We’ve been asked to research quite a few recipes to make in class recently, which is well worth the extra work. As I’ve said before, I like making what I like. Also, you feel a bit more protective of your specially culled recipes, especially because you realize the risks of using it for the first time with a mathematically adjusted amount in an academic environment with professional equipment.

I had a hard time finding a recipe for the specialty bagel we were supposed to come up with, so I used Mark Bittman’s basic bagel recipe from How to Cook Everything and then decided how much cheese to use through percentages. Baker’s percentage factors the flour at 100%, and all other ingredients are percented around it (so somewhat confusingly, the recipe always totals above 100%) About 8% cheese seemed good. And for 12 bagels, 1.5 tsp dried herbs was recommended on one website, so I went with that — after converting it to weight, and for fresh herbs, and for 24 bagels.

We grated swiss cheese, and minced parsley and chives. The dough was initially very dense, but an hour and twenty minutes into the 2 hr recommended proof time, it was very gassy and light. The chef later recommended decreasing the yeast by 25%, so that played a part. The proof box is probably more effective than the room temp proof envisioned by Bittman for the home baker, too. We had our doubts about them as we shaped (by poking a finger through a ball of dough and working it bigger) and boiled them. They were full of gas bubbles and got wrinkly. But once they came out of the oven, golden and smoothed out, we were smitten.

They were a little more cakey than some bagels (though probably not more than Noah’s), but they were perfectly chewy and tasty. The swiss cheese is a great bagel flavor, and I’m surprised that it’s not commonly made. The grated cheese melted seamlessly into the dough, adding some richness, and the herbs held up for a rounded taste. I’d probably add more herbs next time, though; they were just speckled here and there in the dough.
I made a bagel sandwich with the hanger steak we had for lunch…. Fantastic.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Culinary School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.