B is for BABY, BAKER, BAGELS, and BREAD

“A loaf was never put on the table with the cut end pointing towards the door lest bread should leave the house.” 

          Silvia Kalvik:  ESTONIAN CUISINE

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French Bread

Interesting method:  The loaf was put into a cold oven which then was heated to 400 degrees.  The bread stayed in for 35 minutes.

  Bagels

I would never have attempted to make bagels –  boiling circles of dough before baking them sounds like  courting disaster.   

Nicole, however, is more daring,  and made bagels herself a while back, before asking me to give her recipe a shot.  

I rolled these into ropes so they were too thin but, even so, they were chewy and tasted great when Nicole covered them with lox and cream cheese.  

Next time, I’ll try a different shaping method as described below.

BAGELS  

3 tbsp sugar

1 ½ cups warm water

2 ½ tsp yeast

2 tsp salt

3 to 4 cups flour

·        Dissolve sugar in warm water.

·        Sprinkle yeast on top and leave for 5 minutes.

·        In a large mixing bowl, combine salt with 1 ½ cups flour.

·        Mix in the water and yeast.

·        Knead in more flour to make a stiff dough.

·        Let rest 20 minutes.

·        Divide into 8 balls. 

·        Use a floured finger to shape a hole in the center of each ball.

·        Place on greased cookie sheet.

·        Let rise 1 ½ hours.

·        Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

·        Bring 6 cups of water to a boil with 1 tbsp sugar.

·        Drop in 3 bagels at a time.  Boil 1 minute.  Flip and boil another minute.

·        Remove and place on greased baking sheet or on parchment paper.  Sprinkle immediately with sesame seeds or poppy seeds.

·        Repeat with other bagels.  Then bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

LOX on a BAGEL: 

Split bagels and spread with cream cheese, thinly smoked salmon, and capers.  Garnish with lemon wedges.

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 Hopefully, I'll master bagels by the time Kepler's working on his ABC's.