Bagel Mania

I tell you, empowerment is a beautiful thing. As all of us know, when you are dependent upon someone else for pretty much anything in life, there are times when the dependency can paralyze you, because control of your life has been wrested from your hands. Unfortunately, at times the people in power will take advantage of their position to further their own end, a situation that characterized my entire youth, but don’t get me started.

Case in point, bagels. I still am shocked that we can’t get bagels for nearly 3 weeks, but rather than cry and moan over it, we decided to take action. Besides, having to pick up bagels in town is a hassle. With this in mind, I decided to once again try making them. We’d made bagels in the past, but I think they suffered a little for a few reasons. First off, I deviated from the recipe, mainly to make them healthier by using whole wheat flour. Secondly, I’m usually pressed for time doing a million other things, so I don’t follow the recipes as I should. And finally, I’ve decided that diastatic malt is overrated, and makes bread way too squishy and soft. I’m done with that stuff, bread flour alone is enough to get good texture.

This time around, I was through messing around. I followed the recipe, forgot about the whole wheat flour, and took the time to focus on just making the bagels. And you know what? They came about pretty good. Of course I screwed up big time and forgot to add salt, but it is acceptable to add it after the fact. The key here was the texture: the outside was nice and crispy, and the inside was firm but chewy. It’s amazing what can happen when you follow instructions.

Who needs bakery bagels when we can take control of our lives and make them ourselves? Like I said, empowerment is a beautiful thing.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.