Thursday, January 15, 2009

Rings n' Things

First things first, before I forget... check out yesterday's cookies!

They're long, long gone now of course, having been decimated by the office hordes (and the proud new Dad in the building!). But, the photo lives on. Can't you see those perfect edges??? Intense cookiage, my friends...

But now for today's carbo-loading. Yes, even though I am trying, yes TRYING, to be good and GF, I have an arsenal of wheat-filled creations still to share. Starting with these babies!

Yes, I did more bagels. And these aren't going to be the last ones coming from the kitchen either - I have way too many ideas for the basic recipe to try out! Both of these batches went into my mom's work-lunch stash, the exception being just one of the apple-walnut bagels (which fell out of it's ring-iness in the water bath) disappearing with Andrew this weekend. So far, every kind of bagel I've made has been given the thumbs-up. However, they've all been on the sweet side thus far - the next kind I hope to make (provided I find a willing taster) will be much more savoury, and spicy!

These apple-walnut bagels were basically only made to use up the dregs of the dried apples from last year's challah and the brioche, and when I was mixing them I was nervous as to how "loose" the dough seemed compared to my previous bagel capers. They rose beautifully, however, and formed chewy, golden rings that shaped well - only a few fell apart in the water (and that's easily avoided if you do the poke-a-hole-in-the-dough shaping method rather than the "snake" rolling method). Mom likes these with peanut butter, I'm betting apple butter or honey would be awesome too.

Apple - Walnut Bagels
Makes 10 3-oz bagels
1/3 cup dried apple pieces, diced
1 1/2 cups warm water, divided
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp gluten flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
  1. Placed the apple pieces in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and allow to sit 15 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
  2. Pour 1/2 cup warm water into a large bowl. Add the sugar and yeast and let stand 10 minutes.
  3. Whisk together flours, salt, brown sugar and cinnamon.
  4. Slowly begin adding the flour mixture to the proofed yeast, about 1/4 cup at a time.
  5. Mix in apples and nuts.
  6. Knead for 5-10 minutes.
  7. Place into a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and let rise 2 hours.
  8. Punch down the dough, divide into 10 balls and let rest, covered, 10 minutes.
  9. Shape dough balls into rings, cover and rest again for 35 minutes.
  10. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil, and preheat the oven to 375F.
  11. Place the bagels, two at a time, into the boiling water for 2 minutes.
  12. Drain well, and place on lined baking sheets.
  13. Bake for 30 minutes and cool on a rack.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 224.9
Total Fat: 2.7 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 6.3 mg
Total Carbs: 44.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 4.1 g
Protein: 7.5 g

Since I still have that good ol' sourdough starter kicking around, I wanted to see if it still had any sort of strength left to it and could independently raise a loaf (or batch of bagels, in this case). Now, I know that sourdough takes a good long while to rise at the best of times, but these babies stayed flat as pancakes for 6 hours before I finally threw them into the fridge overnight out of desperation. I figured that I would still try to bake them off, and even if they didn't rise I could have ring-shaped grissini. But...

Lo and behold the power of oven-spring! I didn't boil these (mostly because I swore they'd never "poof" anyways, so they lack the shine and chew of the real deal, but next time they're getting a bath... I promise!

Sourdough Bagels
Makes 12 3-oz bagels
4 cups flour
1 tbsp vital wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup refreshed sourdough starter, room temperature
1 tsp sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 tbsp brown sugar
  1. Whisk together flour, gluten and salt. Set aside.
  2. Combine starter, (white) sugar and warm water in a large bowl (preferably in a stand mixer).
  3. With the mixer on low, slowly begin adding the flour mixture until it's all incorporated and very stiff.
  4. Increase the mixer speed and knead 10 minutes.
  5. Cover and let relax for 5 minutes, then knead with the mixer for 10 minutes longer.
  6. Place in an oiled bowl, cover well and place in a warm place to rise until doubled - this can take up to 10 hours.
  7. Punch dough down, re-cover and allow to rest 30 minutes.
  8. Divide dough into 12 equal balls and shape into rings. Place them on greased or lined baking sheets.
  9. Cover and let rise 2-3 hours. (**At this point you can refrigerate the dough overnight and finish rising in the morning**)
  10. Preheat the oven to 400F.
  11. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the brown sugar.
  12. Place two of the risen bagels at a time into the boiling water and cook 1 minute on each side. Drain and place on the prepared baking sheets.
  13. Bake one sheet at a time for 20 minutes.
  14. Cool completely on wire racks.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 169.0
Total Fat: 0.5 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 1.3 mg
Total Carbs: 34.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.2 g
Protein: 5.6 g

1 comment :

  1. Mmmm COOKIES! Yum! And I love all your bagel making, you inspired me to finally give them a try soon!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for the feedback!