homemade bagels

A couple months ago I found a recipe for “real bagels” in Cooking Light and immediately thought of my sweet hubby and his affinity for everything bagels. (I hate them; they may have a great savory flavor, but the onion and garlic are just way too strong!)

Obviously, this was a weekend activity, so I pencilled it in for two weekends ago. Well, that weekend came and went without the making of any bagels, so I was even more determined to cross it off this weekend!

I had intended this to be a pseudo-together project with Andrew; I was, after all, making them mainly for him. I like a good bagel as much as the next person, but try to limit my intake of simple carbs that come in the form of GIANT breads. Rule of thumb: go halfsies. NO EXCEPTIONS.

It being a Sunday afternoon, Andrew was all but passing out on the couch when I called to him in need of his photography skills… (I might have guilted him, a little.) The truth is, our kitchen right now just isn’t really big enough for two to be working, and I’ll be honest, I like to be the only cook in the kitchen. It’s my territory. Hands off!

(Plus, Andrew is a way better picture-taker than I am; with our atrocious lighting situation here in the kitchen and dining room, it’s all I can do to take a decent picture, let alone one that actually shows the real color of my subject.)

I halved the recipe (how in the world would the two of us be able to eat 12 bagels before they got stale?) and put the ingredients into the bowl of my mixer.

The recipe calls for barley malt syrup, which is a natural sweetener found in lots of bread recipes. It’s similar to thins like agave nectar, brown rice syrup and maple syrup and it is more mild, so it doesn’t raise your blood sugar as quickly as other sweeteners. I couldn’t find it anywhere in Ohio (it’s the kind of thing you find in the ‘crunchiest’ of natural grocery stores) and had to purchase it when Andrew and I were at King Arthur Flour during the fall of 2010. I have, however, seen it in the ‘nature’s marketplace’ at Wegmans–hurray!

After a 6-minute go-around in the mixer, you knead the dough by hand for just a minute or two.

(Seriously, how to food bloggers do it?? I would never be able to photograph and work with messy hands; I’m way too much of a neat-freak and OCD about equipment. Andrew would KILL me if I got food on his camera! That, and I’d never get anywhere since it would take twice as long to make everything if I was taking pictures, and it already takes me a long time since I’m so fastidious about cleaning as I go and measuring and things.)

After a 30-minute rise, you divide the dough into equal portions…

…and, using your fingers, poke a hole through them and stretch it out a little. They rise again for a few minutes on a tray while you get your water boiling.

I’m a HUGE King Arthur Flour fan and order WAY too much from them (they have such cool stuff!) and one of the things I got last time was this bag of everything bagel topping. Andrew was in heaven when we saw it.

Traditional bagels are boiled before being baked, which creates a ‘doughy’ texture, and is what the recipe calls for. We’ve had bagels in Montreal (which are only baked) and NYC (which are boiled) and you can really tell a good bagel from a mediocre one. I love Panera as much as the next person, but their bagels are NOTHING compared to a fresh, puffy, boiled bagel from a Jewish hole-in-the-wall place in the city.

Side note: Andrew’s favorite place to get bagels, interestingly enough, is a place called Buck’s Bagels, located just down the road from my parents’ house outside Philadelphia. I guess the interesting (and sad) part is that my family didn’t really ever frequent the establishment much! We had no idea such a gem was just a mile away! I remember my dad going there a couple times, but that was it. So, so, SO sad.

Side-side note: That is one of my dreams: to be a ‘regular’ somewhere. I think it stems from such a transient childhood; all I want now is to have a home and be known there and have a routine and be an actual ‘part’ of the community. (I have to admit, between being involved in the co-op and writing for the paper, I think I’m on my way!)

After a 30-second boil (I wasn’t clear on whether or not you were supposed to flip them or not), you place them on a grate to drain and sprinkle with topping, if desired.

I made four everything and kept two plain, for me.

(BTW, I’m eating half of one of my plain bagels RIGHT NOW for breakfast!)

I joke that Andrew is so picky that I can pull a hot cookie out of the oven for him and he’d refuse it (no lie, but in his defense, he isn’t very big on chocolate-chip); not so with bagels! It was all he could do to wait until they were cool enough to touch after baking before grabbing one of his everything bagels and chomping it down!

I, of course, wasn’t about to inhale one of mine (we had dinner plans with friends in just a few short hours!), but I wanted to taste my creation so I had a bite of his, with a little butter. YUM! Absolutely perfect texture!

I know I’m a little ambitious in the ‘make-everything-from-scratch’ category, but these really are pretty simple. With their short rise and boil times, you could feasibly make these on a Saturday morning and enjoy hot bagels for breakfast–not something you can say about cinnamon rolls without a TON of prep the night before.

Speaking of making things from scratch… I hinted at my weekend projects in yesterday morning’s post; be looking for that soon, too! Also, I’ve done TWO blogs for the co-op recently: kale and grapefruit! Next up: a promo for an upcoming event and more citrus! After that, I’m looking forward to non-produce posts, like yogurt-making and baking (it is winter, after all), which will include my banana bread! Stay tuned!

can food incite feelings of naked-ness?

Or, rather, the lack of food?

OK, what I’m really getting as is that feeling you get when you forgot to wear your watch. You know, that naked/’I forgot something’ feeling? I was thinking about it the other day, and I feel that way about my fridge sometimes. As in, if I’m out of certain things, all is not right with the world. I feel like we have no food. I feel like I cannot cook or clean or anything until I get to the store. Most are probably obvious, but others, not so much. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Spinach – I probably eat this stuff at least once a day, if not more. I’ve started trying to eat my salad FIRST, because I think if I did that, I would eat even smaller portions for dinner. The trouble is, it makes sense to eat the hot food first, as it will eventually cool down, whereas the salad won’t. Dilemmas, dilemmas.

