I tend to use the 'poke a hole in the middle' method, but my bagels are usually about 3 ounces of dough, the ones you'll get at a bagel shop will generally be somewhere between 4.5 and 6 ounces each, so the 'wrap around the hand' method works well, especially if your dough is as soft and developed as the ones in those videos. (Mine seldom is.)
I find boiling them for about 45 seconds then flipping them over and boiling them for another 45 seconds works best, but as the second video notes, the timing of each step varies from day to day, some days the dough has to rise longer, other days it needs to boil a little longer.
There was an interesting discussion in the Bread Bakers Guild forums a while back about whether or not bagels should be boiled in lye (or some other alkaline solution.) This is one of those areas where bakers get pretty passionate, the majority of the Guild members were very opposed to using lye, though I know of some NYC shops that use it. (Pretzels are another matter, using lye or baking soda when boiling them is pretty much universally approved.)
I did some testing, and when I used an alkaline solution, baking soda, the surface of the bagels got darker. I don't think it affected texture much.
What the boiling does is to gelatinize the starch on the surface, which changes the surface texture to add some shininess and a bit of a snap when you bite in. I think it may also help hold the toppings on.
I spent Monday evening after dinner baking. I still have some blood oranges, so I made the Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with Blood Orange Glaze. (The glaze will be added tomorrow.) This time I baked it in 6-cup and a 5-cup Bundt pans, so that I can freeze one for later, along with enough juice to make the glaze.
My other baking project was to adapt my oil-based cranberry scone recipe by using frozen blueberries and some lemon zest in place of the cranberries. I baked them in the Nordic Ware scone pan. I will sample one for breakfast tomorrow.
I made Cornmeal Pumpernickel Waffles for a later breakfast on Sunday. While my waffles are a delightful holiday treat, I also made them because we are celebrating ten years since we drove to a place outside Detroit and returned with Annie, our Australian Cattle Dog. She is very fond of waffle edges.
Sunday was also a day for a baking experiment. I had a jar of orange marmalade in the pantry, so I decided to make another try at a butter-free version of my Orange Marmalade Oatmeal Crunch Bars, a recipe I adapted from a little Pillsbury booklet (#51), which I used to buy at the grocery years ago. I have posted the recipe at Nebraska Kitchen in its first butter and coconut glory. My first attempt to bake it without butter a couple of years ago was ok but not great. This time I used ½ cup avocado oil plus 2 Tbs. water. I also reduced the shredded coconut to 30g and added ¼ cup each of powdered milk and flax meal. I will try cutting some for dessert tonight.
Update: the bars came out very well, with just the right amount of sweetness, and chewy in texture. To cut them, I had to start each row with a knife on the edge, but then I could use a pizza wheel to cut strips to the other side, where I again employed a knife to finish the cut. I cut the strips easily with a knife.
Dinner this Friday night was grilled boneless pork chops, asparagus, corn and bean salad (aka Cowboy Caviar), and the grilled asiago rounds.
BakerAunt, I love asparagus also!! But the season is quickly coming to an end. I will be making an asparagus frittata to take to my Book Club meeting next week, and hoping to have enough asparagus still to pick for my trip to Maine at the end of the week.
I made pizza dough yesterday using the KAF Rye flour blend. I used 90 grams each of semolina, rye blend, white whole wheat and 30 grams of AP. A teaspoon of sugar, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of yeast, a splash of olive oil and 200 grams of milk. I added about an ounce of water during the kneading. The dough rose without any issues. I used about 1/3 of the dough for last night's pizza (170 grams) and will make pizza tonight and tomorrow. Last night's pizza was diced leftover pork roast, thin sliced onion, green pepper and a few kalamata olives. Tonight's pizza will be similar but with sausage and no pork roast.
If nothing else, the Amazon item might give your husband ideas about things like size. It appears they're open at the top, I was wondering if critters would just climb over them. I don't think it would slow down squirrels for more than a minute.
If you've never seen the squirrel maze videos on Youtube (there are now 3 of them, I think #2 is the best), they're rather funny.
Would the holes in hardware cloth be too small if it was laid right on the ground over the seeds?
