Going Flat Out

My first ever blog crush was David Lebovitz. I love his writing and his passion for food. What a bonus that his recipes are easy to follow and give amazing results.

When I got to attend his ice cream class promoting The Perfect Scoop, I was just about incoherent, stuttering and blushing like a jr. high girl meeting Zac Efron. Actually, I'd probably do that meeting Zac, too. I think he's pretty cute.

But crushing aside, I think David's blog is the bomb. It's a goldmine of information, entertainment, and recipes. And he usually makes me laugh. Not just quietly chuckle, but snort milk through the nose laugh.

Recently I'd taken on a personal challenge to bake Peter Reinhart's bagels. I was not fastidious in following directions, taking a somewhat careless approach to things like rising times and shaping directions. Having made bagels before, I was pretty sure that this batch wasn't going well. The dough never felt as stiff as what I was used to. After the shaped bagels rose, they felt slack and sticky, and when I attempted to remove them from the pan to boil them, they…. well, they went flat. I hoped they'd revive in the oven and puff up. No such luck. They came out looking like sports equipment - a discus minus a center. But they tasted good. I consoled myself with that as I toasted them, smeared them with cream cheese, and made sandwiches from them. They did taste good.

But then I read a post of David L's wondering why store-bought bagels had gotten so puffy, like a celebutant's collagen-filled lips. He said that some of the best bagels he'd ever tasted were flat.


"Ha ha!" I yelled, leaping up from the computer and fist-pumping the air. "According to David, my bagels weren't failures!" There was no one else around to appreciate my moment of triumph, but I definitely exulted.

See why I crush on him? Who else can take a kitchen fail and turn it into a high five?

Speaking of which, I'm awarding myself a High Five for finally getting around to trying this recipe. I've had this cookbook for over a year, and this is the first recipe I've been brave enough to try.


Note: Read through the recipe all the way before starting, noting the rising times and making sure you have all the ingredients and equipment. The bagels are mixed and shaped the day before baking and rest overnight in the refrigerator, so make sure you have space in the refrigerator for two baking sheets.

Deliciously Flat Bagels
- adapted from Bread Baker's Apprentice
by Peter Reinhart


Sponge:
1 tsp instant yeast
4 cups (18 oz) unbleached bread flour
2-1/2 cups (20 oz) water, at room temperature

Dough:
1/2 tsp instant yeast
3-3/4 cups (17 oz) unbleached bread flour
2-3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp malt powder OR
1 Tbsp dark or light malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar

To Finish:
1 Tbsp baking soda
Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting
Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, kosher salt, rehydrated dried minced garlic or onions

1- Sponge: In a 4-quart mixing bowl, stir the yeast into the flour. Add the water, stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (think pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly. It should nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the countertop.

2- In the same mixing bowl, add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of the flour, the salt and the malt. Stir (or use low speed on an electric mixer with a dough hook) until the ingredients form a ball, slowly working in the remaining 3/4 cup flour to stiffen the dough.

3- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for at least 10 minutes (or 6 minutes by machine). The dough should be firm, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no spots of raw flour and the dough should be 77 to 81 deg. F (use an instant read thermometer). If the dough is too dry, add a few drops of water and knead it in. If the dough seems sticky, add more flour a bit at a time till it feels sufficiently firm. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable, but not tacky.

4- Immediately divide the dough into 12 pieces of 4-1/2 oz each. Shape each piece into a ball.

5- Cover the balls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for 20 minutes.

6- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly mist with cooking spray.

7- Take the dough balls one at a time and shape them by gently pushing your thumb through the center of the ball and working your way around the ring to evenly stretch it till the center hole is about 2-1/2 inches across.

8- Place the dough rings on the pans 2 inches apart. Spray the rings lightly with the cooking spray. Cover each tray loosely with plastic wrap, or slip it inside a large food-grade plastic bag. Let sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

9- Check to see if the bagels are ready for their rest in the refrigerator. Fill a small bowl with cool water. Take one bagel and drop it into the water. If it floats with 10 seconds, the bagels are ready. Return the bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan with plastic, and place in the refrigerator overnight (or as long as 2 days).

If the bagel does not float, return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the room temperature and the stiffness of the dough.

10- The next day (or when you are ready to bake the bagels), preheat the oven to 500 deg. F with two racks in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (the wider the pot, the better), and add the baking soda. Have a slotted soon handy. Sprinkle the parchment-lined baking sheets with cornmeal or semolina flour

11- Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit (they should float within 10 seconds). After 1 minute flip them over and boil for another minute. For very chewy bagels, you and make it 2 minutes per side. Using the slotted spoon, scoop out the bagels, one at a time, let drip briefly and then transfer to the baking sheet.

12- If you want to top the bagels, do so as soon as they come out of the water. You can use any of the suggestions in the ingredients list or a combination.

13- When all the bagels have been boiled, place the pans in the oven. Bake for about 5 minutes, then rotate the pans, switching shelves and turning back to front. After the rotation, lower the oven temperature to 450 deg. F and bake for about 5 minutes more, until the bagels turn light golden brown. If you prefer darker bagels, leave them in a few minutes longer.

