A Bagel Love Affair

I don’t remember having bagels growing up.  The first bagels I remember were those I bought in the university union cafe after swim practice.  I was cold and tired after my early morning workout, and the bagels were warm and squishy from the microwave.  They weren’t toasted; it was just a plain grocery store bagel split, spread with cream cheese, and zapped until the cream cheese melted into gooey oozy wonderfulness.

So, I consider it accurate to say I didn’t have my first real bagel until my early 20s, when I was working at a law firm in Century City.  Once a week, mid-morning, the receptionist would page “Penny Lane.”  That was the signal — the bagel lady was in the break room with her cart full of fresh, New York style bagels.  It was a revelation.  There weren’t a million flavors like at bagel shops now; just the basics: plain, sesame, poppy seed and, my favorite, salt.  Tearing my teeth into the chewy crust, and then the moist interior, — with just a wee bit of cream cheese.  Heaven.

I still love a good bagel.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a good bagel shop nearby.  I’ve tried to make bagels a few times over the years and I think I finally nailed it.  I used this bagel recipe.

I followed the recipe exactly except for throwing in a tablespoon or so of sourdough starter.  I was feeding my starter and it kills me to dump the excess down the drain so I tend to throw it into whatever I’m making.  Bagel dough needs to be kneaded a long, long time so I did that in my standing mixer.  Usually I like to knead dough by hand because I enjoy feeling it come together, but I wasn’t really up for kneading for 15 minutes or more.  After kneading and an initial rise, I cut the dough into eight pieces and rolled them into balls with nice tight skins.  Another rise, and then I poked my finger through each ball, twirled the dough until the opening was wide and set it down to rest.  Fun.

While the bagels rested again (they aren’t hard to make but they do take a while with all the resting that goes on), I heated the water bath (water plus malt syrup and sugar) and turned on the oven.

I put them in the simmering water four at a time, and cooked them a couple minutes on each side.  Then I fished them out and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

I brushed them with egg white whisked with a little water and then sprinkled most of them with sesame.  I don’t have any rock salt on hand or I would have used that.  Maybe next time I’ll try flakey sea salt and see how that goes.  After brushing and topping the bagels, I popped them in the oven.

They came out looking like the real deal and, more importantly, tasting like the real deal.