One Child Policy Homeschool

• April 22, 2007 - Bagels from Scratch

I've always enjoyed cooking and trying new recipes. And I've always prided myself on my ability to cook from scratch -- better tasting, healthier, and usually cheaper than buying pre-made.

Then comes LIFE IN CHINA.....

Living here has forced me to make things I never thought I would. The term "cooking from scratch" takes on a whole new meaning! Scratch means starting at an even more basic level.

Consider this:

frozen burritos
buying tortillas, meat, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, and salsa to make them "from scratch"
making homemade tortillas, making homemade salsa, draining homemade yogurt to make sour cream, buying lettuce, meat, and cheese to make them "from scratch"

I used to think that the middle option was cooking from scratch, and it was -- THEN. But now, I'm at the bottom option. Not because I necessarily want to cook from scratch like that, but simply because I have to.

You're probably thinking, that you'd NEVER make tortillas or salsa from scratch. Yeah, I used to think that too. And for a long time I didn't . But then I really started to miss those things and I realized that it's actually worth the effort to make them. After all, there is nowhere to buy them, so the only recourse is to make them yourself.

I was reading Tammy's Recipes lately in which she was sharing about homemade bagels. "Oooh, bagels!" I thought. "I haven't had a bagel in quite some time! That would be so yummy. Let me try to make them!"

And thus you have my Saturday morning project -- making my first ever batch of bagels. It was a grand success!

Here is proof:

The crazed look on DH's face is because the bagels are so good!

The only problem is that I made only 8 bagels! Next time I'll double or triple the recipe. If I'm going to do all the work to make homemade bagels, I may as well make a lot. It's not really much more work to double or triple the batch.

I used the recipe at Bunnyfoot's blog.

Mixing the dough.
(Don't let the dark window fool you; I wasn't up THAT early. It was overcast in the morning.)

Making the dough into bagel shapes.

Boiling the dough -- this gives the bagels their characteristic chewy texture!

Draining the bagels after boiling them.

This is my addition to the recipe -- I brushed egg onto the bagels before sprinkling the sesame seeds. Simply break an egg into a dish, add 1 Tbsp. water, mix well, and brush onto your bread (of any kind) before baking. Brushing on egg makes your bread a nice golden brown.

Ready to go into the oven.

Voila! Bagels complete and ready to serve!

Comments

• April 22, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by drewsfamilytx

Wow, those look sooo delicious!'

Oi veh, woman, I live in the US of A....the land of a bzillion bagels. Now you're making NONE of them good enough for me! Aggghhh!!!

That might have to be my project for Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for posting the recipe too-- I love using recipes that are tried and true!

So did you have to make your own cream cheese?

Marsha