10 December 2008

B Is for Bagel


Yeah, I made them. And I'll do it again.

My natural skepticism and burning desire to prove everyone wrong led me to immediately question this simple bagel recipe I found recently. How could just a stirring together of flour, water, yeast and salt- no kneading, no lengthy rise time- make a decent bread?

Call it science, magic, the devil's touch- however you look at it, it really does work. And it makes something fit to have with the most expensive, precious tea you've got stashed away.

It honestly took less time to make homemade bagels than it did to upload these images. What are you waiting for?





You even get to boil them before baking, which is delightfully counterintuitive if you've ever made a yeasted bread before. Or maybe it just seems that way to me because I never lived anyplace that even served cream cheese, much less bagels, until I was in college.

(I was too busy marveling at this stage to document it, so you'll just have to imagine what it looked like.)

And it was hard to pause before devouring the final product:


My other morning discovery, which may sound a little strange coming from a vegetarian: If you have one of these with a cup of Hou Shan Yellow Buds, a Chinese yellow tea, you'll pick up some delicious roasty, bacon-y overtones that I'd never noticed in this tea before. Perhaps it was playing off the salty, seedy taste of the bagel; who knows? Ours is not to reason why.*


*Possibly my favorite thing about writing this entry was researching the origin of that saying, and finding a post asking if it came "from Shakespeare, or maybe Bugs Bunny?"

7 comments:

montague said...

these look amazing! i've always wanted to try to make bagels... you might have just given me the final push!

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love tea and am so glad I came across your blog. Can't wait to try this bagel recipe!

cha sen said...

I really want to try the yellow tea now that I have seen you mention it more than once in your blog!

Anonymous said...

these are great! when my mum visited she brought a simple bagle recipe she said we boil and bake- i wish we gave a try together-but i think i will do it now!!!

Bonbon Oiseau said...

these are some good looking bagels lady! and I like the russ and daughters tshirt to honor them!

Zoe Francois said...

I saw your bagels on Tastespotting and was so excited to find that they are from Artisan Bread in Five, they look gorgeous!!!

Thanks for trying them.

happy baking! Zoë François (co-author Artisan Bread in Five)

TIG said...

You made those lovely bagels in the top image? So impressed!