My last bagel baking attempt a year or so ago was dreadful. The recipe was complex and taking my best guess, I overshot the amount of yeast needed by about a quarter cup. Yes, you read that right - a quarter cup. Despite the excess yeast the bagels were flatter than Ma and Pa Kettle's tires and they tasted yeasty. Thought I'd NE-VER attempt bagels again.Flash forward, or back, to today and I decided to give it another shot using a different and far easier bagel recipe. .
This recipe was a cinch. I dumped 2 cups of rye flour (my innovation), 2 cups of white flour, 2 scanty little teaspoons of yeast, sugar, salt and water into my food processor which did the mixing and initial kneading for me. A little razzle (more kneading), a little dazzle (time for the dough to rise) I had raw poofy bagels. Actual recipe HERE.
The thing that makes bagels bagels is boiling them before baking. You ever wait for a dutch oven's worth of water to boil? Takes forever.
The boiled bagels were out of the hot water and onto poppyseeds or sesame seeds, then onto the baking sheet. Ten minutes on each side and I had freakn' bagels! Didn't have to go fetch them from Noah's Bagels or anything!
Whooo hooo! Wonderfully chewy and as I suspected, not quite as pumpernickely as I would like. No surprises there because I didn't add malt syrup or use brown sugar - so as to make real pumpernickel bagels. Maybe next time, if I'm feeling brave, I'll give pumpernickel bagels, using all rye flour, a go. You hear that Pumpernickle bagels? You are my density!
delicious, nutritious & ug-ly
