Sometimes, you need to do something to make the world better. It’s been a week like that, hasn’t it? But that something can be hard to imagine when the world feels vast and broken. Words drift away. Problems seem entangling. If only we could … do something.
Now, I’m not suggesting that what follows here is a permanent solution for anything. This isn’t culture-changing or earth-shattering. It’s not so gloriously luminous or truth-revealing that lives will change. But it does involve making bread and that’s always redemptive in my books.
We’re going to make some bagels. Homemade Montreal style bagels. And they are just as good as you want them to be. I promise.
Over the past few years, our family has made a habit of marking the New Year by making bagels with our neighbours. There’s a lovely liturgy to that. I make the dough after lunch in my own kitchen and then we go around to their house later in the afternoon with bread bowl, peel and baking stone in hand. Our neighbours have a warm kitchen with a good hot oven, a lovely wooden counter just the right height to work at and plenty of play space (and books and guinea pigs) for our combined rabble of kids. We shape the dough and boil the bagels, toss them in seeds and bake them in the oven. The windows steam up and the smell of fresh bread fills the house and there might be dancing (or sword fighting or fort building) and there will be a happy feast at the end of it all with a golden mountain of bagels in the middle of the table. Happy New Year indeed.
It took us a little while to get there this year. First guests and then the flu descended on our household, so our bagel day didn’t happen until last Friday. But it still felt like New Year’s and I’m sure the bagels helped. They are good New Year’s food.
Of course, the circle is a strong image – cycles and continuity and all that. And the chewy texture helps, too. May the year ahead provide plenty to get your teeth into – or something like that. There is blessing in this kind of food.
Montreal Bagels – based on a recipe by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford, Homebaking
Make these by hand. It’s a longer process than if you use a mixer, but I think that helps, too. It is good to work with your hands. You’ll feel the rough dough come together and lose its raggedness. As you knead it, it will become smooth and elastic. It will feel good and I’m sure that this process is probably good for you, too. Take the time and let your hands be involved with the work of shaping blessing.
Ingredients:
2 tsp sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp malt syrup
½ cup warm water
1 egg
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
4 cups all purpose flour
For shaping and topping
3 tbsp honey
1 cup seeds – poppy or sesame or both
How to:
In a large bowl, combine lukewarm water, yeast and sugar.
In a small bowl, stir malt syrup into warm water, then add the egg, oil and salt.
Stir 1 cup of flour into the yeast mixture, then add the malt syrup mixture, 2 more cups of flour and stir until it looks smooth. Be sure to always stir in the same direction – this helps develop the gluten and makes your bagels properly chewy. Add one more cup of flour and then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Now comes the kneading. This should take you about 8 minutes. Set a timer or turn on the radio. Really work the dough – stretch it and fold it and work it well. All the effort helps. When the dough is elastic and smooth and you are happy with it, place it in a clean bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and put it somewhere warm for 1 ½ hours until it has doubled in size. Then gently punch the air out of the dough, cover it again and let it rise for another hour.
When you are ready to bake, heat your oven to 450º. If you have a pizza stone – great. Put it in the oven, too. If you don’t, you can use a baking sheet and things will work out just fine.
Flour a work surface, then divide your lovely dough into quarters. Put three of these back in the bowl while you work the 4th. Divide this one into 8 equal pieces, and roll each into a snake about a foot long. Wrap the snake around your hand so that the ends overlap, then roll the overlap against counter so that the ends stick together. Let the kids help with this – you may get some funny shaped bagels, but that’s okay, too. Then let your bagels prove for 15 minutes.
In the meantime, bring 8 cups of water to the boil in a wide pot. Add the honey. If you are using a baking stone, have a peel nearby. (You can use an upside-down baking sheet if you don’t have a peel). If you don’t have a stone, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put your seeds on a plate.
Now comes the strange part. You will be boiling the bagels – briefly – to make them puff up just a little before baking. Gently slide 4 bagels into the boiling water using a slotted spoon. You will see them sink and then quickly rise again to the surface. Let them boil for about 45 seconds, then carefully remove them from the pan using the slotted spoon. Lay them in the seeds, then place them on your peel or baking sheet. When all 4 are ready, slide them onto your baking stone or put the baking sheet in the oven. Repeat with the 4 remaining bagels, then bake for 8 minutes. Flip them over and bake for another 7 minutes. They will be golden and wonderful.
You can start your next batch of 8 as soon as the first batch is in the oven. Enjoy in a crowded kitchen and know that in some small way, the world is better and lovelier now.
