Baking Bread - Bagels

Bagels were one of my four major food groups when I was in college: bagels, pizza, dessert and coffee. I ate bagels so often. Everyday, if I could. At every meal, even!

Then when Einstein Bros. opened up right next to Starbuck's, it was like a dream come true! I was working with several people that needed their daily caffeine fix, and were always hungry by 9am. Since I was low-man-on-the-totem-pole, I took everyone's orders and went to Einstein's and Starbuck's. I was in bagel heaven and thought, "This office is so cool!" That was almost a daily routine for the people in the office. It was great, my love for bagels was renewed.

After a while, and extra pounds (yikes!), I cut out trips to Starbuck's and Einstein's, and stopped eating bagels. But, I would buy them every once in a while as a treat, and still loved them.

Once I started looking through the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook at the bread recipes, I found bagels! Who knew you could make bagels yourself?! At home?! I had to try it. However, I was put off immediately upon reading the recipe for it. Did you know you have to broil them, then boil them, and then bake them? Really!! That sounded a little advanced for me right now. No wonder people don't give homemade bagels as gifts!

Then, I received the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day book, and it has a recipe for bagels that omits the broiling step. I thought, I can handle that now - boiling and then baking. Sure, I'll give it a try! Here is a picture of my bagels after the boiling step.

I think my holes are a little big!

And, here is a picture of my bagels after baking them.

(Sorry it's a little blurry.)

They don't look anything like bagels! OK, except for being round and having a hole in the middle. I don't know what I did wrong, but they did not plump up like bagels should. They were so thin, there really was no point in cutting them in half.

But they were tasty! Yes, we ate them anyway. We just smeared cream cheese on top of them like they were crackers and ate them anyway. And, they were good!

I still think I'll leave this one to the experts, and keep bagels as a treat to have every once in a while. The bakeries know what they are doing with this one, and I obviously do not!