagels!


the next morning, a deliciously toasted homemade bagel with delicious homemade chive/red pepper cream cheese.

honestly, they take a bit of time (with the kneading & rising & poaching & baking & all), but they were SOOO much easier than i had expected and turned out absolutely fabulous. i fell in love with baking bread a few months ago, and i do believe i have just fallen even more in love with making bagels. it is so definitely worth it & i highly recommend giving it a try!

happy baking!