Oh, I’ve boiled and baked bagels.  I made bagels with the Daring Bakers (Jenny was one of our Hostesses) and Karen across the pond in the Netherlands.  And I can tell it was more fun in the kitchen with the four of us together than it was with me just by myself in my kitchen. 

Bagels is the third recipe in Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and so bagels again I baked.

I now have the flours and water measurements in my book in grams.   That makes me happy because I know I’ll do these again and everything is so much easier and these less dirty dishes with my scale.  I used bread flour in the sponge and as you can see the King’s Sir Lancelot flour in the dough.

I used barley malt syrup.  It tastes a little like molasses to me.

The dough balls make me think of a flying saucer factory.  I made some about 90 grams and another batch about 70.  Liked the 70 gram size the best.

This dough was lovely and worked very well with the poke the hole in the middle.  A very interesting feel when you stretched the hole because everyone felt like there was a tight rubber band around the hole to start with.  The holes want to close up because of that tight band so I go back and stretch each hole about 3 times until it starts to relax some.

I dipped mine in blue poppy seeds and sesame seeds and really wanted to use some Maldon Salt and forgot ... need to make more.  Didn’t really like those cinnamon sugar dusted.

Maybe these could have been denser.

Glorious Toast ... cream cheese & peanut butter oh yeah ...

Thanks to Nicole at Pinch My Salt, today I’ll be starting on Brioche!  Nicole is how I got into this challenge ... any more weak moments like this one and well, it’s not a good thought.

Here’s a few of us who’ve done bagels in the challenge:

Paul at Yamarama

David at Baking Mad Dad

Gaaarp at Cabbages & Kings

Nico at Nico’s Blog

Oggi at I Can Do That

Diane at It’s All About the Bread

Jenni at Something to Savor

Tricarolyn at 2 Skinny Jenkins

The Studious Cook at The Studious Cook

Dianne at Stoveria

What will you enjoy on your bagel?