Singular Scene

So, this extra time on my hands, that could, quite possibly be employed in income generating pursuits has, from time to time, been employed in more Domestic Goddess type undertakings which has caused the occasional raised eyebrow but more often that not resulted in a sharp intake of breath and a “you did what?” type of exclamation.

Actually, as a related aside, making Pad Thai is a terrific culinary secret weapon… with the right ingredients it’s well easy and gets a big thumbs up every time.  I think its exotic nature which gives people the impression it’s difficult… May I just say, it’s handy to live across the road from an Asian grocery…

In any case, more than the Pad Thai it’s the bagels that draw the exclamations most often… I mean, who in their right mind makes bagels eh?

Me dammit… and I’m totally in possession of my full faculties…  And when a bag of 4 bagels costs $4.30 and to make 15 of your own costs about the same… well… you do the math… and quite frankly, the homemade taste and texture is infinitely superior to the heavy chewy ones you get in those mass produced bags…

So, given gentle reader, that this blog is all about you I thought I’d share the bounty of my recent foray into bagel bakery and show you how it’s done.

First scour the interwebs for a suitable recipe

This one comes from Nigella Lawson’s book Domestic Goddess, I believe…  I found it via Google… (oh, and as is always the case, click to embiggen the images)

• 1 kg of white flour, plus more as necessary for kneading.
• 1 tbsp of salt
• 7g of easy yeast or 15g of fresh yeast
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
• 500mL warm water, plus more as needed
• 2 tbsp of malt or sugar, for poaching the bagels
• 2-3 baking sheets, oiled or greased.

1) Combine the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl, add the
sugar and the oil to the water. Make a well in the dry ingredients and
add the liquid, mixing to a dough with a spatula or wooden spoon.

2) Knead the dough either by hand or with dough hook, trying to add
more flour if you can, dough is better drier than wetter, the dough
will be stiff and hard work, even with the dough hook it takes 10
minutes.

3) Form the dough into a ball and put it into an oiled bowl, turning
once to coat all around, then cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave
it to rise for 1 hour. It should be well risen, and when you poke it
with your finger , the impression should remain

.
4) Punch the dough down and then give a good knead and divide into 3
pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece into a rope then cut each
rope into 5 pieces. Roll each piece between the palms of your hands
into a ball and then roll into another rope, curling to form ring. Seal
the ends by overlapping.

 5) Put on a large pan of water to boil, when it boils add the malt or the sugar. (It is my belief that this step needs no illustration… right?)

6) Sit the bagels on the baking sheets cover with tea towlels and leave
for 20 minutes by which times they should be puffy. Preheat oven to
240C.

7) When the water’s boiling, start poaching, drop a couple of bagels at
a time into the boiling water and boil for 1 minute turning them once,
use a couple of spatulas for this.

As you poach them put them back onto the oiled baking sheets, well spaced

I’m interjecting at this point to say, based on other recipes I’ve come across, in this instance I glaze the bagels with an egg wash before I bake them… furthermore, as I’m partial to variations on plain bagels such as onion or sesame coated bagels, I’ve been known to sprinkle the egg wash with fried onions (from the local Asian grocery) and sesame seeds as well.  Poppy seeds are a good idea too. I just don’t currently have them to hand…

and then bake for 10-15 minutes until they’re shiny and golden
brown.

Makes 15 Bagels.