On Sun, 11 Nov 2007 10:19:59 -0600, Nick Cramer wrote:
> 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
>
> **********************************
>
> 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]
)
Google for a Kosher Bakery, there must be a number of them in LA. One
step down would be one of the bagel chains, Einstein Bros is actually
pretty decent.
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