Sunday Breakfast Bagels!

Posted on June 10, 2012

Sunday mornings are special in my house. Every Sunday, we get up and greet our lovely clean,  eclectic,  little Viennese kitchen.  Sometimes we open the windows and let in some fresh air. Then we turn on some music…. And we get started! Every Sunday in my house is hot breakfast morning. Mostly we eat cold cereal, or a Smorgas Board, of fruits vegies, and nuts and some sort of complex carb either a small slice of bread or a couple miniature rice crackers from Europe’s Whole Foods, equivalent. So for us, Sunday mornings are exciting and very very delicious. Each week, we make something else. Sometimes waffles, or pancakes, Korvapuusti, cinnamon rolls…. Eggs and Bacon…..Varied varieties of muffins, scones…. The list stretches on for eternity. Once the cooking is done, we gather a delicious plate of food, and we take it to the living room and curl up to stuff ourselves for our once a week sin festival of high calorie home made food, while we tune into some sort of movie or tv show that rots our brain. And we enjoy the morning quietly together. No fussing no fighting. Not until after breakfast. Whatever disagreements we have get put on hold. Whatever stresses we have get forgotten. And for just a short time, on Sunday morning we relax and enjoy ourselves. Some folks go to church. We go to the kitchen and make our Sunday breakfast together.

 

Today, we took some pictures while making some really good bagels. They are loads of fun, because, you can make them in whatever flavor you like. Even if you want a different flavor for each one, just by adding something on top of them just before they are to go into the oven.

 

 

Bagels, have several steps. First you must gather the ingredients.

• 1 tablespoon unbleached organic sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup water, make sure the water is between, 85 degrees fahrenheit and 96 degrees also fahrenheit.
• 1 tablespoon of organic honey
• 2 and 1/4 cups organic all purpose white flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

 

In addition to these ingredients, you can also have a variety of nuts any kind you like really and any kind of seed as well. Such as but not limited to, raw pine nuts, sesame seeds, finely chopped almonds, sunflower seeds… The list goes on forever.  We also like to brush our bagels with a little bit of egg before we put them into the oven. We think it helps the topping stay put better.

 

 

In our kitchen we work with a fabulous little bread machine which includes a setting for just mixing. When we make bagels, we put our ingredients in wet first, followed by dry on top. Then, we set it to mix and we wait a few minutes. You should if you do not have a bread maker be able to mix your ingredients to make the dough yourself in a bowl.  Put the wet ingredients in a big bowl and slowly add in the dry ingredients as you mix.  In our bread machine we add the yeast at the end in the center of the pan on top of all the other ingredients.

 

 

Once your dough is mixed, make sure you have a a flat surface lightly floured to put your dough on. We use, a large cutting board. We flower it and then we gather our dough on top of it. Next, you break your dough into  2 fairly equally sized halves. Then, you break each of these halves into 3 smaller pieces. You, roll each small piece into a ball. Flatten it slightly, and then, push your thumb through the center to create your hole. You might want to enlarge the hole some using said thumb once you have punched through the dough. You repeat this step on all of your round little balls of dough.

 

 

 

Cover the bagel shaped dough balls with saran wrap and a couple of clean dish towels and let them sit for about 45 minutes so that they will rise.

 

 

Before uncovering your bagel dough balls, make sure to preheat the oven to about 350 fahrenheit and place a pot of water on the stove to boil. Prepare your baking pan to go in the oven. Butter it oil it or put down baking paper like we do. When your pot of water on the stove boils, lower your bagel into it for up to about 2 or 2 and a half minutes max. Make sure both sides of your bagel spend time in the  boiling water. Remove bagel from the pot of boiling water and set it in it’s place on the baking sheet. If you want a plane bagel, do not brush it with egg and do not add any kind of topping. If you want your bagel flavorful, brush it with a little beaten egg, and then add your choice of topping. Any kind of nut or seed would really work here. So, this is where your own artistry in the kitchen steps in. You can make each bagel a different kind if you wish. There is no wrong kind to be made. Just dip it into the water for about 2 minutes, and then brush the top with egg and add your topping. Once you have gone through this process with all 6 of your bagels, it is time to set the timer to about 15 to 20 minutesish, (you may want to check them at 10 minutes) and put them into the oven.

 

 

 

Wait till the bagels are hot but not too hot, and put your choice of cheese and salami, or butter,  jam, or peanut butter, or whatever garnish you wish onto your bagels and they are ready to be eaten! You can even prepare an egg and or a side of bacon to go with them or a small fruit salad as a side dish. The options are endless. But no matter what you choose, your breakfast will be amazing!