I tried my hand at blueberry bagels this morning. Making bagels isn't that hard, but I definitely need more practice. I've tried a wheat bagel recipe & now the blueberry one. They taste good, but didn't rise like I thought they should.
Note, if you try this recipe, Make sure you read the "comment" about the recipe on the bottom. Also, I would not recommend using fresh blueberries like I did... it was one heck of a mess. I wanted to just quit, but I couldn't let myself waste the fresh berries so I pressed onward. Just beware. I will not make it again with fresh berries... only dried.
http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/breadsbakery/r/blueberrybagels.htm
Blueberry Bagels
By
Bagels are one of those breads that are often--but not always--dairy-free, but, like so many things, making them at home is so fun and tasty, and they freeze and keep well for rushed mornings.
Makes 10 to 12 bagels
Ingredients:
- 2 cups warm water
- 2 .25-ounce packets dry active yeast
- 3 T. plus 2 t. white granulated sugar (I prefer unrefined cane sugar)
- 5- 5 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour
- 2 t. salt
- 2 cups blueberries, fresh or dried (I prefer fresh tiny varieties)
- Cornmeal, for pans
- 10-12 cups water
Preparation:
1. In a medium-large mixing bowl, combine the warm water, yeast and the 3 T. sugar, stirring gently until dissolved. Allow the mixture to stand for 5 minutes or until bubbly. (If no bubbles surface, this means that most likely your yeast is no longer "active"; discard your mixture and use fresh yeast.) Add in 4 1/2 cups of the flour and salt gradually until the mixture comes together into a soft dough. Fold in the blueberries gently. Add the remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time until the dough is stiff but not dry. Turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is elastic and no longer sticks to your hands, adding flour as needed, about 7-10 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat, cover with a clean dish cloth and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 F. LIghtly oil a large baking sheet.
3. Punch down the dough and divide it into 10 to 12 pieces, depending on how large you want your bagels. Shape each piece into a ball and then, using your fingers, make a hole in the center, gently stretching the dough until the hole is the size of a large coin. Place the bagels on the prepared sheet as you work, then cover with the clean dish towel and let rise for an additional 25 minutes.
4. Lightly oil another large baking sheet and sprinkle lightly with the cornmeal. Bring the 10-12 cups of water to a boil in a large pot with the remaining 2 t. sugar. Working in batches (about 3-4 at a time), gently submerge the bagels into the boiling water and boil until they rise to the top, about 3-5 minutes. Transfer the bagels to the prepared baking sheet and repeat until all of the bagels have been boiled. Bake for 35 minutes, flipping after the first 5, until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.
User Reviews
Good ingredients, poor instruction, Member pineapple.express
While the end product tasted good, the entire process of making these bagels was incredibly stressful, mainly because the directions were very unclear and also gave a very inefficient method. I have a few recommendations: 1) Use high rise yeast. I found that the dough rose a twice as fast as the recipe said and made the job go by somewhat faster with the same end result. 2) Before you put the dough in an oiled bowl to rise you MUST mead it with a lot of flour. I'm not sure this recipe calls for enough flour in the initial mixing process. 3) Instead of punching the holes with your fingers, roll the dough out into strips and pinch them together into an O. This is much easier and it is how they do it in bagel shops anyway, I have now clue why this recipe wants you to do it differently. 4) Separate dough into very small sized bagels. Trust me, they with rise a lot! I also found that when you boiled the dough, it did not sink to the bottom of the pot. I was kinda confused about this, but it didn't seem to have a negative impact. Also, this recipe appears to be a little out of order. You want to mix the dough, mead it, put it in a bowl to rise, punch it down, separate and shape it, let it rise again, boil, and bake. I was a little confused about how it was written, but it wasn't to hard to sort out. I also put an egg glaze on top and sprinkled them with sugar before baking.
No comments:
Post a Comment