Thunder Snow

It's the snowpocolypse here in Chicago! We got over 18 inches of snow last week, the third highest snowfall in Chicago on record. How did the people of Chicago deal with this? By freaking out, storming the grocery stores and clearing the shelves of meat, bread, and bottled water. Come on people, you live in Second City, put on your big-girl snow pants and walk the two blocks to the grocery store if you need more food.

Luckily I was prepared for the lack of groceries in the store, with a freezer full of homemade bread. I was hoping to pick up some steak and make some beef bourguignon before the blizzard hit, but all the crazies got to the meat case first. So I subsisted on bread and cheese and salami (tough right?).

This prosciutto bread ranks up there with some of the best bread I have ever had. I mean, a little lard, a lot of prosciutto, crispy crust, chewy moist insides? It doesn't get much better than that people. I cheated a little because I was able to use the big stone ovens with automatic steam in my pastry school kitchens, which resulted in an amazing crust, and a beautiful hard cornmeal-dusted bottom. But, if you are handy you can get close to the same effect at home with a pizza stone and a spray bottle of water.

Prosciutto Bread
from Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen

Yeast Starter:
15 oz Bread Flour
9 oz water
.03 oz fresh yeast (this is just a pinch of yeast, barely measurable)

Dough:
9 oz water
.33 oz (1/3 oz) fresh yeast
1 lb bread flour
.33 oz salt
1 oz lard, softened
3.25 oz yeast starter
5 oz. Prosciutto, diced into very small pieces
cornmeal for dusting

In a small-medium stainless steel bowl, combine the .03 oz of yeast and the 9 oz. of water and mix gently to combine. Add the 15 oz. of bread flour, and mix to combine, using your hands to gently knead in the bowl a few turns until it comes together. Dough will be dry and shaggy, but that is ok. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 18 hours, or if you find a nice warm 80 degree spot, you can reduce that to 12 hours.

Once your starter is ready you can finish making the dough. In a large bowl, combine the .33 oz. fresh yeast with the 9 oz. water and mix to break up the yeast a bit. Add a bit of the bread flour and mix with a wooden spoon until you get a wet slurry consistency. You can now add the salt and fat. Mix to combine, if you have chunks of lard, it is okay, they will get kneaded in. Measure our just 3.25 ounces of your starter and break it up into smaller pieces and then add to your slurry. Begin adding flour a little at a time, until the dough comes together enough for you to handle it with your hands.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and begin kneading, adding flour as needed. You may not use all 9 ounces of your flour, but you will want to keep kneading and add flour until the dough is no longer tacky. Knead for about 8-10 minutes, until you can gently poke the ball of dough and it springs back almost completely. Gently knead in the diced prosciutto until evenly dispersed. Gather dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise for 1 hour at 80 degrees, or if your kitchen is cooler, until it has doubled in size.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and gently press all the air out of your dough. At this point it is time to portion and scale your dough, but I chose to make this into one large loaf, which made it great for sandwiches. If you would like to make two smaller loaves, weigh your entire dough, then portion it into two equal pieces. Gather your dough into a ball, pulling the bottom into itself to create a stretched skin on the outside of your dough. Let the ball of dough rest on your counter under a bowl or a damp kitchen towel for 20-30 minutes. This will let the gluten relax and make it easier to shape.

You can either leave it in a round shape, or gently roll the edges to create more of a football shape, called a battard. Sprinkle a generous amount of cornmeal on a parchment lined baking sheet (or on a pizza peel or an upside down baking sheet if you are using a pizza stone) and let proof at 80 degrees for 1 hour, or slightly longer at a cooler temperature.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 425 degrees F, and if using, preheat your pizza stone. When your bread is proofed, take a sharp knife and make three long slashes diagonally across the top of your loaf, about 1/4 - 1/2 inch deep. Bake until loaf is golden brown, and has reached an internal temperature of  around 200 degrees F, about 40-45 minutes. Every 5 minutes for the first 20-25 minutes of baking, quickly open the oven door and generously spray the oven around the bread with cold water. When bread is done cooking, it should feel light for its size, and sound hollow when thumped with your fist.

This is important...make sure you cool your bread on a baking rack completely. This allows air to circulate all the way around the bread and prevents your bread from getting soggy. Store in a paper bag at room temp for up to 24 hours. If you are not not using it right away, slice and freeze wrapped first in plastic, then in aluminum foil.

