Whole Wheat Bagels

I am back to blogosphere after a fabulous OnamJ

Hope all my friends from Kerala had a wonderful Onam.

Belated Onashamsakal to all..I know I am a bit late in Wishing

I was a bit too busy with planning the sadhya [the feast], shopping and of course- cookingJ

And after a fun filled Onam sadhya with friends and family, I was on hibernation for 2 days…rather handover from having toooo much food/payasams

Anyways here goes the recipe of  healthy Bagels I made few weeks back.

And you know what is a better combo than Bagel and Cream Cheese..Try Bagels and Strawberry Cream cheese, it’s just wonderful!!

 Whole Wheat Bagels

Ingredients [Makes 6 Bagles]

2 cups Whole Wheat flour

1 Cup Bread Flour

1 cup +2 Tablespoon warm water
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon Instant yeast

4 Cups water

1 tablespoon Molasses or Caramelized Sugar

Toppings of your choice-Roasted Sesame seeds, Poppy seeds, Oats

 

Directions

Add all dry ingredients in the mixer, slowly add the warm water and knead on slow speed.

Once all water has been added increase the speed and continues to knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth and no longer sticky.

Cover and let it rise for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, punch down the dough and roll it into a long tube.

Divide it into 6 equal portions.

Now you can shape the bagels either by rolling into balls and poking a hole in center or by rolling the dough to a long tube and stick together the two ends.

Let it rest and rise for 60 minutes.

Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 375 F

In a pan add 4 cups of water plus  a tablespoon of molasses and bring to boil.

Add the bagels one by one and cook on each side for 1 minute

Coat the Bagels with toppings of your choice, Poppy seeds ,Oats or roasted sesame seeds.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until nicely browned.

B for Bagels

I have been missing all yummy recipes for the past few days. I was on 2 full day trainingJ

Now are you wondering why I am soo happy after the training!!

Not that it added a lot of value to my work..But I am almost certain that the last two days have definitely added at least few pounds to my weight and few mm around my waistJ

The food was absolutely sinfully delicious!!!

The second day of training I woke up and all I can think of was the lunch!! I couldn’t believe myself!! I have turned to a total foodieJ

Even now when I think about the huge array of desserts..I can’t help smiling

I almost wrote about how amazing the dessert were on the training feedback form..:-)

Lemme stop drooling over the desserts and come back to the Bagels

I made this last weekend and it was just perfect. All 6 bagels disappeared in less than an hour.[excuse the little self praise here :-)]

Here goes the recipe

Adapted from Videojug recipe here

2 cups bread flour

1 tbspn sugar

1/2 tspn salt

1 tbspn Olive oil

1 tspn instant yeast

1/2 + 2 tablespoons of warm water

To Poach the Bagels

4 tablespoon sugar

2 cups water

For dressing

Poppy seeds

Roasted sesame seeds

Whole Oats

Add all the flour, water, yeast, and sugar into the bowl of your mixer. Knead for roughly 4 minutes. Add the oil and the salt and continue kneading for a further 8 minutes until the mixture becomes smooth, elastic dough.

Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover it with a plastic bag and let it prove, for 40 minutes at room temperature.

Place it onto a clean working surface. Divide the dough evenly into six portions, roll each portion into a soft ball. Gently push you two thumps through the centre of the each ball and create a pretty big hole. Do watch the video, it really helps

Repeat the same process with the rest of the balls and place them onto the pre-lined tray.

Cover it once more with the same plastic bag and prove again for another 40 minutes.

While the bagels are nicely proving, place the saucepan onto a medium to high heat. Then add sugar and allow it to melt, to a golden sticky syrup. Add the water, taking great care not to get splattered and bring to the boil.

Turn on the oven to 200ºC

Gently place each bagel into the boiling, caramel water and allow them to boil for 1 minute on each side.

