Well, I got up this morning and it was raining/snowing, what I normally call splatting. I cleaned up before going out to milk the goats and feed the goat kid. Goat kids are always cute, and they seem to enjoy life to the fullest, but bottle fed ones can be quite annoyingly cute and obnoxious all at once. They want to follow you around and are constantly close to your legs, which usually means you do chores trying NOT to trip and fall in the mud. This one is a doe kid, and has the sweetest brown eyes. Not good for a kid that will end up in your freezer at some point, she had a rough start in life and is about half the size of the other three kids that we have.
Being up at 5:30 am, and the fact that it has splatted all day long, it is the perfect day for my oven to be on (any extra heat is a good thing) and breads to be baking. I am so glad I started bagels from Hamelman's book "Bread" yesterday. His book is quite different from the BBA book, and while it gives some really good information, I am having difficulty jumping right in and following his formula's. He presents them differently, which is a little confusing when you are dealing with formula's that have three parts to them and you want to make a specific amount. I will figure it out, but it might take me a little more reading. Luckily his bagel recipe was easy to follow, and they at least look like they are going to be pretty awesome! I learned from making bagels last time that 4 oz bagels are huge, so these are only 2.5 oz each and look to be exactly the size I like. I tried sesame seed, poppy seed, extra sharp cheddar cheese, and plain bagels. The seed ones really needed an egg wash to hold them on, but overall they really do look pretty good.
I also made a Multigrain 100% Whole Wheat soaker bread, complete with raisins and sunflower seeds. They rose well, and I did the finger poke test befor putting them in the oven, seemed to be just about perfect. The thing I forgot was to egg wash them, and to slash their tops! Here they are about halfway through proofing...
Everything was looking pretty good, till I forgot to slash the top of the loaf! I think it was also a little bit underproofed. They turned out to be monster breads. Hope they are good tasting...
It's still splatting, it's definitely been a solid heavy splatting rainy/snowy day. Baking is done, guess I should go out and feed the goat kid again!
Ok, it's official, these bagels are really awesome. I bought some Sir Lancelot Flour from King Arthur Flour, just to make bagels with. I wanted to see if it made that much of a difference. It's incredible, but I really think it made awesome bagels, even better!
Dreary days are so inducing to warm ovens and sweet baking aromas filling the house!Those bagels look soo good! Like the mult grain type bread , I also enjoy ww,and 50% ww breads embellished with healthy goodies.Been playing with a ww starter (about 1+1/2 months old)that I feed with bread flour to make a sponge.Used the sponge and more flour(50% ww) to make a couple of boules with minced fresh garlic and fresh minced rosemary,it was very good and tender due to the 1/4 cup olive oil I added.
ReplyDeletethen i tried the same again using some of the reserved sponge(mother?) and added sunflour,pumpkin seeds and fine chopped walnuts again with olive oil for tenderness made a dozen rolls,they were delish too,Damn I love baking!( sometimes I think It's all about the eating them part!!)
have a great day!
Lol, It's definitely at least 50% eating them, but I do love to watch the ingredient form into something awesome! The rosemary and olive oil sourdough sure sounds good. I have a starter made with 100% WW and have been making sourdough pancakes with it lately. I will have to make a loaf of the rosemary though, simply because I do love it!
ReplyDelete