Bagel bagel

Since I bought my bagel cookbook a few weeks ago, I finally decided to try making some bagels.

My first batch turned out pretty good, if slightly too molasses-y tasting (I didn't have any syrop de malt). The few that are left are currently sliced and frozen, ready for breakfast, since my cookbook said they would only last 6 hours.

Making bagels I have discovered that flour comes in a variety of refinements. I already knew white and whole wheat flour, but the "normal" flour you usually find is T45, and there are slightly less refined versions at T55 and T65. Whole wheat is 145 or 165. Wikipedia taught me that the numbers correspond to the weight of mineral deposits left after a sample of the flour is burned. The more refined, the lower the number because of fewer minerals.

For my first bagels I didn't have the right flour that the recipe called for, but they turned out fine anyway. I later went shopping to find the right flour and after comparing all of the bags I finally found some T55.

Try two: used the "correct" flour, and instead of having a tough, stretchy dough, I had glue so thick I couldn't get it off my hands. I still don't know what went wrong.

I love my new bagels too much to give up though, so I've begun searching for other ingredients I'll need.

This is how I discovered Gallerie Lafayette Gourmet. My colleagues had talked about it, so this past week I went and visited it for the first time during a lunch break. In a rather ironic twist of fate, they actually sell bagels, but they're very thin and much to soft/doughy. My homemade bagels have a hard outside and soft inside. But the grocery store: they have lots of specialty products, including an organic aisle with gluten free products (the brand is called Ma vie sans gluten) and other hard to find items (chickpea flour, poppy seeds, oatmeal grains). For flavored drink syrups, they don't just stop at grenadine and mint: lemon, pear, cranberry, blueberry, white chocolate.... Does anyone else live in a city with a Gallerie Lafayette grocery store? I don't remember Montpellier having one, but Toulouse can't be the one place.

I had to find my special farine de seigle at an organic store though. I want to make pumpernickel bagels and you need rye flour, which is very difficult to find it turns out. I haven't been a real organic store shopper before, but they had all the flours I could ever need, plus the gluten I can add, all the seed toppings I need to make an everything bagel, and even molasses. I had previously bought molasses at a British import store or at certain Carrefour with well stocked British shelves, but it was cheaper at the organic store. I haven't been able to find syrop de malt yet, but I picked up some malt de riz since the nice guy behind the counter said it had a much more neutral flavor compared to molasses.

The only negative part of making bagels is that it requires a number of steps, but spread out over several hours. Making the dough is not too difficult, although it can be hard to knead. Once you form your bagels, you have to let them rise for two hours. Then you come back and you have to poach them. My pot will only take about three bagels at a time, so you have to stand there and time the poaching of 10 bagels. I also don't have one baking sheet really big enough for the 10 bagels my recipe makes, so I have to put the last 2 or 3 in a different pan. Once they're poached, you have to bake them for 20-25 minutes. Mine have needed extra time, and the second time I had to do two batches, so it was more like an hour of baking. Once they cool, I slice and ziploc bag them to freeze them. I slice before I freeze so I can put them directly in the toaster in the morning. Hopefully with more practice I'll improve my technique and get everything down a little better.

Now I just need some St Moret and I'll be set!