14 - Remove the pans from the oven and remove the bagels to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before serving.

A Bit Of Business

I've been sick all week, so I don't have the energy to put up much of a post. Just wanted to put up a few notices.

First of all, there are still 2 days over at Simple Bites and its affiliates to enter to win awesome prizes. Check it out!

And, in my last post, I forgot to award myself a High Five- I Did It! badge for taking on the macaron challenge. With Helen's excellent instructions, they weren't that difficult, really. I've made them twice already. So, if the macaron is on your "to tackle" list, I encourage you to give it a go and earn a High Five for yourself.



Have a fabulous weekend and a safe Fourth of July!

Preserving Spring

My very first High Five post! Go me! Since my first post bearing the prestigious High Five badge is in April, I'm going to have to hustle to get ten up by years' end and earn the mega cool High Ten badge.

(If you're wondering what a High Five is, and how you, too, can have this cool badge of honor on your blog, read this post.)




I have wanted to try crystallizing flowers for a long time. I love the dainty beauty of sugar-dusted blossoms and, because my cake decorating skills are so atrocious, they are the perfect cake or cupcake topper for me. But buying them in stores is holy moley expensive. I wanted something to dress up the wedding cake, so I thought now would be a good time to try my hand at crystallizing violets.



If they're that expensive, they must be tough to do, right? Not so. They are actually quite easy. All you need is fresh flowers, which were grown without pesticides or other nasty chemicals, a fine paintbrush, an egg white or egg white powder, super-fine sugar, and waxed paper on which to dry the flowers. Optional is tweezers to hold the flowers, if they're quite small or delicate.

Make sure the flowers you're using are edible. Good choices include violets, pansies, rose petals (no systemic insecticides, please), lilac florets, scented geraniums, and apple or plum blossoms. They should be picked first thing in the morning and have the dew thoroughly dried off.



I don't keep super-fine sugar on hand, so while my daughter was outside picking violets from the abundance trying to take over my yard, I threw some in my food processor and whirled it around till it was very fine. Then it went into a small dish with a small spoon (still haven't gotten rid of the baby cutlery).

Next I whisked an egg white with 1 Tbsp of water in another small bowl just till it started to appear frothy (a few bubbles). You can use up to 2 Tbsp of water to get the desired consistency. You want it thin enough that you can paint a very thin layer on the flower. If it's too gloopy, add a bit more water.

If you are wary of using raw egg whites, substitute egg white powder (also called meringue powder) for this step and reconstitute it to the appropriate thickness.

Holding the flower gently in one hand (with tweezers, if the blossom is dainty), dip the paintbrush in the egg white solution and gently brush the petals with it, making sure to cover every part of the flower, both front and back.



Then, holding the flower over the sugar bowl, take a small spoonful of the super fine sugar and gently shake it over the flower, turning the flower so the sugar dusts every surface.



Carefully arrange your flower on the sheet of waxed paper, using the tweezers to rearrange petals, if necessary. If you find you missed a small spot, dust a little more sugar over it, or paint more egg white, then dust.

The flowers should be left undisturbed to dry for up to 48 hours, depending on your humidity. When they are thoroughly dried, place them in an airtight container, with waxed paper separating the layers.

For a baker friend, a small box or tin of handmade crystallized flowers is a wonderful gift!

I Did It (and you can, too)

I'm not really much of a joiner. My rebellious side doesn't do well with others telling me what to do. I was talked into joining the Daring Bakers and I was delighted to be a member during the time I participated. But I soon found that I chafed under the rules and wasn't always eager to make the challenge that was selected. Either it wasn't a challenge for me, or I didn't have anybody to eat that particular challenge, and it was really wasteful to make something just to be part of the group. So I dropped DB.

But I do have many mountains left to conquer in the cooking realm. So I'm starting a new group. It's actually an UnGroup. You don't have to ask to join. You don't have to follow anyone else's schedule. You won't feel left out if you don't participate.

So what is this ungroup? It's the I Did It! ungroup. You select the challenge - you know best what intimidates you, what you've been putting off trying. When you put up your post, just slap up this logo to let the world know you've taken on something new and given it a good kicking!



(Special thanks to the super-talented Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms for making the badge for me!)

Go ahead, grab the badge right now and tuck it into a folder to save for later. All I ask is that you put a link to this post by the badge so the word can spread and others can push themselves and reward their efforts with a high five.

This year, since I'm starting late in the year, there will be ten opportunities to high five yourself. (Of course, since this is an ungroup, with almost no rules, you can high five yourself as often as you like). You could do ten in one month, or one a month, or whatever you're inspired to do. In December, if you've posted ten I Did It's!, send me the link and I'll send you back an official High Ten! Badge to put on your blog, plus a round-up of all the participants.

So, grab that badge, store it with the link to this post, and start making a list of all the things you've wanted to try, but just needed an excuse or a small push to do. I can't wait to see what you come up with!