Sesame bagels

I've recently been converted.
I'd never seen the point of bagels before - some you can buy really do justify their nickname cement doughnuts, just another thing supermarkets do so badly. That was until I made my own. Crispy on the outside yet soft in the middle and very addicitve - now I see why New Yorkers are mad for them.

I used these ones last Saturday with cream cheese and smoked salmon (lox and bagels), and the next moment I looked round they had all dissappeared, and while I was barbecuing outside one guest sought me out to ask how I had made them - and that's always a good sign!

It was Chuck's star shaped bagel recipe on the inspirational Knead for Bread that sowed the seed. I still need (or knead) to get round to the star shapes - they look great. But for these ones I stayed more traditional and used normal bread dough, though of course you could add any flavouring you wanted to this - onions, chilli, garlic, raisins, nuts, spices - so many ingredients, so little time.



You boil them (left) for around 2 - 3 minutes on each side. Then transfer them to a baking tray with a baking sheet, egg wash them, sprinkle with sesame (or poppy seeds, fennel seeds, sea salt, dried onions - the possibilities are endless) and bake them for 10 - 15 minutes at 200 oC till golden.

And then there's the pizza bagel........

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