Make the Bread, Buy the Butter - Jennifer Reese [8]
These take about two hours start to finish, so if you start at eight in the morning the bagels will be ready to serve hot from the oven at ten o’clock brunch, with plenty of downtime in between for frantically cleaning the house and setting the table.
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Moderate
Cost comparison: If you bake your bagels with all-purpose flour, these cost about $0.16 apiece. By contrast, one of Sara Lee’s presliced so-called bagels costs $0.85, a bagel from the chain Noah’s costs $0.99, and a bagel from New York City’s hallowed H&H, $1.40. However, if you make your bagels with high-gluten flour, the price goes up to more like $0.48 per bagel. Not the cheapest bagel you will find (that would be Thomas’ at $0.42 per bagel), only the best.
3½ cups high-gluten flour, such as King Arthur Flour’s Sir Lancelot, or all-purpose flour, plus a bit more if necessary
4½ teaspoons instant yeast
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1½ cups warm whey from making yogurt or water
Neutral vegetable oil, for greasing
2 tablespoons barley malt syrup or dark brown sugar
Coarse cornmeal, for sprinkling
Optional toppings: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds, coarse salt, etc.
1. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the full 3½ cups flour, the yeast, sugar, and salt. Add the whey or water and beat hard with the paddle for a few minutes, switching to the dough hook when the mixture comes together. (You can do this mixing by hand, but prepare for a workout.) If the mixture seems overly wet, add some additional flour, a tiny bit at a time. Stop adding flour as soon as you have a stiff dough. Knead for 5 minutes.
2. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a clean, damp dish towel, and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While the water is heating, sprinkle a baking sheet generously with cornmeal and lightly grease another.
4. Deflate dough and divide into 10 pieces. Roll each piece into the neatest, roundest ball you can and then, with your thumb, poke a hole into the middle and coax the dough into a bagel shape. Leave the bagels on the lightly greased sheet to rest for 10 minutes.
5. When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the malt syrup. Drop the bagels into the water three at a time. Let them simmer for a minute, then flip them over and simmer for another minute. Remove with a slotted spoon, return to the oiled sheet to dry just a bit, and proceed with the remaining bagels.
6. Move all the bagels to the cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet. If you want to add toppings, now is the time to sprinkle them on top of the damp bagels.
7. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until golden brown. Store in a paper bag at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze, tightly wrapped, for longer storage.
Makes 10 bagels
CINNAMON RAISIN BAGELS
Add 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon along with the flour and increase the granulated sugar to 5 tablespoons. Toward the end of the kneading, add 1 cup raisins.
BAGEL CHIPS
If your bagels are getting stale, this extends their life. Bagel chips are great with hummus, or plain, for mindless snacking.
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Trivial
Cost comparison: A 6-ounce bag of New York Style bagel chips (they contain both palm oil and sugar) costs $4.39. To make 6 ounces of chips from bagels you’d otherwise throw away: less than a dollar.
For every bagel, you need 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 garlic clove
Pinch of sea salt
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Heat the olive oil in a small pan. Add the garlic and cook until the garlic softens and just begins to color. Let cool.
2. Set a bagel on a cutting board, press down with the flat of your hand, and slice horizontally as thinly as you can. You’ll get 8 to 10 slices from a bagel