Sholem aleykham,
That I post on Shabbat should tip you off that I'm a goy. I am originally
from da Bronx, now living in North Hollywood, CA. My name was Cristofalo,
but my Jewish friends at the Bronx High School of Science (Class of '52)
called me Cristofalberg. I'm still in close contact with one of them.
That's all why I know a very little Yiddish, poorly.
I have a question about bagels. The supermarket bagels here are awful. Can
anyone recommend a place that makes those wonderful bagels I remember from
my youth? Or a recipe handed down from Bobe? My Thai wife, who likes
bagels, although she has only tasted those supermarket ones, said she
would
make them for us. I found this recipe. Is it worth making?
A shaynam dank.
nick
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REAL HONEST JEWISH PURIST'S BAGELS
This is a recipe by my friend Johanne Blank.
Gentle reader, it is assumed that you know from bagels. The bagel, in it's
peripateic history, has moved from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the
delis of the United States, survived the onslaught of many a foreign
formulation and flavoring, and also has managed to remain relatively
dignified in the face of mass-production, freezing and other procedural
adulterations and bastardizations. In the United States, however, most
people's idea of a bagel seems to be of a vaguely squishy unsweetened
doughnut, possibly with some sort of godawful flavoring mixed into it
(with
the "blueberry bagel" being perhaps the most offensive), generally
purchased in lots of six in some supermarket... possibly even frozen.
These
are not those bagels.
These bagels are the genuine article. These are the bagels that have
sustained generations of Eastern European Jewish peasants, the bagels that
babies can teethe upon (folk wisdom has it that the hard, chewy crust
encourages strong teeth), the bagels about which writer and humorist Alice
Kahn has so aptly written that bagels are "Jewish courage."
This recipe makes approximately fifteen large bagels, The bagels are made
without eggs, milk or any type of shortening or oil, which makes them
pareve according to Kosher law. These bagels are plain, but I will provide
suggestions as to how you may customize them to your tastes while
retaining
their Pristine and Ineffable Nature. May you bake them and eat them in
good
health.
INGREDIENTS:
* 6-8 cups bread (high-gluten) flour
* 4 tablespoons dry baking yeast
* 6 tablespoons granulated white sugar or light honey (clover honey is
good)
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 3 cups hot water
* a bit of vegetable oil
* 1 gallon water
* 3-5 tablespoons malt syrup or sugar
* a few handfuls of cornmeal
EQUIPMENT:
* large mixing bowl
* wire whisk
* measuring cups and spoons
* wooden mixing spoon
* butter knife or baker's dough blade
* clean, dry surface for kneading
* 3 clean, dry kitchen towels
* warm, but not hot, place to set dough to rise
* large stockpot
* slotted spoon
* 2 baking sheets
HOW YOU DO IT:
First, pour three cups of hot water into the mixing bowl. The water should
be hot, but not so hot that you can't bear to put your fingers in it for
several seconds at a time. Add the sugar or honey and stir it with your
fingers (a good way to make sure the water is not too hot) or with a wire
whisk to dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the water, and
stir to dissolve.
Wait about ten minutes for the yeast to begin to revive and grow. This is
known as "proofing" the yeast, which simply means that you're checking to
make sure your yeast is viable. Skipping this step could result in your
trying to make bagels with dead yeast, which results in bagels so hard and
potentially dangerous that they are banned under the terms of the Geneva
Convention. You will know that the yeast is okay if it begins to foam and
exude a sweetish, slightly beery smell.
At this point, add about three cups of flour as well as the 2 tsp of salt
to the water and yeast and begin mixing it in. Some people subscribe to
the
theory that it is easier to tell what's going on with the dough if you use
your hands rather than a spoon to mix things into the dough, but others
prefer the less physically direct spoon. As an advocate of the
bare-knuckles school of baking, I proffer the following advice: clip your
fingernails, take off your rings and wristwatch, and wash your hands
thoroughly to the elbows, like a surgeon. Then you may dive into the dough
with impunity. I generally use my right hand to mix, so that my left is
free to add flour and other ingredients and to hold the bowl steady.
Left-handed people might find that the reverse works better for them.
Having one hand clean and free to perform various tasks works best.
When you have incor****ated the first three cups of flour, the dough should
begin to become thick-ish. Add more flour, a half-cup or so at a time, and
mix each addition thoroughly before adding more flour. As the dough gets
thicker, add less and less flour at a time. Soon you will begin to knead
it
by hand (if you're using your hands to mix the dough in the first place,
this segue is hardly noticeable). If you have a big enough and shallow
enough bowl, use it as the kneading bowl, otherwise use that clean, dry,
flat countertop or tabletop mentioned in the "Equipment" list above.