2. Yogurt – I make my own, which means I need some leftover yogurt as well. Andrew is a huge fan of Kefir, so I like having that around for his breakfasts.

3. Bananas – I use half to sweeten my oatmeal and have been known to slather them in peanut butter, too. I used to hate them once they got really ripe, but now I don’t mind so much.

4. Fruit – Right now it’s citrus, as well as these tiny organic Honey Crisp apples I found awhile ago. They are THE BEST. I don’t care that they are $5.99 a bag.

5. Coffee creamer – Duh. Although, I’m seriously entertaining thoughts of switching to one of the Silk or Coconut Milk flavors once I finish this bottle, or even one of the more “natural” ones. Anyone have any thoughts?

6. Eggs – I don’t eat them very often by themselves (although I LOVE a good omelette!), but the lack of them means no baking, which would put me in a tailspin.

7. Cheese – I usually have a block of parm, as well as a container of something else like feta or blue or gorgonzola. They go in eggs, on top of salads or even with fruit. Cheese sticks are an essential item; I pair one with an apple for a snack.

8. Nuts – I have a giant bin I keep in the freezer of just about every nut around (three varieties of almonds, walnuts, pecans, pine, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds…) for baking, making granola or topping salads and oatmeal.

9. Seltzer – I’ve started drinking flavored seltzer sometimes when I just want something other than water. I used to absolutely hate the “flavor” (it’s carbonated water with a tiny hint of flavor, but not sweet), but it’s something I’ve gotten used to. I’m vehemently opposed to drinking my calories (except infrequent sodas and small amount of honey in tea, and, of course, beer and wine), and at 89 cents for a large bottle, I figured I should try to like it.

10. Ice cream – I’m actually on the fence about this one. I am an ice-cream-aholic. I am. Except that I don’t eat it that much; if I did, I’d have more room in my freezer! Seriously, I have like five pints of Jeni’s and Graeter’s ice creams we’ve brought back from Ohio, plus a christmas flavor of Perry’s I bought thinking Andrew would like it. He doesn’t, which means I’m stuck finishing it. What I need to do is learn to have just a small scoop each night–the problem is that even when I use a small bowl, once I start scooping, it’s like I can’t stop. I think I need a 12-step program…

Well, that’s probably about it. I also like having the ingredients to make things like hummus and granola on hand at a moment’s notice, so I guess I could include oats, real maple syrup and honey on that list, too. Oh and dried cranberries (as well as other fruits) and nut butters. I guess I could just keep going…

The good news is that I’m all stocked up right now and feelin’ good!

a list

1. I start school tomorrow. I’m uncharacteristically nonchalant about this. I’m prepared and ready to go back, but not nervous in the slightest. Have I, dare I say it, grown up?

2. I made a friend today! Actually, one of Andrew’s friends. Is that weird? One of Andrew’s friends from high school found me on Facebook, started reading my blog (yay!), then emailed me. We really hit it off and met for coffee today, then the BOGO shoe sale at the local running store. She and I are very similar (which makes sense, I suppose, since Andrew and she were good friends) and are looking forward to a dinner date with our respective spouses.

3. Speaking of running shoes… I bought two pairs for what I paid last summer in Carmel for one. Sheesh. Good running shoes, for me, are akin to air, water and peanut butter, so at the end of the day, I’ll pay a pretty penny if I have to. But, scoring a good deal for your pair of choice online isn’t always easy, so I was jazzed that the shoe sale today yielded another pair of my current style and a trail runner with support for me to wear in the snow. SWEET!

4. All I wanted to do this winter break was cook and bake, but with three trips in as many weeks, I didn’t exactly have the free time I’d anticipated. However, I’ve been making up for lost time these last couple days! I’ve made two loaves of sourdough, a giant batch of sourdough waffles to freeze, pumpkin granola, ham stock with the leftover Thanksgiving ham bone (destined for ham bone soup tomorrow), pumpkin-cranberry rolls and a menu for the week chock full of new recipes, to include cod and mung beans (not together). I. CANNOT. WAIT.

5. I made the best kale ever tonight–Andrew said it was a ‘Top 10,’ which is saying something since he’s so picky. It’s a recipe I replicated from something I got at Earth Fare this past week in Ohio. I’m blogging about kale this week for the co-op, so be sure to check it out there for my recipe!

6. I also made some great cauliflower (Andrew said “he’d eat it again”) tonight using a recipe a gal we met while in Canandaigua sent me. It’s a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. In terms of cauliflower, it was fantastic.

7. I was reading the Jan/Feb issue of Cooking Light on the elliptical this morning. Mistake. EVERYTHING in there is awesome. (Except that I can’t make half of it due to Andrew’s dislike of cheese.) Sad.

8. This month’s Cuisine at Home is also a winner. Between the two of them, I found recipes for Pad Thai and Tom Kha Gai soup–my two favorite things to order when we go out for Thai food.

9. I’m trying to figure out a new gym schedule for next semester that includes a yoga class… All the good ones are at times I’m unavailable! It’s either going at night (not my first choice) or cutting it close between the gym and class. Decisions, decisions.

10. There is a pair of boots I’ve been drooling over since before Christmas, and I’ve been itching to order them ever since. Theoretically, I have the fun money to do it, but after all Hadrian’s trips to the vet, our traveling (gas, food, Starbucks…), random impulse buys (ahem, the shoe sale and those $20 LOFT pants that fit like a glove), I feel like I need to keep waiting. Again, I ask, does this mean I’ve grown up? (No, probably not, since I’m also daydreaming about this awesome J.Crew dress I found to wear to not one, but TWO occasions this year…)