Sunday, December 28, 2008

Bagel Revolution


I’m sitting quietly in my kitchen this morning, smiling at the recent memory of a sink full of dirty dishes, and the floor strewed with toys, content in the fact that my Chanukah party has come and gone. Was it a riveting success? Only the guests can tell you that; but I know that even though I was coming down with the flu, I had a blast.

It was noisy. Over thirty kids spanning the very small age gap of 14 to three months will make any gathering loud. Everyone felt very at home. That’s what happens when the room is filled with blood relatives. And yet that had its benefits too. At some point, about two hours into the evening, I sat down and could not get up again, contenting myself by schmoozing with whomever I found sitting next to me; at which point, one of my cousins took over the tea and coffee making operations (I figured that it was OK for a hostess to delegate that responsibility). The two things I didn’t delegate, the things I needed to control were the bagels and latkes. Oh, and the strawberry cream cake (winter is strawberry season in Israel). Oh yeah, and the menorah shaped sugar cookies. Oh, and the tomato soup and barley soup, oh, and the setting of the buffet… OK, I’ll admit it, I’m a control freak, though I did let my cousins bring salads.

I like tasting as I go, so unless I’m standing next to you in the kitchen while you cook, and you let me control how you season your food, I’d rather eat your food in your house and my food in mine. To the point that if you were to bring anything over, I would spend the rest of the night – regardless if the dish was Michelin-starred or not – telling everyone within hollering distance that “so-and-so dish” was not mine. Gosh, I’m coming off as a crazy person. Well, who wouldn’t be?! I just hosted forty five of my closest family members and made four dozen home made bagels from scratch. Crazy lady, I know, and frankly I’m looking for a cuckoos’ nest to fly over.

Back to them bagels. You may be asking yourself: who in their right mind makes their own bagels? As I have already proven, I’m decidedly not in my right mind but the bagel making decision was founded solidly in reality. Let me walk you through the logic.

To buy a dozen bagels in Israel cost 50 shekels for a dozen (about US$13 depending on the day). Though it is more expensive to buy a dozen bagels in the States, we live in Israel and every shekel counts and unless you have been living under a very comfortable rock, you must know that world economy has gone - for want of a better term - kaput! So, if were talking about buying four dozen bagels, well that’s 200 shekels, while buying a bag of bread flour costs about 7 shekels (I rounded my expenses up to 8 shekels, considering I would need to add some yeast, sugar and salt to create the basic recipe).

What I haven’t told you though is about how most Israeli bagels taste. They don’t in any way resemble the bagels of my childhood. They lack that glossy, slightly tough outer shell. The crust is usually thin and at times, God forbid,… crusty; and don’t get me started on the “middles”. The dough is so light, there is no chew left in them. Don’t they realize that the bagel was created to keep my foremothers warm in the shtetl during cold winter mornings? For the lox, on the other hand, you will need to thank your local Scandinavian. The chew was exercise for warming the mouth for a long day of kibitzing. The Israeli bagel, I have my suspicion, is in fact a roll with a hole. Horror of horrors! It just occurred to me, I don’t think they boil their bagels before they bake them.

Though admittedly there is one exception. Holy Bagel, with branches all over Jerusalem, make a fantastic bagel and if you ask them to "shmear" something on the inside, they won’t look at you in puzzlement. But if you can’t get to town and were hoping to save some money, the only way to go is to make your own. Not too crazy, right?

So, about two weeks ago, I started practicing. I figured I make pretty good challah, so what’s wrong with tackling another Jewish bread? I would not let the boiling stage intimidate me. Armed with my trusty KitchenAid at my side, the ten minutes of kneading were done mechanically, the dough raised like a bear out of hibernation, and the boiling went off with out a hitch. My only problem: as hard as I tried, I couldn’t get my bagels to stay in those cute, closed circles. But that would not put me off, because from the start, the bagels tasted amazing. They were doughy, glossy heaven.

I just kept on trying to figure out the rolling. I experimented with batch after batch we were having bagels for breakfast lunch and dinner, until my husband was “bagel-ed out” and sat me down to watch a YouTube clip on how to roll a bagel.



