Blame it on Philadelphia
The nearby grocery recently started selling single-serve packages of cream cheese. Of course, I just had to buy some because I am oddly fascinated by the almighty single-serve package, be it of butter, jams, milk, etc.
Next, I decided that I needed some bagels to go with the cream cheese. While the grocery had bagels for sale, they were just sitting on a shelf at room temperature despite the words "Keep Refrigerated" printed on the packaging. Remembering the oodles of yeast still sitting in our refrigerator, as well as the sesame seeds I had left over from a failed attempt at making hummus (Do not try to make tahini without a food processor or grinder!), I decided to try my hand at bagel-making.
The culprit is pictured in the upper right corner.
I used a bagel recipe from The Fresh Loaf and was satisfied with the results. I halved the recipe, but made the bagels smaller, so the yield was 9 pieces. I used honey instead of malt powder and flour instead of cornmeal and topped the bagels with the aforementioned sesame seeds.
Baking took longer than the 5 minutes at 260°C followed by 5 minutes at 230°C detailed in the recipe, probably because the maximum temperature of my tiny oven was 250°C. After baking the bagels for 5 minutes at 250°C, I lowered the temperature to 230°C and turned the pan, but it took about 15 minutes until the bagels were somewhat brown. However, only the tops were brown since I'd placed the pan closer to the broiler in an effort to speed things along and I wasn't convinced that the rest of the bagels were done. I noticed that the oven had a little bread icon in front with "170°C/50 min" printed underneath, so I decided to let the bagels sit in the oven for another 15 minutes at 170°C.
Other bread products under the same brand as the bagels were labelled "Refrigerate after purchase" which was rather curious...does the bread realize the exact moment when it's been purchased and does it know that it should not start to spoil before then? Yes, yes, it's probably tied to the sell-by date.
Speaking of bagels and cream cheese, Starbucks no longer offers complimentary cream cheese with your bagel. Instead, you have to pay 35 pesos for cream cheese to accompany your bagel which also happens to cost 35 pesos. I find that amusing for some reason.
Next, I decided that I needed some bagels to go with the cream cheese. While the grocery had bagels for sale, they were just sitting on a shelf at room temperature despite the words "Keep Refrigerated" printed on the packaging. Remembering the oodles of yeast still sitting in our refrigerator, as well as the sesame seeds I had left over from a failed attempt at making hummus (Do not try to make tahini without a food processor or grinder!), I decided to try my hand at bagel-making.
The culprit is pictured in the upper right corner.
I used a bagel recipe from The Fresh Loaf and was satisfied with the results. I halved the recipe, but made the bagels smaller, so the yield was 9 pieces. I used honey instead of malt powder and flour instead of cornmeal and topped the bagels with the aforementioned sesame seeds.
Baking took longer than the 5 minutes at 260°C followed by 5 minutes at 230°C detailed in the recipe, probably because the maximum temperature of my tiny oven was 250°C. After baking the bagels for 5 minutes at 250°C, I lowered the temperature to 230°C and turned the pan, but it took about 15 minutes until the bagels were somewhat brown. However, only the tops were brown since I'd placed the pan closer to the broiler in an effort to speed things along and I wasn't convinced that the rest of the bagels were done. I noticed that the oven had a little bread icon in front with "170°C/50 min" printed underneath, so I decided to let the bagels sit in the oven for another 15 minutes at 170°C.
Other bread products under the same brand as the bagels were labelled "Refrigerate after purchase" which was rather curious...does the bread realize the exact moment when it's been purchased and does it know that it should not start to spoil before then? Yes, yes, it's probably tied to the sell-by date.
Speaking of bagels and cream cheese, Starbucks no longer offers complimentary cream cheese with your bagel. Instead, you have to pay 35 pesos for cream cheese to accompany your bagel which also happens to cost 35 pesos. I find that amusing for some reason.