If at first you don't succeed, buy bagels at Panera
Okay, I admit it. I gave in to peer pressure.
First it was Bethany, then Tammy, then Catherine. How could I not resist trying my hand at bagel-making, too?
Well, um, my bagels flopped. Miserably so. I mean, they were edible, but that was about it.
I tried making the dough in the bread machine and then left it in there too long as I was busy finishing up some other baking. As far as what went wrong from there, your guess is as good as mine, but the finished result was quite pathetic. I'm not sure if it was the bread machine, leaving the dough too long, adding in cinnamon to the batter, topping the bagels with brown sugar before baking, or a combination of all the above. After these poor creatures came out of the oven, I called Jesse down from his office and we got a good laugh over them:
Maybe I should just stick with buying bagels at Panera?
At any rate, at least my other baking project - Brown Sugar Biscuit Twists for Jesse's administrative assistant brunch today - turned out.
These are always a hit and are quite easy to make. I just make up a batch of biscuit dough, divide it in half. Roll out each half into a rectangle and brush with melted butter and sprinkle with brown sugar (you can also do cinnamon/sugar). Fold rectangle in half and slice in strips. Twist and bake at 425 degrees for around 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Drizzle with powdered sugar and milk mixture after pulling from the oven.
I just don't recommend trying to whip up a double batch of these biscuit twists late at night when you are already quite exhausted from being 29 weeks pregnant while you are also trying to make bagels for the first time.
First it was Bethany, then Tammy, then Catherine. How could I not resist trying my hand at bagel-making, too?
Well, um, my bagels flopped. Miserably so. I mean, they were edible, but that was about it.
I tried making the dough in the bread machine and then left it in there too long as I was busy finishing up some other baking. As far as what went wrong from there, your guess is as good as mine, but the finished result was quite pathetic. I'm not sure if it was the bread machine, leaving the dough too long, adding in cinnamon to the batter, topping the bagels with brown sugar before baking, or a combination of all the above. After these poor creatures came out of the oven, I called Jesse down from his office and we got a good laugh over them:
Maybe I should just stick with buying bagels at Panera?At any rate, at least my other baking project - Brown Sugar Biscuit Twists for Jesse's administrative assistant brunch today - turned out.
These are always a hit and are quite easy to make. I just make up a batch of biscuit dough, divide it in half. Roll out each half into a rectangle and brush with melted butter and sprinkle with brown sugar (you can also do cinnamon/sugar). Fold rectangle in half and slice in strips. Twist and bake at 425 degrees for around 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Drizzle with powdered sugar and milk mixture after pulling from the oven.I just don't recommend trying to whip up a double batch of these biscuit twists late at night when you are already quite exhausted from being 29 weeks pregnant while you are also trying to make bagels for the first time.
posted by Crystal Paine at 8:35 AM
19 Comments:
Those look like the bagels I made the first time I tried my hand at it :) I haven't been brave enough to give it another try!
Darya
They still look better than mine did on Monday. But I am glad to know I am not the only one who had some trouble. It seems everyone has been having such stellar results! Maybe us third trimester girls should hold back for now. :)
Elissa
I have never tried making bagels. Thank you for the "helpful hints" and the "what not to do's." Hee. Hee. But, your twists look delicious! I must try those.
At 30 weeks pregnant with our second I made a cake late at night for a woman's gathering and forgot to add the eggs. Turned out HORRIBLE as you can imagine. Praise the Lord that his grace abounds, especially when we are pregnant. And, there is always a bakery in town to help with those last minute oopsies!
I also made bagels for the first time a few weeks ago. They didn't look great but they tasted pretty good. I will also have to try your biscuit twists recipe-they sound delicious!
Maybe it was the bread machine thing. But the ones I made that I topped with cinnamon sugar stuck to the pan and made a mess, so my results weren't stellar either! But I aim to keep trying, because they did taste good.
I'm 34 weeks pregnant now and on bagel making day I went to an OB appointment, stopped at the library and Costco, did one load of laundry, and made the bagels. I literally did nothing else and I was WIPED OUT! It's getting much harder to keep up with my normal routines!
