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09/21/2004 Entry: "Bagel Skillz"

My bagel skills are getting tight, y'all.

I baked a batch for Gero's moving in party and they were promptly devoured. Sunday I baked another dozen and gave half to Sarah and the other half to her parents. They were okay, and so were the bagels. This morning I baked another batch for Ron, who donated a large rabbit cage to Sarah to help accommodate the new bunny, Waboose. Biatch numba four I'm a cranking out and they are looking rad.

...updated...

If you do a search, you'll find a link to a good recipe for bagels, but I didn't stick to that one this time. Here are some things that I think improved the bagels greatly:


  • Use high gluten (550) flour, instead of the regular old (405) kind

  • Proofing the yeast into a dough sponge seems to speed up matters a great deal. I used 1 1/2 cups of hot water--that is, as hot as my hands could stand it, a heapin' spoonful o' honey, and a half-cup of flour. Give it five to ten minutes.

  • When it says "1 T of salt", I use two. Screw them.

  • Start neading the dough a bit sooner, while the dough is almost too sticky to handle, and keep your hands floured. It takes a lighter touch at first, but I think this might help prevent having too much flour in the dough. Just a theory.

  • Set in a warm place, ten to fifteen minutes time to let rise should suffice for our purposes. Stick your finger in it if you don't believe me.

  • Punching is for bullies

  • I make the rings like this: I first pat out the dough into a long rectangle shape. I cut it in thirds, then quarters. With floured hands, I make a ball by stretching and pinching all the loose ends together, just like unscrewing a lightbulb. I set the ball down pinchside down and let the rough part of some time to reconciliate it self while I move on to the other eleven pieces of dough. After I have twelve dough balls, I go back to the first one, and push my thumb through the center. Then I stretch the hole out using both first two fingers as if I were driving a miniature racecar until the dough gets unelastic.

  • Let the rings sit for fifteen or twenty minutes. This makes a big difference.

  • Use molasses in the boiling water. And a little salt, if you get my drift. Use a saucepan instead of a pot for multi-poachin'. Yee-haw.

  • Right before you drop the rings into the water, gently stretch them out again. Then lay one ring on the strainer-ladle-thingy, and lower it in the water until the ring floats off it. Both sides need half a minute, but they can withstand several minutes if you should lose count.


Jeezus, why don't I just rewrite the recipe?

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