Fortunately we don't have to deal with chipmunks, just squirrels, raccoons, opossums, voles and 13 lined ground squirrels (and now a fox is visiting the balcony at night, he likes peanuts!), but last year the squirrels ate most of my wife's gazanias before they could even bloom, in past years they've at least waited for them to go to seed. They seemed to like the borage plants I tried to start last summer, too, though I actually did get a couple of them to bloom. The blooms aren't very big but they're a pretty shade of blue.
Some birds were pecking holes in my tomatoes last summer, I hope that doesn't happen again this year.
Thanks Mike. Turns out I don't have to get a new one yet (mine's only 2 years old). My contractor has it at his shop.
Chocomouse got me thinking about broccoli and Alfredo so I made a version for dinner with penne, broccoli and chicken sausage. I tried a different recipe for my sauce - it was OK, but I don't think I'll use it again.
We've replaced 3 disposals in the last few years (all 20+ years old) for all three we went with some higher end InSinkerator models, they're built to last and really quiet. The most recent one is a Pro 750-4 model. The other two are 1 HP models.
BakerAunt,
Thank you for that information. I will definitely look it up. I discovered today that I have three unopened bags of Semolina flour! Two BRM and one KABC, so I will need to start baking again.
I haven't been posting as the project has taken way longer (surprise, surprise) than we thought, but the end is in site. After I got back from Massachusetts, I ended up spending a month at my friends' house who couldn't have been more wonderful. I told the contractor I had to have at least one bathroom before May 1st as Will was returning. It's been a bumpy month but all the kitchen cabinets were installed last week and the counter top was templated. It's going to be so great when it's finished. It's been long but really worth it. I was able to put some stuff away in the upper cabinets - I know it will take a while to organize, but at least it's started.
I baked my first thing in a month (I had made carrot cake scones from KABC for Easter at my friends' house) yesterday for a community gathering - Chewy Chocolate Chip Bars from KABC which I scaled to the crowd sized recipe. It worked really well as we don't have the countertops (using the folding table with the legs still folded on top of the peninsula for the counter) so no small appliances yet. I melted the butter in a large enough pan so I could mix everything in that pan to reduce dirty dishes. I reduced the amount of cooking time - I started at 15 minutes and tested every few minutes - they were done in 26 minutes and were perfect. I used semisweet and white chocolate bit and some salted cashews I had on hand. They were a hit.
My rye buns were a failure as buns. They taste fine but they did not rise enough to use as buns, they're more like flat dinner rolls (even though I let them rise for more than 2 hours). I might make this recipe again but next time just use the AP without subbing some with whole wheat. Forming them into buns might have deflated them too much (although that is not a problem with other recipes I have used) so I will make a loaf. I hope that works because otherwise I don't know what I'll do with the rest of that rye blend.
I'm so glad the new stove top is working well for you, Joan. It's amazing how a simple task can become enjoyable with the right tool!
I make sourdough pan pizza once a month. Saturday dinner was my sourdough pizza with the usual toppings of sauce (made from cooked down can of Muir organic fire-roasted tomatoes and some garlic), Canadian bacon, lower-fat mozzarella diced, red bell pepper, sliced mushrooms, and green onion tops from the pot my husband grows. I grate Parmesan on top. To go with the pizza, my husband made a simple salad of mixed greens, spinach, cherry tomatoes, and carrots with Penzey's French Vinaigrette.
I bought a bag of KAF Rye Flour Blend which contains wheat, dark, medium and light rye flours. I decided to make the recipe on the bag. I made a few small changes, it calls for their dry milk and water. I don't keep dry milk so I subbed liquid non fat milk for the dry milk and water. It also doesn't call for any sugar/honey/molasses but I put in a tablespoon of honey. I also added a tablespoon of vital wheat gluten. There is a typo on the bag as it doesn't call for any salt, a note on the KAB site mentions that and says to use 2 teaspoons, I used one teaspoon. The dough has gone through the first rise, I have formed them into 9 buns @ 93 grams each. Am waiting on the second rise, I'll report back after they have been baked. Almost forgot, the recipes calls for appr (by weight) half rye flour blend and half AP flour, I subbed half of the AP flour with white whole wheat.
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