This morning I woke up and decided, why some bread? Why not some bagels! And that is all it took to start my bagel baking!

Now I was rather excitied with how these turned out! Especially since I created my own recipe seeking out a nice, chewy, multi-grain bagel in the end.

To start with;

I combined in a large bowl - 1 and a half cups of luke warm water, a packet of yeast and 1 tablespoon of organic cane sugar and then set it aside while I continued on with the other ingredients.

I proceeded to mix together 2 tablespoons of organic cane sugar, 2 teaspoons of sea salt, 2 table spoons of organic vital wheat gluten, 1 cup of KAF Organic Flour, 2/3 Cups KAF White Whole wheat flour and 1/3 cup mix of 10 grain cereal until well mixed.

Then I poured in the yeast mixture and proceeded to mix the dough adding a bit of water until it came together into a nice semi-shaggy mass which I then in turn promptly floured my counter and proceeded to kneed the dough for 8 minutes until I achieved a slighty tacky dough.

Once the gluten was developed to what I felt was sufficient, I gave it an hour rest covered with plastic wrap in a oiled bowl.

After the rest I pre-heated my oven to 425 f and also started boiling a large pot of water with a pinch of salt and moved onto forming tweleve balls of dough out of the original bagel dough making sure to cover them with a damp towel after they were formed.

Then onto the bagel shaping and boiling! By taking an individual piece of dough I proceeded to poke my thumb gently through the middle until I made a slight hole. When this happened I started to have fun by placing the dough ring on my index finger and twirling it around until the hole was almost the size of a 50 cent piece. Once all the bagel were shaped I placed them (3 at a time) in the boiling water and boiled them for 1 minute, then flipping for another minute and placing them on my baking sheet and covering with sesame or poppy seeds then a towel until all were ready to bake.

After all of the fun the bagels were ready to bake and I proceeded to bake them for 20 minutes in batches of six. The end result was exactly what I wanted!

I also attempted my first strudel today using some organic whole wheat phillo dough, unforunately it looks sloppy, but it did taste excellent for lunch as dessert! And I know I will be attempting to 'strudel' again.

It was filled with fresh strawberries coated in powdered sugar, delicious!