BAGELS! ~ BWJ

Wow, two revelations. The first, bagels are not all that hard to make. The second. They are WAY better when you make them yourself, and they are fresh from the oven! The host and recipe keeper for today's bagel recipe can be found on Heather's Bytes, or of course in the Baking With Julia Cookbook.

The forming of the bagels was almost theraputic. As usual I cut the amount of time necessary down, only chilling the dough for 2 hours instead of 4, but I can't see how it affected the outcome. These were some of the best bagels I've eaten. As one commenter said on my last post- there really is nothing like fresh bread from the oven!

Then came the boiling of the dough for a few minutes in water with....sugar? and baking soda. I cut the amount of boiling time in half also, as suggested by some others.

They came out all cute and fluffy.

Now for the toppings. I love my everything bagels. But I didn't have the necessary ingredients handy. And it was the hubby's lunch today too, so I made what he would like- green chile and cheddar. I sprinkled the dough with some garlic and onion powders, and sea salt first, then piled on the green chiles and cheddar.

We each got one smothered with butter, and the second was made into a ham sandwich. The bagels were moist, warm, and didn't have the outer hard crust I tend not to like. I know, bagels were meant to be tough and chewy. But mine weren't, and they were just right! Glad I was forced to make these today to stay in the hosting game (not that I've felt confident enough to throw my hat in the ring just yet), otherwise I might have missed out on the bagel goodness that was our lunch.