I've never made bagels before so when I picked up my bread cook book this morning looking for something interesting to bake, they caught my eye. Probably because one of the the steps is to poach the dough in boiling water.
It's quite a standard dough except for the addition of caster sugar and vegetable oil.
Here is the dough formed into bagel shapes by rolling a 15cm long snake and sticking the ends together with water.
And here they are an hour later having proved.
Next they go carefully in to the simmering water for one minute on each side.
Some mouth watering suggestions for fillings! I had better make some more.
The Corona bottle has some really lovely Spanish Olive oil in it, you can get the pourers from ebay for about a euro each, they are really handy for oils and vinegars.
James, I'm impressed you made bagels. I always thought they required a wood-burning oven to finish then off. My hometown of Montreal is a mecca for bagels. Better than New York bagels (but don't tell New Yorkers that). Don't know how my town's bagels stack up against bagels made in other countries. In Paris and Nice, I only find them made into sandwiches filled with too many ingredients, and they're frozen and imported. Frozen bagels taste and feel like dry cardboard, and just won't do. For me, they're best plain if they're fresh out of the oven, pulled from the paper bag and torn apart. Second choice, lox and cream cheese, slivers of onion and capers and lemon juice. Third choice, peanut butter on a toasted bagel.
my absolute favourite bagel is a toasted sesame bagel smeared a bit of butter, warm crispy thin pancetta and nice soft advocado...it's absolutely wonderful...so wanna go and make one right now, but thanks goodness the shops are closed... :)
Oh and on a Sunday morning to nurse the hangovers from hell a full English egg bacon mushrooms and beans all stacked about a foot high on a crispy hot bagel…
When I was pregnant my breakfast craving was bagels smothered in cream cheese, topped with red onion and crispy bacon. Black pepper and a squirt of lemon to finish it off. Lush!!
That's the one I used Ellis! It's in the River Cottage Bread book, which is excellent by the way. I highly recommend it for anyone serious about their bread.
Well I can report that these were FANTASTIC. I haven't had such good bagels since my dad worked close to a proper Jewish bakery in the east end. Well done James!
Oh I am so disappointed. My Dad told me the man with the wooden leg made the bagels. My dad really did live in Middlesex Street - Petticoat Lane Market in London'e East End. Of course the man with the wooden leg made the hole in the bagel with the said leg.....and you could get proper warm salt beef from Blooms and pickled cucumber - new green of course - straight from the barrel. Mmmm - must make some proper Jewish food straight away.