Sprinkle your work surface or bowl with a handful of flour, put your dough
on top, and start kneading. Add bits of flour if necessary to keep the
dough from sticking (to your hands, to the bowl or countertop, etc....).
Soon you should have a nice stiff dough. It will be quite elastic, but
heavy and stiffer than a normal bread dough. Do not make it too dry,
however... it should still give easily and stretch easily without tearing.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with one of your clean
kitchen towels, dampened somewhat by getting it wet and then wringing it
out thoroughly. If you swish the dough around in the bowl, you can get the
whole ball of dough covered with a very thin film of oil, which will keep
it from drying out.
Place the bowl with the dough in it in a dry, warm (but not hot) place,
free from drafts. Allow it to rise until doubled in volume. Some people
try
to accelerate rising by putting the dough in the oven, where the pilot
lights keep the temperature slightly elevated. If it's cold in your
kitchen, you can try this, but remember to leave the oven door open or it
may become too hot and begin to kill the yeast and cook the dough. An
ambient temperature of about 80 degrees Farenheit (25 centigrades) is
ideal
for rising dough.
While the dough is rising, fill your stockpot with about a gallon of water
and set it on the fire to boil. When it reaches a boil, add the malt syrup
or sugar and reduce the heat so that the water just barely simmers; the
surface of the water should hardly move.
Once the dough has risen, turn it onto your work surface, punch it down,
and divide immediately into as many hunks as you want to make bagels. For
this recipe, you will probably end up with about 15 bagels, so you will
divide the dough into 15 roughly even-sized hunks. Begin forming the
bagels. There are two schools of thought on this. One method of bagel
formation involves shaping the dough into a rough sphere, then poking a
hole through the middle with a finger and then pulling at the dough around
the hole to make the bagel. This is the hole-centric method. The
dough-centric method involves making a long cylindrical "s****" of dough
and wrapping it around your hand into a loop and ma****ng the ends
together.
Whatever you like to do is fine. DO NOT, however, give in to the
temptation
of using a doughnut or cookie cutter to shape your bagels. This will pusht
them out of the realm of Jewish Bagel Authenticity and give them a
distinctly Protestant air. The bagels will not be perfectly shaped. They
will not be symmetrical. This is normal. This is okay. Enjoy the
diversity.
Just like snowflakes, no two genuine bagels are exactly alike.
Begin to preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit (200 C).
Once the bagels are formed, let them sit for about 10 minutes. They will
begin to rise slightly. Ideally, they will rise by about one-fourth
volume... a technique called "half-proofing" the dough. At the end of the
half-proofing, drop the bagels into the simmering water one by one. You
don't want to crowd them, and so there should only be two or three bagels
simmering at any given time. The bagels should sink first, then gracefully
float to the top of the simmering water. If they float, it's not a big
deal, but it does mean that you'll have a somewhat more bready (and less
bagely) texture. Let the bagel simmer for about three minutes, then turn
them over with a skimmer or a slotted spoon. Simmer another three minutes,
and then lift the bagels out of the water and set them on a clean kitchen
towel that has been spread on the countertop for this purpose. The bagels
should be pretty and ****ny, thanks to the malt syrup or sugar in the
boiling water.
Once all the bagels have been boiled, prepare your baking sheets by
sprinkling them with cornmeal. Then arrange the bagels on the prepared
baking sheets and put them in the oven. Let them bake for about 25
minutes,
then remove from the oven, turn them over and put them back in the oven to
finish baking for about ten minutes more. This will help to prevent
flat-bottomed bagels.
Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks, or on a dry clean towels if
you have no racks. Do not attempt to cut them until they are cool... hot
bagels slice abominably and you'll end up with a wadded mass of bagel
pulp.
Don't do it.
Serve with good cream cheese.
TO CUSTOMIZE BAGELS: After boiling but before baking, brush the bagels
with
a wash made of 1 egg white and 3 tablespoons ice water beaten together.
Sprinkle with the topping of your choice: poppy, sesame, or caraway seeds,
toasted onion or raw garlic bits, salt or whatever you like. Just remember
that bagels are essentially a savory baked good, not a sweet one, and so
things like fruit and sweet spices are really rather out of place.
From: Carolina Rodriguez (crodrigu@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
)
--
Nick. Sup****t severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!
I've known US vets who served as far back as the Spanish American War.
They
are all my heroes! Thank a Veteran and Sup****t Our Troops. You are not
forgotten. Thanks ! ! ~Semper Fi~
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