Bagels!

Lately I have been really inspired to make bagels.  Maybe it's the Eat From the Pantry Challenge that is making me think twice about every food purchase, or maybe I was just ready for the next culinary adventure.  Who knows.  I've made three different batches of bagels in the last couple days.

First, I used my current favorite bread recipe's dough to make bagels.  I had already made a loaf of bread and was going to make two, but changed my plan after I had already started the second batch of dough, so I thought I would see if the dough would make good bagels.  I followed this recipe, which was actually my inspiration for making bagels to begin with, for turning the dough into bagels.  Here are some pictures from that attempt:

Batch #1:  Boiling the broiled dough.

The finished product.  They were 2/3 whole wheat flour (freshly ground hard red wheat), 1/3 unbleached white flour.  I made some with cinnamon sugar, some with sesame seeds and minced onion, the rest plain.  They were pretty good, but a little bread-like, not so crispy outside/chewy inside like I was looking for.  Not surprising, since afterall, I did use bread dough to make them!

Batch #2:  Here is the finished product for the original recipe I had been wanting to try.  They're 100% whole wheat, and that's how they tasted.  A bit too wheaty for me.  It could be that I used the hard red wheat instead of the hard white wheat I normally use.  I had heard that the red wheat had a stronger flavor but had not used it much.  I can't tell much difference in my bread, and these bagels were beautiful ... but wheaty.  I'll let Molly eat those!

After I made the first two batches and saw that bagels were not as much work or as time consuming as I assumed, I decided to try to find a good recipe for New York-style bagels.  Have I mentioned that I am a total bagel snob?  I grew up in New Jersey, and have lived in the Midwest for the past 15 years, where bagels are just not the same.  I still dream about New Jersey bagels and pizza.

So I decided to just forget about whole wheat for now, and work on finding a good bagel recipe that might get me close to my ideal bagel:  crispy on the outside and chewy goodness on the inside.  One-inch layer of cream cheese or egg salad... even better.

Batch #3:  I found this recipe for New York-style bagels and tried it tonight.  The bagels were pretty good!  I would definitely make them again.  Maybe I will even play with adding in some whole wheat flour.  The recipe made 8 bagels, and they were huge, so I will probably try to turn it into 12 bagels next time.  I substituted molasses for the malt syrup, since I didn't have any, though I may just have to get some for this recipe.  As with all of the bagel recipes I tried, I used my bread machine for the dough.

Here is a picture of the finished product:

Wow, I can't believe I made bagels!  Have you had any culinary adventures lately?