Things have been a little quiet at Dew Drop Gifts, I had my last summer fair a few weekends ago and now to start planning for the Christmas ones.
I have been totally taken with the new series of Great British bake off, not normally a fan of these programmes I have surprised myself by enjoying the series so far. This week was an episode on bread, the variety of flat breads sounded delicious and the attempts at the 8 strand plaited loaf were amazing. Then there were the bagels!
While watching the episode I decided it was time to start some baking, which I love to do but don't always find the time, a poor excuse I know. So this morning I decided to try and make some bagels for lunch- no pressure then to get them right! we would either have a yummy lunch or no lunch at all.
I opted for the lazy option and put all the ingredients into the bread maker, well that is what it is there for after all, and allowed me to get on with other things around the house.
The bagels were surprisingly easy to make, my evenly dividing the mixture into 12 portions then shaping them into a ring. I found it easier to make a ball shape, create a hole with a finger and then shape the bagel. My 2 girls had a go at making a few too. They were then left to rise, time to put the shopping away that was delivered earlier on. Now for the fun to begin, poaching the bagels. This had to be done 1 at a time as I didn't have a pan big enough. Thankfully no major disasters, although they didn't end up very puffed up. I will have to look into solving this problem.
Eventually after poaching 12 bagels it was time to coat them in the beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy & sesame seeds with 1 onion seed and a few plain. They didn't turn out too bad and in time for lunch. The moment of truth was upon us. The girls and I sat down for lunch with salmon, philadelphia and some humus. With our knives poised for action we tucked in, well they weren't as smooth on the outside and as fat as a shop bought bagel. They were chewy like a bagel and tasted good!
After a semi successful bagel bake I think I will try and do more baking and may be try one bake from each of the episodes of this years Great British Bake Off.
