bagels, part II

I tried making bagels again last weekend, and it definitely worked out better. not great, but a step in the right direction.

I spent the greater part of Saturday in pursuit of the very elusive malt powder because I was eager to try a recipe that called for it.

a natural foods co-op, a trader joe's, a giant foods, and 2 whole foods later, I admitted defeat.

Luckily, in addition to stocking a multitude of odd and exotic foods you've never heard of that are not malt powder, Whole Foods has a good selection of cookbooks for sale. I cracked open Baking Illustrated and read what they had to say about bagels. First of all, let me say this book is perfect for me and I covet a copy. They explain everything. There were two pages of exposition on all the different experiments they tried in order to decide on every detail from flour type to water temperature to rising time. I love long, detailed explanations. I'm all about the wordiness. It was love at first sight.

Since I am a cheapo, I did not buy the book, but since I was with my father, a man who has no shame and never gets embarassed, I got some scrap paper from one of the whole foods employees and copied out the recipe. It called for malt syrup, not malt powder, and since whole foods does carry that, I was set.

Here are some interesting things I learned about baking:

1. The difference between bread flour and high gluten flour is that the latter contains 14% gluten, whereas bread flour contains only 12%. If you cannot find high gluten flour in stores (I couldn't), adding in one teaspoon of gluten powder (which most stores do seem to carry) per cup of bread flour approximates the percentages pretty well.

2. You boil bagels for a variety of reasons. It helps make their crust shiny, it stops them from expanding too much in the oven, and it speeds up the action of the yeast on the inside.

3. Despite what most cookbooks say, you really don't need 4 quarts of water to boil your bagels. Baking Illustrated said you only need 3 inches. Which makes sense because if the water is boiling, the bagels should float anyway, so who cares if there are 2 inches or 10 inches of boiling water below them that they're not even touching? Also, most recipes call for anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes of boiling per bagel. 30 seconds works much better.

4. Supposedly, letting things rise in the refrigerator overnight will give your baked goods a better flavor and work just as well as letting things rise in a slightly warm oven for an hour or two. In practice, this doesn't work so well if you forgot whether you used half teaspoon measuring spoon instead of the whole teaspoon one and decide to add an extra teaspoon of salt just in case. It also doesn't work if you're pretty sure you copied down the recipe wrong and you were really supposed to use 1.5 tbsp of yeast instead of 1.5 tsp. However, a little extra salt isn't so bad, and if you're disappointed by how little your baked good has risen overnight, you can still use the warmed oven trick to speed things along the next morning.

mmm bagels

ugh

okay, the way to get through a boring day at work is *not* to start buying things online. even things you arguably need, or things that really are for a good cause.

Here's what's been happening in my life lately:

1. On Saturday I went to the National Book Festival. I got to see Joyce Carol Oates, Diane Ackerman, Joan Nathan, Patricia McCormick, and M.T. Anderson. I did not get to see Terry Pratchett, the whole reason I went in the first place, because
a) I am constitutionally incapable of getting anywhere on time, and
b) You know how when you're driving somewhere, it's good to give yourself at least 15 minutes extra to get there, in case you run into traffic? Well, I'd forgotten when you're taking the DC metro somewhere, the same principle applies, because you never know when you'll run into a FIRE ON THE TRAIN TRACKS! Pretty freaking frustrating.
I also did not get to see the author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, and I didn't get any books signed because I hate lines. Still, I had a good time.

2. On Sunday, I attempted to make bagels. Big Mistake. Okay, more accurately, the mistake was probably using the same recipe I used last time I attempted to make bagels. My mother has this "Jewish Cooking" book that was put together in the '80s by some women at a local synagogue in Iowa. The sheer number of jello dessert (and some jello non-dessert) items should've clued me in to the fact that these recipes are very midwestern and of very variable quality. But I wanted to make bagels. And I was too lazy to turn on the computer. And literally none of my other cookbooks contained a recipe (you'd think at least Joy of Cooking would!). And this book had three. So off I went. My bagels are tiny, dense, kind of soggy, and overcooked. On the bright side, putting the garlic on top of them worked pretty well!
I had a pretty detailed discourse on why I don't think my bagels turned out, but then I realized that really, no one but me is interested in it. So the take-away point is, despite my failure, I am not deterred. I will try again, and this time with a better recipe. Maybe something by Joan Nathan.

That's it for right now, I think.