ITJB Round 2 Week 8 - Classic NY Water Bagel (pg.99)
We 3 sisters met the ITJB Round 2 Week 8 challenge with vigor! Actually my talented sisters, Barb (gmabaking) and Helen (gmabaking2) had a bit better luck than me... although my bagels turned out great! Barb has made Bagels several times and is the family expert... for Helen this was her first time... I too have made bagels but never with quite the "I love Lucy" experience in my kitchen.... The dough making process went great on day one... mixed up that great stuff and made decent looking circles and chilled them overnight... all is going well.... Early the next morning, via texting and phone calls, we added the malt to the water, put on to boil... turned on the oven to preheat... sat down with a cuppa joe in the other room... and then ...
I saw the smoke rolling out of my kitchen!!!!! Would have been good had I remembered that I sprayed the oven with oven spray, intending to clean it BEFORE making the bagels! ... So I dove for the controls... turned off the oven, turned on the fan, opened the oven door... cooled it just enough to prop wooden spoons in the door hindge to hold up the heating element in the bottom... while kneeling in front of the oven I threw a hot wet rag into the oven and pushed it all around - repeatedly with another wooden spoon.... whew! clean oven... standing up.... I watched the malt all boil over the top of the pan... into the electric burner plate!!! So... I pulled the pan off the burner... propped the circular burner up, yep with one of those wooden spoons... cleaned the malt out... added more to the water... can't say it was exactly 2 TBS at this point... brought it all back to a boil and finished without even waking up my husband who was sleeping in that Saturday morning... which is pretty good because I really wanted to scream! That was all the drama... and it would have been terrible if it hadn't been so hilarious!!!
So, here are our pictures... they look very similar... you will notice we are including free advertising for the ITJB Cookbook if any of you want to turn these photos into posters for your kitchens or restaurants. ;-)
Barb's in Colville, WA. (gmabaking)
Next, Helen's in Ft. Worth, TX (gmabaking2)
and now mine. (gmagmabaking2)
We used a variety of toppings... one with garlic and onion, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, kosher salt, and onion filling like we used on the biayls... This really was a fun bake! As Helen said, "Who knew making bagels could be so easy!"
See you all here next week for mini-schneken!
Thanks for letting me share my "I love Lucy" story.
Diane
bagels right out of the inside of a Jewish bakery! Amazing baking ladies - as usual.
Thanks for the kind words! We are having fun... This challenge means a lot to us, as it brings us closer together and makes us try new recipes and meet those challenges... we are learning so much about baking the Jewish bakery way by reading this book! It truly has great lessons within those covers. Thank you again, dabrownman for the encouragement.
Diane
And they don't at all have the "shrivelled toes" look my bagels often get! ;-) I aspire to your success!
Heidi,
Shrivelled toes are just fine, whether bagels or feet....When you get really old shrivelled becomes a way of life! Actually this recipe made the smoothest bagels that I have made. I think the preshaping and resting the pieces before trying to roll them is what made the difference, and of course the nice rest they had overnight in the refrigerator helped too. The preshaping made me more likely to just set a piece of dough aside if it was resistant because I could pick up another and go back to it in a few minutes. All in all, a good recipe and a fun baking day with my younger sisters.
Barb
I Love Lucy send-up notwithstanding, those are gorgeous bagels! Besides, adversity makes us stronger!
Stan
I will soon be Wonder Woman... Thanks, Stan!
These bagels, gma's, look great. How do you get the onion and garlic toppings to stay on? I have been brushing the tops of the bagels with egg white/water wash, which helps keep the seeds adhered. But the onion (both reconstituted and freshly cooked) doesn't like to stay on very well. And I haven't even thought of garlic, but wouldn't that be tasty!
Another thing is that I've just begun baking the bagels a little larger--3.75 oz. unbaked dough @. It makes a little more surface for the shmear. And I've upped the hydration to 55%. These have become "regulars" around here.
Happy bagel-baking! Fun, isn't it? --Joy
the onion topping is pressed on (or actually bagel pressed into) like on the onion rolls we have made. Stayed on pretty well. Your's look great, Joy, and yes... this is all so much fun! What is crazy fun is that I have a neighbor who wants to come down and have me walk her through making English Muffins... a spark is all it takes to kindle that passion for baking... who knows where this will lead her. LOL... Enjoy!
