Revisiting the Everyday Bagel

Bagels used to be so mysterious to me. Their texture so unlike any other bread. Peter Reinhart's method of bagel making is easy and will totally de-mystify the bagel making process. Clara formed these for me...she's a great bagel maker.

I used white flour this time, but whole wheat flour worked beautifully last time.

You will have to start a day before you want to eat them, but the hands on time is very minimal. So worth the time! Give it a try.

Today we are enjoying Cinnamon Sugar, Everything, and Sesame Seed Bagels.

The Everyday Bagel

Our family has always eaten a lot of bagels and it wasn't even something I thought about making until Jim bought me the book Artisan Breads Everyday by Peter Reinhart. I love his technique for bread making. For some reason they just work! Multi-grain and whole wheat breads are my favourite but I always had terrible results with them being hard or yeasty or flat. Not so with Peter's recipes. I have made 4 beautifully delicious loaves so far. I highly recommend the book.

For the last month I have not bought bread at all because I have found his method so easy and the results so perfect.

Peter says in his book that bagels are one of the easiest breads to make so I felt confident and went for it. He was right. Though there are a few steps to the process, each step is easy and quite fun.

This batch yielded 8 whole-wheat honey bagels so I topped one half with a little fleur de sel and the other with melted butter and cinnamon sugar.

My bagel loving family was eager to come share the hot morsels straight away so we had a little impromptu brunch.

All that remains is a lonely quarter bagel, a few crumbs and a smear of cream cheese.

I will be making bagels again very soon.

**Recently found someone (The Wednesday Chef) who typed out the whole method...for anyone out there who is interested in giving these bagels a try. They are fantastic. Im making them today.