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.
We went with a rotisserie chicken from Sams tonight, I'll make stock with the bones again.
We're having BLTs
In both videos the dough looks fantastic, I think I may plan to make bagels later this week. Maybe I'll let them rise in the fridge overnight, I haven't done that in a while.
We had salami and melon again.
We had tomato and salami sandwiches for supper tonight.
There was a similar video a while back, I think this may be it:
This link might work better:
We had melon and salami tonight, along with potato salad.
Steak and potatoes for supper tonight.
Tomorrow I'm going to make potato salad for Memorial Day. It's best if it ages for a day to let the oil and vinegar soak in to the potatoes.
I need to make another batch of peanut butter cookies, either tonight or tomorrow.
We had burgers on the grill tonight.
We're going to be doing some renovation work on our lawn, which has gotten pretty sad over the last few years, as the tall fescue we put in 25 years ago has not held up well in the hot/dry summers. There are a lot of bare spots and too many weeds.
We're going to start by dethatching the entire yard, then scarifying the spots that are thin or bare to prepare it for seeding.
We're going to put microclover in the back yard over the bare spots, but probably overseed clover in other places.
In the front we're going to put buffalo grass and microclover in the bare spots and probably overseed the other parts with both as well. The buffalo grass is a native plant that goes dormant when it gets too hot and dry. Clover is also very drought tolerant.
That pizza looks nice, Len. I haven't made a pizza in a while, but now that grilling season is upon us I might start doing some pizzas on the grill, those were really good last summer.