I made bagels a few times before (from BBA) and liked them quite well. There reason I didn't bake them more often - I am spoiled! Though Bangor is not known for culinary highlights otherwise, it is home of the fabulous Bagel Central. Whenever we visit Bangor, we go there for lunch and take a dozen poppy seed bagels home, too.
This recipe was easier than the one from "Bread Baker's Apprentice", and I still had some high gluten flour from my test baking for NY Bakers. I couldn't resist substituting 10% of the white flour with some whole grain, and chose spelt. I was pleased that this dough required such a small amount of yeast, and that overnight retardation was part of the procedure.
The instruction: "... roll out the strands as thick as your thumb"... proved a bit tricky, though. I was tired and didn't really think about the thickness of Stan's, or Norm's thumb compared to mine. Therefore my bagels were probably skinnier than they should have been, and, using the "knuckle measure", also smaller.
Before I realized what was happening, I had already 8 bagels on my baking sheet, from only half the dough. I wanted to try the twisted Krakover Beyglach, anyway, and thanks to their spiral strands they escaped miniaturization.
According to the instruction you should take the bagels out of their hot bath soon as they float. Mine refused to sink to the bottom (except for the twisted ones) and floated right away, so I gave them 30 seconds before I fished them out.
After 16 minutes baking time, with one rotation, the bagels were already rather dark. But since I don't care too much for wan looking breads, and don't mind stronger crusts, that's fine with me.
I just had my crumb-shot-bagel with tea, it was nice, crunchy and chewy, and I liked it a lot. The taste, astonishingly, reminds me more of German Brötchen than any roll I have eaten so far in the US (except, of course, for my own Brötchen.)
Karin
Those are lovely bagels. I really like the looks of the twisted ones... I will have to try that on my next bagel making adventure! Lovely! Your crumb looks so perfect!
Someday I will be half as good, I pray.
Diane
Thanks, Diane,
Those bagels with a twist have a really pattern, and they were not difficult to do.
My malted water boiled over, too, it was a big mess, and my main concern was that the smoke alarm would go off, driving out dog nuts with frenzied barking, so I did my best to scrape the hot element with a razorblade without burning myself...
And you really don't have to pray anymore - at least not for being a good baker!
Karin
Thanks, Diane, for the tip. I will try again with the onion topping, as I do love onions on bread. How great that your enthusiasm is "sparking" your neighbor--that's what it's all about.
Beautiful bagels, Karin; love the pattern and the fantastic crumb!
Joy
Great advice from all ya'll... Loving it!
Diane
This was a terrific success for me. I had tried making bagels once before, a Ciril Hitz recipe, but this recipe was so much better. Day 1 went well, but I need more practise joining them bagels up. My Krakow ones were a little on the skinny side. They went into the fridge for 22 hours, and did not seem to have risen much whilst resting there. Once in the boiling malt water they started to puff up a little. I baked them for 15 minutes. We immediately ate the four twisted ones, whilst waiting for supper, which meant that we did not eat much of that at all. Next time I am going to make them a little larger, perhaps aiming for 10 out of the mixture. Anyway I am delighted with the way they turned out, and the taste.
Those bagels look delicious; my mouth is watering. I think the shaping takes practice, and I sometimes either spritz a little water on the edges I want to join or just dip my finger in a little bowl of water nearby. I agree, 10 out of the recipe makes a really nice size, with a good amount of surface for the shmear. Congratulations!
Joy
thank you for the encouragement. I will definitely put this on my regular bake list. I think I will have to give the mini schnecken a miss, and jump to the medium enriched dough. So I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is going to make. This challenge is such fun, thank you all. Nici
Nici, the medium enriched dough is definitely worth making. (I haven't made the mini-schnecken but they're on my list.) I love the feel and taste of that Vienna dough. I make onion rolls and onion pockets with it and am going to try the Kaiser rolls next. Onion pockets take at least one time or two to get it (follow the instructions in the book on rolling it out), but I have made them over and over again. You might want to experiment with the different onion fillings for taste. Happy baking!