Cranberry Wild Rice French Toast

Pie dough is chilling in the fridge, cranberries are popping on the stove, sugared nuts are toasting in the oven, coffee is brewing....uh, in the coffee maker. Its only 9:30 and I am well into a mad dash to get everything made for Thanksgiving #2 this afternoon. I am not hosting this year, so the turkey was passed along to someone else, but I have plenty of other items to share with the party.

I am so looking forward to this feast (and of course the one next week as well) especially after spending last weekend not eating. At all. My boyfriend and I came down with the stomach flu on Saturday, and it pretty much put me out of commission the entire weekend and the beginning of the week. What started out as a nice, relaxing Saturday morning with a pot full of coffee and some delicious french toast, turned into a nightmarish 48 hours. I was at least lucky enough to get one last meal in before the flu set in, the boyfriend wasn't so lucky.

A few months back I was watching the Food Network, and they were profiling a diner somewhere in Minnesota whose specialty was their french toast. This was no normal french toast however. They made it with bread, cooked in house. Sound delicious? I'm not done yet. The bread has cranberries and wild rice baked right in. YUM. I knew I had to make this soon, and just happened to pick up a bag of Minnesota grown wild rice last time I was up visiting my family. Game on.

It is a lot of work, obviously you want to make the bread ahead of time, and use any leftovers to make some sublime french toast. Unless you want to do it all in one day and eat breakfast for dinner, which is totally allowed in my book. The bread on its own is delicious, smeared with a bit of butter, or used as sandwich bread.

Cranberry Wild Rice Bread
makes one large loaf, or one small loaf and 6 rolls
recipe adapted from A Bread A Day

2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cups water, room temperature
2 tablespoons molasses, room temperature
1 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup wild rice, cooked and cooled
1/2 dried cranberries, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flours, yeast, and salt. Switch to the dough hook attachment, and add the water, molasses, and olive oil. Mix on low until a shaggy dough forms, then increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 7-8 minutes.

Turn the speed back to low, and add the cranberries and wild rice, and knead until evenly distributed throughout the dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled glass or metal bowl, and tossed the dough around to coat the entire ball with oil. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm place to rise for about 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (if you are making rolls) or spray a loaf pan lightly with oil (if you are making a loaf). Lightly deflate the dough and either divide it into 12 pieces, shape into round rolls and place on baking sheet, or place the entire dough ball into the loaf pan.

Cover with a oiled piece of plastic wrap and let rise again for about an hour. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 400F if you are baking rolls, 375 if you are baking a loaf. Brush the tops of the rolls or loaf with melted butter and bake until golden brown. The rolls will take about 20 minutes, the loaf will take about 45-50 minutes.

Let loaf cool in pan for about 30 minutes then remove and let cool completely on wire rack. The rolls you can move directly to the wire rack to cool.

French Toast

1 cup half and half
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons honey, warmed in microwave for about 20 seconds
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 - 1/2 inch slices cranberry wild rice bread
4 tablespoons butter

Mix together the half and half, eggs, honey, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Pour mixture into baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a wire rack.

Dip each piece of bread into the egg mixture and let soak for 30 seconds. Flip, and soak for another 30 seconds. Transfer each piece to the wire rack and let wit for 2 minutes before cooking.

Melt one tablespoon of butter in a skillet of medium low heat. Place two slices of bread in the pan at a time, and cook 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and place on wire rack. Repeat with the rest of the bread, adding more butter to the pan as needed. Bake on wire rack for 5 minutes.

Top with maple syrup or whipped cream, serve hot.

Bagels Round Two : Gettin Fancy

I can't believe it's almost February. I feel as though the waning days of winter are creeping up on me way too fast, and the weeks are starting to fill up with road trips, friends visiting, bridal showers, concerts, and dinner dates. It's hard to find time to spend a weekend in the kitchen with a schedule like mine approaching. I will long for the lazy days of January when I had time to devote an entire day just to baking.

It may be a while before I have the time to whip up a batch of bagels again, so the ones in the freezer will just have to last me until April. My first attempt at bagels back in July went swimmingly, and I decided now that I got the basics down, it was time for some flavor! Taking a nod from Ina Garten's flavor combo in my favorite scone recipe, I made a third of the batch with dried cranberries and orange zest, one third topped with everything (onions, garlic, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and salt) and the last third plain and boring (but equally delicious).

I think this round of bagel-making secured my confidence in baking, and I am ready to keep on making my own baked goods, and veering a bit from the recipe books.

