homemade bagels (especially for those who no longer live in NYC)
makes 4
1 cup bread (or all-purpose or whole wheat?) flour; 1 cup rye flour
(these are the two flours I went with for a more hearty bagel, you could use only bread flour if you wanted plain bagels. Next time, I’m going with whole wheat and rye)
1/2 T sugar
3/4 t salt
1/2 T vegetable oil
1 t instant yeast
3/4 c water
-Mix all ingredients together
-Knead dough on flat surface for 10 mins
-Cut into four equal pieces
-Let rise for 20 mins
-Roll each piece into a snake shape and then fuse the ends
-Let bagels rise for at least 20 mins. Preheat oven to 425 and start a pot of boiling water.
-Drop bagels in a pot of boiling water for 1 min. Flip and let the other side boil for 1 more minute. At this point, you can add toppings (caraway, sesame seeds, poppy seeds etc). Put your toppings on a plate and place the bagel face down in the plate to coat the bagel.
-Cook bagels on an oiled baking sheet in a 425 degree oven for 10 mins. Flip bagels and let the other side cook for 10 mins.
Chaela led the way on a recent cakemaking experiment for a friend’s birthday, and it was a great success, worthy of many more experiments. She used this recipe for the moist vanilla cake, but she added fresh orange juice to thin the yogurt a bit and give a slight citrus flavor to the cake. We then made this incredible dark chocolate frosting, and topped with bright orange, edible Nasturtiums!!!
I told you Sara bakes. For our Pensacola cook-whatever-leftovers-remain-in-the-fridge meal she googled, “one egg desserts” and came up with the most amazing cupcakes. She paired the not-too-sweet cakes with very sweet sugar frosting with a squirt of sour lemon. mmm. I also had the pleasure of meeting Sara’s mom, Mary, who taught her everything she knows. Mary once met Julia Child who told her to “follow the cooking gleam.”
All of us travelers have ways of making random spaces filled with Pier 1 decorations feel like home. Sara bakes. Cookies. Muffins. Lemon Bars. Anything at all hours. I never know when amazing smells will tempt me from the kitchen. Her baked goods are so incredible that it’s not worth even trying to put up a fight. Luckily, she’s also my running buddy. She makes these amazing Banana Crunch muffins from Ina Garten. And her recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had is all in her head. Hopefully I’ll get her to write it down before we part ways. It’s possible I’ll no longer be able to feel at home anywhere without her cookies.
Receiving any mail at all is one of the sweetest surprises, even when it isn’t a surprise. My friend Becky once introduced me to the art of sending homemade goodies in the mail, and it has kind of been a life changer. There is absolutely nothing better than receiving a home-baked (or no baked) cookie from someone who is thinking about you from far away, even if they end up in crumbs. Luckily these “no bake cookies” from Wichita held up really well. Chocolate, oats, peanut butter…sweet sweet surprises. Sara says, send more. Here’s a recipe.
Anna reminded me of a “healthy cookie” recipe from 101 cookbooks I’ve been meaning to try. The cookie is basically coconut, almond meal, chocolate chips, all held together with mashed bananas. Fantastic. I eyed the $10 almond meal at Whole Foods because I doubted the stamina of my blender (no food processor on the road). But as I was buying the chocolate chips and coconut in exact measurements from the bulk section (no leftovers to lug around!), I went with raw almonds. Luckily, they pulsed easily into dusty almond meal in the blender. I also had pumpkin pie spice on hand instead of simple cinnamon, which worked nicely. And I will definitely try chopped bits of 70% dark chocolate next time.
