After leaving the bagels in cold storage for the day, I start prepping for the Boil and Bake portions of my Bagels.

I begin with a 20 quart Aluminum Stock Pot about 3/4 filled with water to which I then add 3 Tablespoons of Baking Soda.

While this is heating up I preheat my oven up to 500'f.

Once water is at a boil I will add in bagels, in batches of 6.  Now following BBA you would boil for 1-2 minutes per side.  I was doing this for 2 minutes per side for a long time.  Recently though I read Mike Avery (whom I have a lot of respect for), mention that anything over 30 seconds per side will end up putting wrinkles on your bagels.  Well I had wrinkles on every batch, so I did this batch for only 30 seconds per side.

While these boiled I prepped a 1/2 sheet pan with parchment paper for the bake. My 3/4 sheet pans are too tight in the oven.

Once boiled I baked them at 500' for 5 minutes, then rotate pan 180' and bake for another 5 minutes.

Again, BBA will say to drop oven temp to 450' after rotating pan.  I do not though because I'm doing multiple batches.  Its just much easier than changing temps back and forth.

After the bake, here is what they look like.

And the bottom..

And the crumb...

LOL, and yes before anyone mentions...I know that without the big center hole these look more like a Bialy than a Bagel, but that is intentional.  I like a more closed up center, its easier for me to load up with cream cheese or to make a sammie out of. 

I also can make them darker, but again, I like the chewy better than crusty.  My regular bagels are a couple shades darker then these SD bagels but still pretty light color overall. 

Im good with it though.....

TT

Because I always like the books with the pictures, I also like to take lots of pics for instructional purposes.  Its always easier to understand if you can see it for yourself.

This is double batch of SD Bagels....

My recipe is from BBA...

I start with 70oz. of SD starter to which I add 3 teaspoons of Instant Yeast and mix in.

To this add in 34oz. of High Gluten flour ( I use KA Sir Lancelot)

1.4oz. Kosher Salt

1.0oz Honey

I then mix all together to get a rough mass.

I then dump contents out onto counter to begin mixing by hand.

Mix well by hand and then begin kneading and folding.

I will do this until most of the sticky dough has pulled back off of my hands and it all looks like this (about 6 minutes).

Next step- I let dough just sit on counter while I take a 3/4 sheet pan and line in with parchment paper.

I will now go back to dough and begin cutting 5oz. pieces off with a bench knife.

Take the 5oz. pieces and shape them into a ball like making dinner rolls, or any other rounds.  I dont worry about being perfect as long as it is round-ish..

Take the dough ball and place it on the sheet pan.  Let the balls touch each other as you are placing them.

Now take a dish towel, get it soak and wet with warm water.  Ring out excess water and drape over rounds.  This will prevent dough from drying out while you finish.

Once all rounds have been made cover entire thing with towel and let sit for 20 minutes.

I will use this time to now clean my workspace and prepare my pans for the shaped bagels.

On this sheet pan however I spray a thin layer of EVOO.

Now to uncover your bagel rounds once your 20 minutes is up.

Begin shaping the bagels.  To start out I roll a ball into a log shape rolling it on the counter to slowly stretch.

Take this piece and wrap it around your hand and overlap.

Now roll your hand on counter forward and back to seal bagel.

Place these shaped bagels onto your lightly oiled parchment papered pan.

Do this until all your bagels are shaped, then cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Now these go right into my cold storage.  I do not rest them on counters or anything else that would delay.  They go right into cold storage.

At this point you can wait until next day to do the boil and bake, or in my case since I made this batch 4 hours ago, I will do the boil and bake stages about 4 hours from now.  See you in 4 hours bagel buddies...

TT

One of the families favorites, pizza..

Pizza is extremely easy to make from scratch, better than delivery, and a great way to impress guests.

Average time of making 3 pizzas from scratch about and hour and a quarter start to finish.

My recipe is simple.

• 908 grams bread flour (I use KA special)
• 14 grams instant yeast
• 29 grams Kosher salt
• 600 grams spring water (since my tap water is yucko)

I place weighed flour in large bowl, and whisk in yeast.

Once whisked in I then whisk in the salt.

Once done pour in 3/4 of water and mix with bare hand.  When dough in starting to form from mess, add in rest of water and mix by hand until flour is all off of bowl and you have a pretty sticky mess in your hand. 

