Year of Bread: The Best Bagels I’ve Ever Had

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bagel-dough-ballsI have made this recipe before, back when I discovered a version on my favorite blog for foodgawking, Smitten Kitchen. They were and still are the best bagels I’ve ever had. They’re chewy on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside, and have an amazing flavor that pairs wonderfully with anything you smear (or schmear) on them.

Slow, Slow Rise

bagel-dough-risen Unsurprisingly, Reinhart recommends a slow fermentation for bagels. I think this is actually a benefit rather than an impediment, because it makes it easy (relatively speaking) to have fresh, hot bagels for breakfast without having to wake up crazy early to make them. I made the dough and shaped the bagels the night before baking, which runs about the same way as making a loaf of French bread, except with the added step of separating and shaping the bagels at the end. The shaped, slightly-proofed bagels just chill  in the fridge overnight and come out right before they’re ready for boiling and baking.

Bagels Fresh Out of the…Pot?

bagel-dough-roundsThe idea of intentionally putting dough in water is kind of weird to me. Boiling water seems so violent, and bread dough can be such a delicate substance. In the end, I find it easier to think of bagels as weird giant noodles during the boiling stage. In fact, the method used here actually has a lot in common with another favorite carb of mine: ramen. As with ramen noodles, a good bagel should be nice and chewy. Adding something to make the water more alkaline helps the dough take on a chewier consistency.  I added a tablespoon of baking soda to a big pot of water after it came to a boil. Science! The dough rings are boiled a few at a time, for a minute or two on each side, then pulled out and put back onto the baking sheet to get ready for the oven.

Topping It Off

bagels-coolingThis time I went with pretty simple toppings and didn’t do any dough mix-ins, because I was too lazy to do more prep than that. Marla Bakery here in SF has amazing salted bagels, so I followed suit and sprinkled a few of mine with sea salt. The sea salt stuck fine, but the bagels I topped with sesame seeds as well ended up  mostly naked as soon as I started handling them at all. There’s gotta be a way to give the seeds more sticking power– maybe a light egg white wash or something to “glue” them down a bit? I ended up just scooping the fallen seeds off the cutting board and sprinkling the on cream cheese when I ate one, but  the sesame seed ones were my favorite. They had a nuttiness and texture that really leveled up the flavor of the bagel overall.

Text[ural] Analysis

bagel-crossFresh out of the oven these bagels were absolutely delicious, with a nice chewy exterior and a soft, fluffy center. But I did feel that they baked up a little less impressively than they did the last time I baked them. Some of them were very bubbly/porous inside. A lot of them seemed to flatten out a bit more than usual. I think this might have been a result of letting them sit out on the counter too long this morning before I boiled them (waiting for the oven to heat up and the water to boil). This also made them very soft and flexible, which is not the greatest when you’re trying to peel them off the waxed (and oiled) paper that they spent the night on. Next time I will most definitely use well-sprayed parchment paper AND leave the bagels in the fridge until a minute or two before they go into the pot. Long story short: a quick warm up is good, but getting back to room temperature seems bad.

Breakfast is Served

bagel-lox-closeBack in college my roommate and I used to have bagel breakfast days, usually soon after a Costco run that resulted in a fresh haul of groceries. We loaded them up with cream cheese, tomatoes and lox. It was our decadent weekend breakfast of choice. I topped this weekend’s bagels with a similar spread of cream cheese, lox and a sprinkling of capers– maybe not creative or original, but pretty damn tasty all the same.

Fluffy Blueberry Pancakes

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I love making breakfast for people. My friends know this well; every time I have overnight guests they are regaled with some kind of concoction that required me to wake up early and possible make a run to the store. Unfortunately for me, my boyfriend has a penchant for cereal. He’s happy to eat it every morning, regardless of my enthusiastic offers to whip up cinnamon rolls or eggs or anything other than granola. Sigh.

Last weekend he caved and let me make him blueberry pancakes. There are several “secret” ingredients that make for soft, fluffy, lofty, perfect pancakes. Any one of them on their own would be awesome, but together they make cloud-like wonders. Mmm.

Secret Ingredient #1: “Buttermilk”

Sure, you could use milk, but I think the tangy, thick consistency of buttermilk gives pancakes a bit more complexity. Here’s my own little secret: I almost never keep buttermilk around the apartment. I just don’t have enough recipes to burn through a carton quickly enough, and I hate tossing food. I usually make a concoction of half milk, half plain yogurt and stir it up for a thick but not too thick substitute.

"Buttermilk"

Secret Ingredient #2: Butter

What’s that you say? “But I put butter on top of my pancakes! Why should I put butter inside my pancakes?” To which I say…I did not say anything about this being a healthy recipe, friend. Melt it down and cool it for a few minutes before you add it to the batter, lest you cook the egg before their time.

pancakes melting butter

Secret Ingredient #4, which is not an ingredient at all.

The real key for delicious, lofty pancakes is not what you put in the batter, but how you mix it up. Don’t overbeat. Don’t overbeat. Don’t overbeat. There, I’ve told you 3 times so that should be enough.  You’re gonna want to, but don’t. In fact, don’t even use the word beat- gently mix as you add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and give a wooden spoon maybe a dozen laps around the bowl.

pancake batter

It might be a little lumpy looking, but that’s ok. This batter is especially thick and gooey, so it might not look like your standard Bisquick batter. If it’s too thick to stir, add a drizzle of milk or too. Now for the main attraction….

blueberries

I used frozen blueberries, which is fine, but if you follow in my footsteps make sure you thaw them before you bake the pancakes, otherwise they keep the batter from cooking evenly and you end up with pockets of uncooked dough around your blueberries. Bleh. Fold your little blue buddies in very carefully, so they don’t ooze their purple juices too much.

baking pancakes

You might need a team of spoons to scrape the dough into the pan, but trust me, it’s alllll worth it in the end.

Fluffy Blueberry Pancakes

Serves 4, or 2 very hungry people.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup milk
1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) blueberries

1. Prepare wet ingredients. Melt butter in skillet, set aside to cool.  While it’s cooling, mix milk and yogurt together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together and set aside.

3. Add buttermilk and butter to eggs, and add vanilla. Whisk until homogenous.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry and gently stir to combine. Start with 12 stirs, check consistency, and stir a few rounds at a time until batter is just combined.

5. Fold in blueberries. Use a rubber spatula to turn them into the batter- it shouldn’t take more than a few stirs. 

6. Set a large nonstick pan over medium heat, and a small amount of butter when it’s hot. Just a half tablespoon or so is probably plenty. Spread it with a paper towel until there’s a very, very thin layer of butter on the pan.

7. Scoop pancake batter 1/4 at a time onto pan. Let the cakes cook without touching them for at least 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, or until the top stars to bubble very slightly. Flip and continue to cook on second side for another 2 minutes. Continue in batches until batter is gone.

Okay, so these work best if you only flip them once, but nobody’s perfect, so if your pancakes aren’t quite golden enough on the first try you can go ahead and flip them twice. I won’t tell. 

Serve hot, with butter and syrup. Or blueberry jam, if you’re really into blueberries. 

Blueberry Pancakes