At the fault of this new found confidence, I now have three egg whites 'aging' on my counter top, waiting until tomorrow when they will be whipped into a batch of french macarons. I have been saying for the last few months, as soon as I get myself a Kitchenaid stand mixer, the first thing I am going to make is macarons. Well, I was a good girl this year and Santa brought me one for Christmas. Actually he brought me two (I must have been REALLY good), one from my family and one from my boyfriend (guess I gave enough hints huh? Subtlety is not my strong suit).

So with this being one of the last few weekends with an open schedule and no work, I will embark on what is supposedly a very tricky and fussy cookie, but is said to be well worth the effort and patience. Stay tuned!

Cranberry Orange Bagels and Everything Bagels

adapted from Peter Reinhardt's the Bread Baker's Apprentice

Sponge

1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour (I could not find bread flour, let alone high gluten bread flour, but I did find Vital Wheat Gluten Flour which I swapped one tablespoon of all purpose flour for the vital wheat gluten PER CUP of flour. So I ended up with 4 tablespoons of vital wheat gluten and 4 cups minus 4 Tablespoons of All Purpose flour)
2 1/2 cups water, room temperature

Dough

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
3 3/4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons malt powder or 1 tablespoon dark or light malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar (see note below)
2/3 cup orange flavored Craisins (or plain dried cranberries) chopped finely ***
1 tablespoon packed orange zest***

***I only made a third of the dough into cranberry-orange bagels. These are the measurements for a third, if you are making the entire batch cranberry orange, I would triple the amounts of cranberries and orange zest. ***

To Finish

1 tablespoon baking soda
Cornmeal for dusting baking sheets
1/4 cup each of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried garlic, and dried onions, plus a dash of salt***

***Again, I only made a third of the batch into everything bagels, but I had a good amount of extra toppings leftover. If you are making the entire batch into everything bagels, you can probably get away with 1/3 cup of each***

Day 1: To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a 4-quart mixing bowl. Add the water, whisking or stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (like pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly. It should swell to nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the counter top - mine did not fall, and it wasn't super foamy or bubbly... but they still worked out just fine.

To make the dough, in the same mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer), add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of the flour and all of the salt and malt. Stir (or mix on low speed with the dough hook) until the ingredients form a ball, slowly working in the remaining 3/4 cup flour to stiffen the dough - again, mine did not go quite so smoothly, I had to skip to the next step way before I was able to incorporate the 3/4 cup of flour in the bowl. Its okay, you can just work it in as you are kneading.

Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes (or for 6 minutes by machine). The dough should be firm but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour and all ingredients should be hydrated. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 to 71 degrees F. If the dough seems to dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough seems tacky or sticky, add more flour to achieve the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.

If you are making cranberry orange bagels, during the last two minutes or so of kneading, work in the chopped cranberries and orange zest, kneading until it is evenly incorporated. I made a third of this dough plain, a third everything, and a third cranberry orange. So before incorporating the fillings, I divided my dough into three even pieces and just kneaded the orange and cranberry into one of the thirds. If you are making one big batch of the cranberry orange, there is no need to divide the dough at this point.

Immediately divide the dough into 4 1/2 ounce pieces for standard bagels, or smaller if desired. Form the pieces into rolls.

I do not have a kitchen scale (yet) so I pretty much just kept cutting the dough in half until the pieces looked like a good size. I ended up with about 36 small-ish bagels.

Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes.

Line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment (I used sil-pats, but parchment works as well) and mist lightly with spray oil. Poke a hole in each ball of bagel dough and gently rotate your thumb around the inside of the hole to widen it to approximately 2 1/2 inches in diameter (half of this for a mini-bagel). The dough should be as evenly stretched as possible (try to avoid thick and thin spots.)

Place each of the shaped pieces 2 inches apart on the pans. Mist the bagels very lightly with the spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the pans sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

Check to see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator by using the “float test”. Fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded (meaning they will go into the fridge and slow proof overnight) when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days).

If the bagel does not float, return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the temperature of your kitchen, humidity, time of year, color of shirt you are wearing, mood your cat is in...okay those last few may not affect it, but sometimes it can seem that way.

Day 2: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F with the two racks set in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (the wider the pot the better), and add the baking soda. Have a slotted spoon or skimmer nearby.

Mix the poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic, onion, and salt together and spread in a thin layer on a large plate. Set aside for later.

Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit (they should float within 10 seconds). After 90 seconds flip them over rand boil for another 90 seconds. If you like very chewy bagels, you can extend the boiling to 2-2.5 minutes per side . While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal or semolina flour.

For the non-topped bagels, remove them from the boiling water with a spider or a slotted spoon and place them on the prepared sheet pans. For the topped bagels, remove them from boiling water and place them directly onto the plate with prepared toppings. Press them down gently to get toppings to adhere (be careful, they are hot) and then move them to the prepared baking sheet, topping side up.

When all the bagels have been boiled and topped, place the pans on the 2 middle shelves in the oven. Bake for approximately 5-7 minutes, then rotate the pans, switching shelves and giving the pans a 180-degree rotation. After the rotation, lower the oven setting to 450 degrees F and continue baking for about 10-15 minutes, or until the bagels turn light golden brown.

Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes or longer before serving. Before you do this:

Or this:

Don't forget the bread!

The only other part of my Thanksgiving feast that I managed to get picture of (only because I made them 4 days in advance when I wasn't going crazy yet) were the dinner rolls. I am slowly starting to get my sea legs in the world of bread baking, and now that I have a bread machine to do the dirty work for me, it is becoming much more approachable.

I use my bread machine just for the dough preparation, and then let it rise, proof, and bake outside of the machine. I just don't like the shape and consistency of the bread that comes out of there, and I feel like I have much more control outside of the machine. That said, it consistently puts out a perfectly kneaded ball of dough, and that I am thankful for.

I found these rolls on the blog 'A Bread A Day'. I am a big fan of this site, is it a great resource for basic and unique breads alike. This roll is a really standard butter and milk dinner roll, made fancy by plopping three little balls of dough into muffin tins. Easy as that! They are light and fluffy, and pull apart to make lots of surface area for whatever you are slathering on there (more butter).

Cloverleaf Rolls

adapted from A Bread A Day

2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 1/8 cups lukewarm water

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for brushing on top of baked rolls

1/4 cup non-fat dry milk (if you can't find dry milk like me, just substitute one cup of water in the recipe for one cup of milk)

1/2 cup instant potato flakes (yeah I thought that was weird too, but turns out, its very common and helps make a light and fluffy bread)

Dissolve the yeast in 2 tablespoons lukewarm water and a pinch of sugar. Let sit for about 15 minutes until it is bubbly and has expanded.

Combine the yeast with the remainder of the ingredients (only use 1 cup of water - or milk if you are not using dry milk- since you used 1/8 cup water to dissolve the yeast in) in the bowl of your bread machine or stand mixer. Put it on the dough setting and as soon as it forms a smooth ball stop the machine.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Turn the dough around so that the oil coats all sides of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm spot and let it rise for about an hour, until it has doubled in size. My grandma swears by letting the dough rise twice in the bowl, and she makes AMAZING buns, so that is what I did. Punch the dough down gently to deflate, turn it upside down, cover, and let it double in size again about another 1 - 1.5 hours.

Lightly grease 1 12-cup muffin tin or 2 6-cup tins. Gently deflate your dough and turn it out onto a lightly greased surface. Divide the dough in 12 equal pieces. Take one piece and divide it into thirds. Shape each third into a ball and place the three balls into a muffin cup. Repeat for the remaining 11 pieces.

Cover the pans with a lightly greased piece of plastic wrap and let proof for about an hour, until they are quite puffy. When they are ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the rolls until they are light golden brown, about 25 minutes. When they are just about done, melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. Remove the rolls from the oven and brush with the melted butter. Let the rolls cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

I made these a few days ahead of time, wrapped in tinfoil and put in a freezer bag, and froze until the day I was serving them. When dinner rolled around, I popped them back into their muffin tins and reheated them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. It was almost like I had baked them that day (shush don't tell anyone that I didn't).

Marble Rye Bread

Well it has been a little while since I have posted on here. You would think getting laid off would give me more time to update my blog, but alas, it turns out I am kind of lazy and have mostly been laying on the couch for the past week. I figured after the stress of my last job, I deserved a bit of time off from the real world before I dug back in. Now its time to start getting some stuff done around the apartment, and oh yeah, time to start finding a real job.

I will however, be making my foray into the restaurant world in a few weeks...as a hostess at a swanky new bar that is opening up downtown on Michigan Avenue. I have never done any hosting/server/waitressing before so needless to say, this should be interesting. In my free time I plan on working on my portfolio, looking for a 'big girl' job, cooking, and working on my blog and photography. I am actually quite excited at this break from the real world for a little while, although I am sure that will wear off once I realize I am broke.