Dip the poached donuts on the dressing and gently press so that they

Transfer the bagels to the prelined baking tray and place them in oven to bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Allow them to cool down

Now don’t wait..Enjoy it with a liberal spreading of cream cheese

Rosemary and Basil Focaccia

The Dimpled Italian flat bread is one of my favorite bread. There are no limit to the ways you can improvise on the focaccia bread.
You can top up the focaccia with almost anything..spice..herbs..veggies..
This fluffy, crunchy ,soft bread is the best accompaniment for a hot bowl of soup

To make the perfect focassia you need about 16-20 hrs…The more the better!!
After reading the step by step focaccia recipe in Joe’s space, I decided to give it a try..
After the macaroon disaster episodes I was not so optimistic about the end result..
But 10 min after I put the bread in the oven the smell was soooo wonderful !! I was assured that it is going to be one yummy bread..

We had some hot bread with some Balsamic vinegar and Olive oil and the rest we had for dinner with Cream of Broccoli Soup

Recipe Source : Joe’ wonderful space. He has given a very detailed pictorial recipe.

So here goes the recipe

For Starter
A pinch of Instant yeast dissolved in 60 ml water
60 gms All purpose flour

Dissolve the yeast in water.
Pour the yeast solution to the flour and mix well using a fork, the batter will be lumpy..No worries
Cover and let it rest for about 12 hours.
After 12 hours you will see that the starter is perfectly bubbled …You are half way now.

For Focassia
Starter Dough [You will need to use the entire starter you prepared which will be around 250 grms]
250 gms Bread flour
1/8th tspn Instant Yeast
1/2 tspn salt
20 ml Olive oil
1/2 tbspn Honey
75-100 ml Luke warm water
Toppings as per your taste and creativity

Combine all ingredients with 75 ml water in a mixer bowl.
Fix in the dough hook and beat on low for a minute till all ingredients are well coated with water/Olive oil.
Now on medium speed continue to knead for 10 minutes.
The dough should be smooth and still wet, so if you dough is too stiff, continue to add water while mixing.
As per Joe the consistency should be like Melted Mozzarella cheese

Now transfer the dough to a oiled bowl, cover and let it rise till its double. It will take about 3-4 hours.
Meanwhile oil a 10 by 10 inch baking tray.
Once dough has risen , punch it down .Lightly oil your hands and stretch and dough and spread it in pan.
Let proof one more hour, or until the dough starts to get puffy again and spreads out nearly to the corners of the sheet pan.
Just before you put into oven, make deep depressions in the dough with your fingers and pop any large bubbles.I sprinkled some Dried Rosemary and Basil and drizzled some olive oil .
Bake for 20-25 minutes in a preheated oven at 450 Degrees until golden

Braided Oats Bread

It’s been so long since I baked bread. The last time I tried was an year and a half back , I tried to make a French loaf and needless to say it was a disaster..
Now with the new member in my Kitchen- KitchenAid, I decided to try my hands on bread baking again[Yes yes, I got one last week…yeyyyyyyy can’t stop smiling]
I decided to go with the simple and easy Oats bread recipe which I had bookmarked sometime back
Here is the original recipe from Palatable

The recipe is super simple and the bread was really soft and tasted great..

So here goes the Braided bread
Recipe courtesy : Palatable

2 Cups Bread flour +2 table spoons
1 ½ tspn Active yeast
1/ 2 Cup rolled oats
1 tablespon ground flaxseed
2 Tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon sugar
150 ml milk
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoon water

Mix the yeast, 3 tablespoon water and 1 teaspoon sugar in a small bowl. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes

Mix the butter, sugar and milk in a bowl and microwave it for 10-20 seconds till it is just warm.

In the mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Attach the dough hook and give a mix.
Now slowly add the yeast mixture and mix at speed 2.
Continue to mix and add the milk mixture.
Knead for 5 minutes till the dough is soft.

Alternatively you can mix all ingredients and knead well with hands till dough is no longer sticking to your hands.

Cover and let it rise for 30-40 minutes till the dough rise to twice the original size
Punch down the dough and give it a quick knead

For making braided bread, take out 3 equal portions of dough, 150 gms each
Now roll the balls into a long tube shape about 5-6 inch and braid it. There are plenty of videos in you tube showing how to braid the bread.
Rest of the dough you can make buns or rolls as per you creativity.
I chose to make Kaya buns and Nutella rolls.

Cover the shaped dough using a damp cloth and let it rest for 30-40 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes till the top is browed lightly.

Off this goes to this weeks Yeastspotting