TWD Bagels and More

 Tuesday's with Dorie this week is bagels.  I was very excited to make bagels.  I had never done so before but I have been wanting to for a long time.  But before we get to bagels I need to review a few other TWD items.  Last time was Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Bread.  I made the bread but I was unmotivated to post.  Although I have nothing bad to say about the bread.  I don't have anything positive to say either.  Everyone had a slice ans thought it tasted fine but the rest sat uneaten for two weeks until it finally got thrown away.  If you are really curious check out the recipe at This Bountiful Backyard.

 Also, thank you to everyone who gave helpful advice on my wheat loaves.  I tossed my yeast and tried again.  It came out great.

Though, I realize now that I should have kept the yeast and tried again with the old yeast to see if it was a process error or an ingredient error.  Oh well, I guess I will never know for sure.

 Finally, on to the bagels.  I really liked these and am excited to try again.  I made plain, blueberry, cinnamon, and parmesan cheese.  The cinnamon I don't think I put enough in and I couldn't notice a difference in the taste but the other flavors turned out well.

I liked the end result but there are a few changes I will make for next time.  The recipe has you split the dough in half, shape, boil, and bake half and while they are baking shape and boil the other half.    The baking takes quite a bit longer than boiling and shaping (you have to turn the oven off and let it sit in the oven for a while, then you have to reheat it for the next batch).  I was worried because my bagels sat for quite a while waiting to be cooked.  I thought that I should have waited to start shaping these.  I turns out that the second batch was not doomed.  Au contraire.  The second batch was better than the first.

The first batch was a little dense.  Not too bad but the second batch was much lighter.  You can see in the picture that the cheese bagel is much smaller than the others.  In the future I will be sure to give my bagels a chance to rise.

When baked the recipe instructed to toss some ice into the bottom of the oven to create steam, much like when you are baking french bread.  The result was too similar to french bread.  The outside was too crusty and not like a bagel in my opinion.  I will experiment in the future with cooking without steam.  If you would like to try this recipe you can always find it in Baking with Julia or over at Heather's Bytes.