Dump all onto bare counter (no flour).  Continue mixing with bare hands until you have a good incorperation.  Then start kneading.  I knead until most of the dough has pulled off of my hands leaving my hands fairly clean (about 8 minutes).

I then cut into 3 equal weighing pieces.  I then take pizza proofing pans and spray EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) all around insides of each pan until nice even coating. 

I shape each dough piece into a dough ball and place each in seperate pan and swirl around until evenly coated with the oil.

Then stack pans and let sit about 45 minutes.

At 30 minutes I place my baking stone in oven and preheat to 500'f.

At 45 minutes I will dump out first dough onto floured work surface.

Once dough  is dumped out I flatten into about an 8-10inch round.

At this stage I will start hand tossing pizza dough until large enough to fill a large pizza screen.

Now the easy part, top with your favorite toppings..

Tonight I started with a Turkey Sausage, Mushroom, and Onion.

Top this with hand shredded Mozz. cheese.

Place pizza and screen on stone and bake for 5 minutes, at this time I will open oven and pull out screen from under pizza (I use a pizza peal to aid in this move.  I then continue to bake for another 5 minutes this way it has a nice brown bottom to the pizza.

At ten minutes pizza is done and here you have it.

I do this all over again 2 more times with a pepperoni version, and a plain cheese.

Now everybody has a full tummy, even my side kick Tonka

Though his tummy is filled with mostly Pedigree dry food with some left over turkey sausage, but he seems just as happy...

O.K. So to all my friends out there, I have been watching at times, even when I wasnt posting.  Last year was a great year, I built raised garden beds in my back yard to replace my regular garden, and we had great harvests.  Pic's are on my smugmug site, check it out if you would like.  Its much easier on the back, and there is no weeding to be done, my favorite part.

Thanks for checking out my latest,

TT

This recipe is from "Hodgson Mills Whole Grain Baking" book.  I was reading this book last night when I came across this recipe.  After reading it over I thought, why not.  I like Cinnamon Rolls. 

Heres the recipe:

For the Dough:

After seeing some of the posts of bread bowls, I figured I would give it a whirl.  I made 4 White bread bowls, which were actually full size boules.  And made Broccoli Cheese Soup from a Panera Bread recipe I found online.

Here are 3 of the 4.  My youngest had little patience in waiting for me to get photos of them all, she was digging in while I was still posing my bowls.  Overall it was a huge hit.  My eldest daughter and I are huge soup fans, my wife is much more finicky with soups.  I got the nod of approval on this one though.  I would higly recommend it to others.

Well the day is finally winding down, and I think I am done. What a great day it has been.  I started off making the kids some home made pancakes from a recipe I found online some time ago.  Since they were made from scratch, my youngest calls 'em "Daddy's Scratchy Pancakes".  It stuck with the rest of the family as well, so that was their request before they went to bed last night.  After the scratchy pancakes were finished off I got to work on my breads.

One of this weekends breads.  I sure do like the sound of a fresh bread crackin as it cools down, and all them little blisters, love 'em.

Alright for those that know me here, you already know I like photos so it will be no surprise to you thats theres gonna be a bunch (browndog, you'll be glad you got dsl). 

Some months ago a nice fellow named Crumb Bum gave me a compliment about my experimentations, and not always following the bread books.  I really appreciated that and try to hold true to it still today.  I enjoy, and learn loads from all the books I have purchased on bread, but I like to do my own thing as well. 

First off I must admit something.  A little while back JMonkey asked me if I still had any of my old starters going, and I told him no, they had all been ditched.  Well, come to find out, that was not entirely true.  Lurking in the way back portions of the lower fridge a Cambro container of starter was found.  So off to the internet to see what month it was when I started it.  It appears to be from back in May.  Its a little grey (well maybe more than a little) , but its still sealed nicely.  Its got a bunch of hooch on top, so I go to my Crust and Crumb book to try to find out if R

Seems like everyone has their favorite soups to go with their breads this time of year. Well even an ol' carnivore like myself enjoys a nice soup and bread now and again.  So here ya have it. 

This recipe was given to me by my co-worker, so I do not claim ownership.  I do however, find it most excellent!!!

Black Bean & Ham Soup w/ Lime Wedges

1 Large Onion, chopped