Making Bread
Tue, August 11, 2009 at 04:00AM 
The rich smell of cinnamon raisin bagels hot out of the oven, a decadent scent that permeated our bagel bakery in Pennsylvania (closed years ago). The bagels were perfect. Perfection.
In spots like NYC you can still get a good bagel. But I digress. This is about one of our summer projects, baking bread. When I asked the girls if they wanted to bake bread, they selected bagels, bolillos and blueberry muffins from our bread book. The bagel story unfolds.
We used the big mixer with a dough hook to help in the process. I am careful not to tax my hands, as they're weak. The girls took turns measuring and adding ingredients to the bowl, and watched as the mixer did its job. After a yummy yeasty taste, we let the dough rise (they wanted to check every 5 minutes) and mixed it again, then divided the dough into balls. The girls made 8 bagels, poking a hole through each dough ball with a finger, then twirling the dough around their finger to make a circle! We were just cracking up! It was fairly elastic and fun to work.
We over-worked the dough, but we didn't care! After letting the dough rise again, I dropped them into simmering water, then popped them in the oven for 20 minutes. The bagels were crusty and wonderful, full of flavor. Not just a roll with a hole. Next time, we'll add flavors... tomato & garlic, chocolate chip, raisin & cinnamon, poppyseed.
Reader Comments (4)
Ooooohhhh . . . I can almost smell the yeast from the dough and taste the yummy results! I remember my Grandmother's homemade bread, the feel and smell of the dough, and the smell of hot bread emanating from the oven! Pure Heaven! What a beautiful memory you've made for your girls, Tammy! Hugs, Terri xoxo
They look like they were a lot of fun to make. I've never tried bagels, but I'm going to have to try now :-)
My dad is the bread baker in our family, he used to do this for special occasions like birthdays and holidays and oh, a nice sunday morning... I loved helping him, and making my own shapes. Now they've got a bread making machine, and he still likes to experiment with it, adding ingredients as he goes along, and it's always tasty!
Such a great idea to do this with your daughters, so many lessons learned from baking bread!
Terri, Sam & Eveline, Thank you for your kind words about baking bread. I have warm memories of baking with my mother and I hope my girls will remember these days... such fun! ~ Tammy