Achieved: BAGELS
I don't even know, you guys. I am not usually one to experiment with bread products - baking is the one area where I will usually stick to a recipe - but we went to Wellington for the weekend (and got told by everyone we knew to MOVE BACK, ALREADY and nodded mournfully, for we miss it so) and bought delicious bagels for the home trip, as is our custom. And then last night, as Jenni was eating her second-to-last bagel and denying me so much as a crumb because bagels are such serious business for her, I thought: seriously, poaching dough before you bake it. How hard can it be?
Turns out, not so. Last night I used up all the bread flour we had and stuck it in the oven to proof overnight - I don't trust our pantry; we have rats - got up this morning, put some water on to boil, turned on the oven, and made me some bagels. I think they turned out pretty okay, although, since I was not actually working from a recipe so much as basic guidelines that I read on Wikipedia, there are a few things I might do differently next time. Such as:
1. Mix in the flavoury things as you are mixing in the flour, don't just chop them in after the dough's been mixed and proofing for an hour - that shit is messy. (I cut the batch in half, making four savoury salsa-and-cheese and four sweet lemon-and-poppyseed, and both times involved a great deal of greaseproof paper and kneading, so much kneading.)
2. Bread soaks up a lot of flavour, so next time, more salt in the savouries, and more sugar in the sweets. (I used about a teaspoon of sea salt in the dough mix. What? So I'm conservative with it, jeez. You haven't seen how much damn salt my mother dumps into her cooking. She occasionally needs to be physically restrained. She's gotten a lot better, but I still am very wary of oversalting.)
3. The dough puffs up a lot when it is being poached - what looks like a small and stingy bagel in raw dough form turns into a giant world-swallowing monster bagel after seven minutes in some boiling water. (My eight bagels could probably have been a dozen. More for all!)
4. Best add the poppy seeds after poaching, not before. (I wasn't sure how sticky the surface of the dough would be afterwards! In hindsight, that sounds silly, but hush I had never done it before.)
5. Wait until the boiling water has cooled to lukewarm before you throw it outside into the long grass and accidentally HORRIBLY MURDER A PREYING MANTIS OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY. D:
Still, for all the hiccups they were quite edible, especially cut in half and slathered with butter (and, in the case of the lemon and poppyseed bagels, syrup.) And that was my adventure with bagels.
Turns out, not so. Last night I used up all the bread flour we had and stuck it in the oven to proof overnight - I don't trust our pantry; we have rats - got up this morning, put some water on to boil, turned on the oven, and made me some bagels. I think they turned out pretty okay, although, since I was not actually working from a recipe so much as basic guidelines that I read on Wikipedia, there are a few things I might do differently next time. Such as:
1. Mix in the flavoury things as you are mixing in the flour, don't just chop them in after the dough's been mixed and proofing for an hour - that shit is messy. (I cut the batch in half, making four savoury salsa-and-cheese and four sweet lemon-and-poppyseed, and both times involved a great deal of greaseproof paper and kneading, so much kneading.)
2. Bread soaks up a lot of flavour, so next time, more salt in the savouries, and more sugar in the sweets. (I used about a teaspoon of sea salt in the dough mix. What? So I'm conservative with it, jeez. You haven't seen how much damn salt my mother dumps into her cooking. She occasionally needs to be physically restrained. She's gotten a lot better, but I still am very wary of oversalting.)
3. The dough puffs up a lot when it is being poached - what looks like a small and stingy bagel in raw dough form turns into a giant world-swallowing monster bagel after seven minutes in some boiling water. (My eight bagels could probably have been a dozen. More for all!)
4. Best add the poppy seeds after poaching, not before. (I wasn't sure how sticky the surface of the dough would be afterwards! In hindsight, that sounds silly, but hush I had never done it before.)
5. Wait until the boiling water has cooled to lukewarm before you throw it outside into the long grass and accidentally HORRIBLY MURDER A PREYING MANTIS OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY. D:
Still, for all the hiccups they were quite edible, especially cut in half and slathered with butter (and, in the case of the lemon and poppyseed bagels, syrup.) And that was my adventure with bagels.