Monday, April 20, 2009

Onion and Poppy Seed Bagels

When I decide to start experimenting with making bread without my bread machine, do I start with something nice and uncomplex? No, of course not!

My husband and I love bagels, but around here we can rarely find the one's we like (studded with poppy seeds and caramelized onions). So I decided to try my hand at making them.


Ingredients:

  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 oz package active dry yeast
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 TB butter
  • 2 TB superfine sugar
  • 1 egg, the yolk separated from the white, and the yolk beat with 1 tsp cold water
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Poppy seeds
  • 1 onion, caramelized

Directions:

  • Bring the milk to a boil in the microwave (I set mine on the beverage setting x 2).
  • Add the butter and the sugar and whisk together until the sugar dissolves.
  • Cool mixture until tepid (I put mine in the freezer for 5 minutes)

milkandbutter
  • Mix in the yeast, and leave for about 10 minutes, or until frothy.
yeast

yeast2


yeast3
  • Beat the egg white and the salt into the yeast solution.
  • Pour yeast mixture into a large bowl, and one cup at a time, combine the flour and the yeast mixture.
stir
  • Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
  • Knead the dough for 15 minutes.


dough
  • Form the dough into a ball and place into an oiled plastic bag.
  • I only had quart sized bags, so I divided my dough into 4 balls.
  • Leave it in a warm place for one hour, or until it has doubled in bulk.


rising
  • Set 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pan and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  • When the dough is done rising, divide into 16 even pieces, and roll into balls.
  • Flour your index fingers, and press both into the center of each ball and gently pull in opposite directions, forming a hole in the center.
bagels
  • Drop each bagel into the boiling water (Mine fit 4 at a time) and poach for 15 seconds on each side--I didn't get any photos of this part, because my lens kept steaming up!
  • Remove bagels onto a greased cookie sheet.
  • Whisk the teaspoon of water into the reserved egg yolk, and using a pastry brush, coat each bagel.
egg
  • Sprinkle over poppy seeds.
poppyseeds
  • Sprinkle over caramelized onions (I used 2 TB of butter and 1 onion diced small, cooked quickly on medium high heat until golden brown).

onions2.
  • Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

bagels2


What I listened to while I baked:

Jewelled Antler Box Set

Track 11: Cutting durmast was particularly nice to knead the dough to!

5 comments:

  1. I tried making bagels sometime back and made them a lot for awhile but I was never quite pleased with the texture - how did you like yours?
    Karen
    http://karensquilting.com/blog/

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  2. Wow Melanie, I am super impressed! I am seriously tempted to try making these. I love bagels with onions too.

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  3. The texture turned out really well. Nice and crisp on the outside, and dense, but soft on the inside.

    I was really pretty impressed with myself, Robert. :) The last time I tried to make a yeast bread without my bread machine I was quite a bit younger and just didn't have the patience. It turned out horribly!

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  4. Wow Melanie! Another BBQ conssiuere. (I know that the spelling of that is bad.) We lived in Kansas City, MO for 30 years before we retired and moved to Arkansas. Lots of very good BBQ there. We are spoiled and haven't found any good BBQ here in northern Arkansas. But, I did hear about a BBQ place that is 80 miles of north of Memphis that I would like to find out more about. We ate at Corky's in Memphis and it's not too bad, just not like KC BBQ. Hope you have fun on your quest. Hubby and I took a day trip to KC last month to eat BBQ at our favorite joint. Makes me want to hunt out my aunt's homemade recipe for BBQ sauce.
    Joyce Barham
    Omaha, AR

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  5. Joyce, I've been experimenting with bbq sauces and will be posting one up later this week--though I'm afraid it's more Carolina style than KC style!

    Is the one you heard of North of Memphis in Poplar Bluff? I had heard several things about Big D's. Right now hubby and I are debating wether our next stop will be Craig's in DeVall's Bluff (hwy 70 between LR and Memphis) or McClard's in Hot Springs. We know we'll be going to both, we just can't decide in which order!

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