A few weeks ago I dove a little deeper into my bread making adventures, and figured this would be a good first post, as an unemployed food blogger. It was cheap, easy, and makes for great freezer food. This marble rye bread is great for sandwiches, toast, or cubed and toasted for croutons. Although it may look a little complicated, it was actually quite simple, not to mention forgiving when I was pinched for time.

Marble Rye Bread

Adapted from A Bread A Day (adapted from Peter Reinhart's A Bread Baker's Apprentice)

My notes in Green

Makes 2 Loaves

Light Rye Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Rye Flour

3 Cups unbleached Bread Flour (Or 3 cups minus 3 tablespoons all purpose flour, plus 3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds

1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons room temperature water

1 tablespoon molasses

2 tablespoons olive oil

Dark Rye Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Rye Flour

3 Cups unbleached Bread Flour (Or 3 cups minus 3 tablespoons all purpose flour, plus 3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds

1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons room temperature water

1 tablespoon molasses

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons cocoa powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

The recipe calls for making and kneading the dough in a stand mixer, but since I do not have one, I usually start my dough in a food processor with the dough blade, and finish it on the counter, kneading it by hand.

For the light rye:

Combine the flours, salt, yeast, and caraway seeds in the bowl of the food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add the water, molasses, and olive oil. Pulse until wet ingredients are incorporated, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Turn out dough onto flour surface (the dough will probably be pretty shaggy and falling apart at this point) and knead until it forms a cohesive, elastic ball - about 8-10 minutes.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

For the dark rye:

Repeat same steps as the light rye, this time adding in the cocoa power with the rest of the wet ingredients. Place dough in a second oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Let the doughs rise until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.

Working with one of the doughs at a time, turn out onto floured surface and press gently to deflate. Divide each dough into 4 equal pieces. Gently shape each piece into a ball and flatten slightly. Cover each piece with plastic wrap and let sit for 15-20 minutes.

Working with once piece of dough at a time, keeping the others covered in plastic wrap, roll out dough on a floured surface into a oval shape (about 5 x 8 inches). Repeat with remaining dough pieces and stack them, alternating light and dark, into two stacks of four layers.

Roll each stack up, jelly roll style, tightly pressing the dough together as you go. Place each roll into a lined loaf pan (I used small sil-pats in my loaf pans, but you can use parchment paper as well) seam side down so it doesn't come undone.

You can also place the dough onto lined baking sheets for a more rustic look. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 60-90 minutes until nearly doubled in size.

At this point I had a concert to go to (I got started on this project a little late in the day) so instead of letting the dough rise at room temperature, I let is rise for a few hours in the fridge and let then come to room temp before baking them off. They still turned out just fine.

Bake at 350 degrees on the middle rack for 40-45 minutes until deep golden brown. Let the bread cool for at least 1-2 hours before slicing.

I highly recommend making panini sandwiches with this bread, heavy on the Dijon mustard. Luckily my boyfriend doesn't like rye bread, so I have two loaves all to myself. Okay...there is only one loaf left. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday America, have some bagels.

The fourth of July here this year was miserable. It was cloudy and rainy all day, which left me in no mood to go to a picnic or barbeque. I figured it was a great day to do some cooking, I just wasn't sure what. I have been doing some major food blog browsing in the recent weeks and I came across the same recipe and rave reviews in more than one of said blogs and decided I needed to try it. Only one problem. It was a recipe for bagels.

Although I have watched multitudes of celebrity chefs, not to mention my Mom, bake all kinds of breads and mix up all kinds of doughs on the food network, (this was way back in the day when I had cable tv and tio...okay it was only a month ago, but it feels like decades) I have never actually done this myself. Somehow I got it into my head that it would be a great idea to skip regular sandwich bread, or artisan bread, or french bread and just jump straight into the two day long process of making fresh, chewy, new york style bagels.

No kitchenaid mixer, just me, my big beefy arm muscles (ha!), a Saturday afternoon, and a giant ball of bagel dough.

After reading one of my favorite blogs, the Smitten Kitchen, I decided to use Peter Reinhart's Bagel recipe. It seemed basic enough, and the author of Smitten Kitchen laid out some pretty detailed instructions to go along with the recipe. So I laid out my battle scene and away I went.

