Homemade Bagels!

For the past several days, I've been subsisting on Thanksgiving leftovers and restaurant food. But I finished my last Field Roast and dressin' sandwich tonight, and I'm ready to come out of foodie hibernation. What a better way to start than with Homemade Whole Wheat Poppy Seed Bagels:

A LONG time ago, Mihl of Seitan Is My Motor made some tasty-looking whole grain bagels using all kinds of healthy flours and seeds. I remember thinking, without reading the entire recipe, that it sounded really hard. So I just forgot about it. But then a non-foodie co-worker mentioned that she'd recently made some, and I thought, if Mary can do this, so can I (btw, click on the "Mary" link to see her "In the Bluff" blog ... and despite the name, she isn't naked).

I chose an easier recipe than the one Mihl gave out, mostly because I didn't have lots of flours on hand. Instead, I used this recipe from Baking Bites. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the bread flour and skipped the egg wash. Oh, and I used one teaspoon of salt rather than the tablespoon called for because that sounds crazy ... even to a salt lover like me.

Though bagel-making turned out to be pretty easy, it was also quite labor intensive. Kneading, waiting for dough to rise, shaping, letting dough rest, boiling in water by four-bagel batches, and finally baking in the oven for 20-ish minutes. Whew!

Luckily, I made plenty and froze some for later use. I ate one and a half (cause they're kinda small-ish) this morning spread with Brother Juniper's Blueberry Spread and the Rich Tofu Cottage Cheese (sans the garlic though) from The Uncheese Cookbook. I took a picture of the dressed bagels, but it was ugly. Sorry.

See ya'll tomorrow on Raw Food day!!!