Armed with a good recipe and YouTube, I was ready for Operation Bagel 2008. The bagels stayed in rings and though they looked homemade (I’m guessing I need an industrial strength mixer), they came out great, and not one was left over. How great is that? Even one of my aunts, who doesn’t know exactly how to turn on her oven, wanted the recipe. Bagel revolution, we are on!

Homemade Bagels

Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s “How to be a Domestic Goddess”. Please don’t be frightened by the length of this recipe, I just love giving detailed directions. The control freak in me can’t resist the opportunity to tell someone else what to do.


1 kg strong white bread flour
1 package instant dry yeast (anything between 7 and 11 grams will do the trick)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon oil
500 ml warm water

For boiling:
Large pot of boiling water
2 tablespoons sugar

For Sprinkling:
Sea salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic granules…. to your heart’s content.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment place the flour, yeast salt and sugar. Mix so that all the ingredients are incorporated.

Measure water in a measuring jug add the oil and pour slowly into the flour mixture.

Now, on the lowest speed, allow the mixture to knead. After about two minutes, look into the bowl. If you see flakes of dry flour at the bottom of the bowl, then add a couple of drops of water and wait about ten seconds to see if they come together with the rest of the dough. If they don’t, then add a few drops more water and wait again. If on the other had the dough is too moist (a good indication of this is if the dough isn’t adhering itself to the dough hook), sprinkle in some more flour again do this slowly, waiting between each addition.

Once you get a good consistency, with all the dough spinning ever so slowly onto the dough hook (I’m sorry to be graphic but this kind of looks like someone pole-dancing very, very slowly), look at your clock and let it pole-dance for the next ten minutes.

Take the dough out of the mixer and knead a couple of times, just to get rid of any air bubbles.

With cooking spray, grease the inside of a large bowl. Place the dough inside and spray the top of the dough (you can do this in the mixer bowl if you like). Place the bowl in a large clean garbage bag, tie a knot and let it rest in a draft-free place for an hour until it almost doubles in size.

Before you start rolling dough, pre heat the oven to 240 Celsius/ 460 Fahrenheit, and put a large pot of water and two tablespoons sugar to boil.

About thirty seconds of aggression coming up…

Punch down the dough, and I mean really punch. Divide into twelve equal parts (the control freaks among us would take out our kitchen scales at this point) and weigh each piece. You should get twelve pieces each weighing about four ounces.

With both palms, roll the individual dough piece into one long rope that will wrap around your hand with some overlap. That said, wrap the rope around your hand with both ends overlapping in your palm and squeeze the pieces together.

With the dough still wrapped around your hand, roll it on the surface again to get one continuous ring.


Place the dough rings on a lightly greased baking tray, cover and let rise until puffy – about twenty minutes.

Now place two or three bagels (depending on the size of your pot) into the boiling water, boiling them for about thirty seconds on either side. Then use a spatula remove the boiled bagels and put them back on the baking tray. While the bagels are still wet, this is the time to sprinkle with seasonings if you like.

(As a side note: when your bagels come out of their boiling bath with a bad case of cellulitis, don’t worry. This seems to sort itself out in the oven (if only it were so easy for me).

Pop your tray of boiled bagels in the oven, and about fifteen minutes later you will have glossy, doughy, yummy bagels. Hurray!

Oh don’t let them sit too long on the tray while cooling. They will sweat and regain their prior bout of cellulite. You really wouldn't want your bagel to suffer from a soggy bottom.

2 comments:

Languages and Learning to Love said...

Avid Blogger -Jasmine.
I am a American who is on an adventure of Kosher cooking, All i can say is Yum! That bagel recipe will be the first thing I try after Passover. I am quite busy with School right now all i can do is Challah on Shabbat, and of course recipes that wont take up all my study time.

Jennifer in MamaLand said...

For anyone who can't get the bagels to stay "together", just make a ball/blob, like a bun, and then poke a hole in the middle. Roll it around the same way you've shown here to expand the hole to the desired dimensions. I was doing it the "rope" way for years, but am now a convert to the "blob" method, which is far more foolproof, IMO. Thanks for the recipe!