It's oddly comforting...

[liralen]

... to be able to make my own bagels whenever I want them, rather than spending money on a bag of them only to eat them the next day, when they're already a day old and a little stale. Fresh, crusty, chewy, hot bagels right out of the oven slathered with goat cheese or honey or peach jam. Fun to push them around in the water, boil 'em and then bake 'em crusty and brown.

Jet was up only once last night and stayed asleep until 6:30. All good progress. I think that going back to his old schedule and NOT having Grandpa to play with in the basement on dark mornings made for enough of a lack of incentive to wake up EARLY. I'm so glad that now that we don't have the early morning resource, we don't really need it as much. It's a very good thing.

Of course Jet then proceeded to only eat sesame seeds off my bagel for breakfast and then get cranky about being hungry. He, of course, refused to eat anything anyway. Sometimes I don't think he's connected that cranky, tired, unhappy feeling to something that can be solved by the act of eating. Which, I guess, shouldn't surprise me, as I sometimes still have that problem.

John and I, however are caught up on sleep again, which is a very fine thing. I found in my dream journal a line I'd forgotten I'd written in the middle of the night, "Sleep: a treasure oft lost, easily stolen by fears unworthy of the cost."

Heh. I write bad poetry in my sleep.

Comments

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

Do you make the dough early and freeze it or something? That's what's standing between me and constant bagels, is the rise time.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I make 'em the night before. I actually make the dough, shape it immediately, and then put the rings on a baking sheet in the fridge overnight. They don't rise too fast that way, and they get that very yeasty fermentation taste and smell after they've baked. I haven't had to rise 'em twice the way some recipes say.

I just boil the rings in the morning and bake.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Hmm. What recipe do you use? This sounds tasty, and there are no good bagels on this coast.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I use the one in The Best Recipe, written by the same folks that do American Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated. It's very simple, has all the right stuff in that the dough is extremelly stiff, so the bagels don't go flabby after the overnight rise and boil. The boil is for a very short time, just enough to set the outside so that they don't overrise during the initial sprint in the oven, but not so much that they're in little straitjackets and get tough. The bake is at a high temp to make the outsides crisp and they're small enough so that they get cooked through before anything burns. I really like it