After two trips to Dominick's, and one to Whole Foods, I was fully equipped with the right kind of flour mixture (or close enough), yeast, and last but not least: malt syrup, of which now I have an entire jar and will have to find something else to make with it.

I started this crazy process on a Saturday early afternoon, and by noon on Sunday I had fresh bagels.

Peter Reinhart’s Bagels

Adpated from The Bread Bakers Apprentice - My notes in green

So the recipe says that it makes 12 bagels, but I ended up with about 35 baby ones. They are perfect size for a light breakfast and don't leave you wanting a nap ten minutes later.

Sponge
1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour (I could not find bread flour, let alone high gluten bread flour, but I did find Vital Wheat Gluten Flour which I swapped one tablespoon of all purpose flour for the vital wheat gluten PER CUP of flour. So I ended up with 4 tablespoons of vital wheat gluten and 4 cups minus 4 Tablespoons of All Purpose flour)
2 1/2 cups water, room temperature

Dough
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
3 3/4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons malt powder or 1 tablespoon dark or light malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar (see note below)

To Finish
1 tablespoon baking soda

Cornmeal for dusting baking sheets

I made plain, sesame seed, and salt bagels, but you can try garlic, onions, poppy seeds, parmesan cheese, herbs, or whatever else floats your boat.

1. Day 1: To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a 4-quart mixing bowl. Add the water, whisking or stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (like pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly. It should swell to nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the countertop - mine did not fall, and it wasn't super foamy or bubbly... but they still worked out just fine. During this wait period I decided it would be a good idea to make fresh pasta, that will be the subject of another post, though I would recommend just relaxing instead of tiring out my arm muscles kneading the pasta, before trying to tackle the bagel dough. But that's just me.

2. To make the dough, in the same mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer), add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of the flour and all of the salt and malt. Stir (or mix on low speed with the dough hook) until the ingredients for a ball, slowly working in the remaining 3/4 cup flour to stiffen the dough - again, mine did not go quite so smoothly, I had to skip to the next step way before I was able to incorporate the 3/4 cup of flour in the bowl. Its okay, you can just work it in as you are kneading.

3. Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes (or for 6 minutes by machine). The dough should be firm, stiffer than French bread dough, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour - all ingredients should be hydrated. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 to 71 degrees F. If the dough seems to dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough seems tacky or sticky, add more flour to achieve the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.

4. Immediately divide the dough into 4 1/2 ounce pieces for standard bagels, or smaller if desired. Form the pieces into rolls - I pretty much just kept cutting the dough in half until the pieces looked like a good size.

5. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes.

6. Line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment (I used sil-pats, but parchment works as well) and mist lightly with spray oil. Poke a hole in each ball of bagel dough and gently rotate your thumb around the inside of the hole to widen it to approximately 2 1/2 inches in diameter (half of this for a mini-bagel). The dough should be as evenly stretched as possible (try to avoid thick and thin spots.)

7. Place each of the shaped pieces 2 inches apart on the pans. Mist the bagels very lightly with the spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the pans sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

8. Check to see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator by using the “float test”. Fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). If the bagel does not float. Return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the ambient temperature and the stiffness of the dough.

9. Day 2: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F with the two racks set in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (the wider the pot the better), and add the baking soda. Have a slotted spoon or skimmer nearby.

10. Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit (they should float within 10 seconds). After 1 minutes flip them over rand boil for another minute. If you like very chewy bagels, you can extend the boiling to 2 minutes per side . While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal or semolina flour. If you want to top the bagels, do so as soon as they come out of the water.

11. When all the bagels have been boiled, place the pans on the 2 middle shelves in the oven. Bake for approximately 5-7 minutes, then rotate the pans, switching shelves and giving the pans a 180-degree rotation. After the rotation, lower the oven setting to 450 degrees F and continue baking for about 5 minutes, or until the bagels turn light golden brown - Mine took quite a bit longer, almost 15-17 minutes to cook through, judge by look and if you need to, you can apply the same culinary expert trick that I used on my burgers: cut one open and see if its done.

12. Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes or longer before serving - or very carefully cut one open while its steaming hot and enjoy. I have no patience.

And after two longs days, PRESTO you have bagels. They are delicious, chewy, moist and were way cheaper than buying 35 bagels at Einstein's. I froze most of mine, and when I am in need of some yummy carbs, I pop one in the microwave for 20 seconds and then into the toaster. Try it sometime, I promise its worth it, even though everyone I told that I made bagels thinks I am crazy. But I am okay with that.