Bagels

Bagels! Here is the sponge mixture...

Resting for 2 hours...

2 hours done...not as bubbly or foamy as I'd thought...

Adding the rest of the dry ingredients... I was able to find Barley Malt at my local Henry's store.

My KitchenAid mixer started to smoke when I was mixing this...so I had to roll up my sleeves & finish it myself... I never came to a good "window pane" test...the dough always ripped...but my arms were tired so I just divided up the dough...

4.5 oz for each piece

I ended up with 14 pieces exactly at 4.5 oz & one straggler at about 3.5oz

Then I decided it was time to finish off the remaining ounces of this yummy Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon...

My husband asked for chocolate chip bagels...so I was happy to figure something out...

I used the "poke your thumb through the dough" method...worked well for me...

For 3 of the pieces, I smooshed in about 1/8 cup of chocolate chips...

On these two I wanted to see what the result would be to flavor the dough overnight...OK...into the fridge for the overnight proof...

Here goes...my first bagel in its very own boiling bagel bath...

One minute per side...

Flip for another minute on the other side...

Ready to come out...

My assembly line...

Looks like a big fat doughnut to me!

A little sesame seed/poppy seed/kosher salt mixture & then cinnamon & sugar...

I kept waiting for them to deflate...

& waiting...

& waiting...

But they didn't!

Now for the chocolate chip ones...

Experimentation time...

So far so good...only one started to tear open a bit...the water turn a bit brown from the chocolate...

These 5 sort of lost their fullness...but if its filled with chocolate, I don't care...

After 10 minutes in the oven they were done! My entire house smelled like a real bakery..

Wow...they turned out really well...

Of course I was anxious to see what the chocolate stuffed bagel tasted like...

Obviously not quite a chocolate croissant, but not a chocolate doughnut either..

The chocolate was all gooey & melted & the bagel dough very soft...an aquired taste...

Quite a lot of steps in the bagel recipe itself & in this post, but I wanted to capture just how easy this was...Next time I'd have more topping handy to make more of a variety.