One of the things Americans traditionally miss dearly (and crave desperately) while living abroad is bagels. That and peanut butter (which for some unexplainable reason becomes much more desirable in countries where it can only be found for absurd prices in import stores). And thus, you might think that I have taken to making bagels because after awhile living in Florence I just had to have some and couldn't get them otherwise. Surprisingly, not the case. Its not that we aren't big fans of bagels or don't eat them relatively regularly while in the US. And its not that we aren't picky about them. Actually, the summer before we moved to Florence we had quite a lot of excellent bagels (day-old of course, because they come much cheaper that way) from the Humble Bagel Co. in Eugene. If you're wondering why, the inspiration for the bagels came from winning one of those nifty bagel guillotine things (and a whole flat of ripe mangos--the prize we were really excited about) at bingo night shortly after arriving in the state. We figured as long as we had accidentally acquired a new and unnecessary kitchen gadget, we might as well put it to good use. Hence the bagel eating.
But we left the guillotine in storage along with all the rest of our kitchen things, flew to Italy, and proceeded to not think about bagels at all for the better part of a year. Really, there are so many tasty bread products to be excited about around Florence (the salt-less Tuscan white bread aside), that bagels are hard to miss. Then last summer when reading some blogs on bread making, I came across several bagel recipes and stories, and being a summer dedicated to baking and food experiments (also dabbled in croissants, among other things), I decided I had to try making bagels. Not because we had a massive craving for them but because I figured I could, and it would be entertaining.
It turns out that if your used to making bread, bagels aren't that hard--just a bit time consuming. And they are so very very tasty when the come out of the oven that they've had to be made several times since the first try. Today, being the first sunny and warm day we've had this spring, seemed like the perfect day to prune all the herb plants in the garden that were in need of some TLC. This created a massive pile of oregano and marjoram trimmings with leaves that needed to be salvaged and used. And so I decided it was time for another round of herb bagels.
Since I had actually already started a bread sponge after breakfast, with the plan of making regular bread, I went about the bagel making a bit differently than usual--not so much following the recipe I'd used before, but rather making my usual bread recipe with a bit more flour than usual and then doing the bagel procedure (form bagels, boil, and bake) instead of the bread procedure (rise, form loaves, rise again, bake). And, I if I do say so myself, they came out quite well.
On a side note, you can indeed obtain cream cheese without much difficulty in Italy. And while most of the cream cheese they have is, not surprisingly, Philadelphia brand, one can find grocery store house brand stuff for cheap too (called something like "spreadable fresh cheese"). The funny thing is that Italians call all cream cheese "Philadelphia" (you know, like all tissues are "kleenex"). In fact, we've even seen a menus where they will translate mozzarella to "buffalo milk cheese" or something and Philadelphia as Philadelphia. I'm guessing these leaves many Americans a bit confused, but turns out that the British likely don't mind as they also seem to call cream cheese Philadelphia.
Bagel instructions (based on today's version):
Sponge:
1 Tbs dry active yeast
2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
2 1/2 cups luke warm water
Mix ingredients together, stir well, and leave to rise for a few hours (at least 1, but the more the better).
Dough:
To the sponge, add the following:
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs brown sugar
Fresh herbs, finely chopped
white flour (a bunch)
Add the salt, sugar, and herbs to the sponge and mix well. Then start mixing in the flour, 1/2 or 1 cup at a time. Mix with a spoon (or if you happen to be really high tech, a stand mixer) until dough becomes too stiff, then move to kneeding by hand, gradually kneeding in more and more flour. You'll need to end up putting in a few cups worth, and when the dough is ready it should be a bit more stiff than normal bread dough and not particularly sticky (but also not dry). The kneeding is important--bagel dough is supposed to be kneeded quite throughly (at least 10 minutes) before forming the bagels so that the gluten is well developed.
When you're done kneeding, break off handfuls of dough, roll each into a ball, and place on a sheet of wax paper or oven paper--bigger balls if you like bigger bagels and smaller ones if you want cute, dainty bagels). Cover with greased pastic wrap (or damp dish towel) and let rise for about 20-30 minutes.
When the dough has risen, form each ball into a bagel by sticking you finger through the middle to form a hole and then rotating the make a nice bagel shape (don't make the hole too big though). Put back on the oven paper to rise (covered) for another 3o minutes.
Boil a large pot of water (or several large pots of water), and add 1 Tbs of baking soda to the water. When the water has reached a boil, drop as many bagels in as will fit comfortably (they will need to be able to float on the surface and shouldn't be crowded). Boil bagels for roughly 2 minutes on each side, remove from water and place on baking sheet covered with oven paper and dusted with corn meal.
Bake bagels in hot oven (around 375?) until nice and brown on top and they seem cooked (about 15-20 minutes).
Cool on rack (or eat a few while still warm...but cool enough to slice in half and apply cream cheese, or Philadelphia if you prefer).
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