There’s tradition in our house to wake up early Saturday
mornings and watch English soccer accompanied by mimosas and bacon in some
form. So, in honor of the start of the season, this past Saturday we made
homemade NY style bagels. For my boyfriend who is from the Northeast and has
spent several years in New York, good bagels are something he misses dearly. He
claims that there is something in the water up there that makes NY bagels
superior to all others. But I was bound and determined to prove otherwise.
We started the night before and utilized a technique called retarding the dough. Retarding the dough
allows the dough to rise at a slower pace in the refrigerator overnight and
allows one more sleeping time in the morning! We mixed the simple ingredients
of flour, yeast, sugar, salt and warm water together and let it go to work in
the fridge (some recipes call for barley malt syrup).
The next morning all we had to do is form the dough into the
donut shape form, boil them, and pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes. Boiling
them before baking them gives them that classic chewy bagel texture. And just
like that you have homemade bagels!
We took it a step further and made them into bagel egg
sandwiches . . . sneaking in pancetta to make them extra decadent. This is
Saturday morning brunch after all so indulgence is required!
Everyone grab some champagne (orange juice is optional) and
cheers to weekend brunch at home, and cheers to English soccer!