Tonight I made corn bread with our main meal and it didn't turn out as sweet as it usually is. DH and I each ate 3 pieces but the rest I asked him to throw away cuz I just couldn't do it myself...what a waste. I knew he wouldn't eat that tomorrow with the leftovers. I think the corn meal was bad as I looked on the bottom of the canister and it said it expired December 23rd...LOL.
I always feel bad when I make something and it doesn't come out right...but I usually get over it :)
Those twists look yummy!
Crystal,
Speaking of baking...I tried the whole wheat bread recipe that you linked to the other day, and it was excellent! Thank you! I haven't had bread turn out that good in literally months!
Laura
Crystal,
Would you mind sharing your bicuit dough recipe?
Chrissy T.
I think I need to give this bagel baking a try again. I did it once with the kids a few years ago and they were good but since my third I've resigned to Panera.
I think it's funny that the majority of the ladies that have commented on making bagels are pregnant:)
lol! They still look yummy to me! I also attempted to make these yesterday and used regular flour instead of bread flour, so they turned out pretty sad looking. I thought they tasted really good though, much better than the store brands. Well better luck next time!
Hi Crystal,
Try these again, by hand. Not your bread machine. Also, you might want to try bread flour. You might like the results!
Ruth, PA
Ha! You're an encouragement to me, because mine flopped big time, too!! I thought I'd email Tammy and see if she could do a more detailed step by step so I can see where I messed up!
Hi Crystal,
Mmmm, Panera is so good! We have one right by our house, and we walk there all the time - my favorite is the cinnamon crunch bagel with hazelnut spread :) Anyway, if at first you don't succeed...haha, bagels are hard!
Erin
I make bagels as often as i can (usually 1x a month at the most as it is involved) and I have also made soft pretzels. Maybe I can help see where the problem was with you ladies.
I make my dough by hand, but I am also not pregnant and chasing toddlers at the present, so take that with a grain of salt. Spending the time you need to with your youngins is more important than perfect bagels. :-) Amen? Now that mine are old enough to fight over who gets to knead the dough for mom, it is WAY easier to not have a bread machine.
One of the places where it could go wrong is letting the dough rise too long, as it gets too "loose" and doesn't do well in the water.
Another possible problem is the water was not hot enough or was cooled inadvertently by putting too many bagels in at once. I find having honey in the water also helps the finish of the bagels (with soft pretzels it is a water bath with baking soda in it). I like to use my wok for boiling my bagels as it seems to work better--it's wide open and it is cast iron so it maintains the heat better too.
When I bake them in the oven, I put them on parchment paper, otherwise I've had a sticking problem.
I "cheat" and make my bagels with a donut cutter since buying one. Works way better than forming them by hand. I do stretch them a bit so that the hole inside doesn't close up.
I find that I have to have enough gluten in the flour...either added gluten or using bread flour in the first place.
Hopefully that is helpful to someone!
Oh wow! What an adventure in cooking! Hey, at least they came out looking like bagals in their own unique way. You should have seen the chocolate cake I baked the other day!! I thought it was a geological fault structure... Oh well, the cat liked the frosting - she chawed some of it off my slice when I wasn't looking!
I just finished reading your book about stay-at-home daughters. Even though I am a wife I still learned a LOT about selflessness and having a servant's heart. I hope you keep writing! Will you ever write a book about godly wifehood? GOD BLESS!!
I'm telling ya - your mile long word verification is torture for a dyslexic like me! hahahaha!
Kimberley Eddy, how long do you think the dough should rise? I left mine for about 45 minutes, but that was a totally random guess. I was wondering if I let it rise long enough as my bagels came out small.
Kimberly Eddy,
Your description of letting it rise too long and then falling apart in the water described perfectly what I did wrong. I thought oh, if they rise longer, they'll be bigger, right? Well, apparently that was not a good decision. Thanks for the advice!!
Elissa
>>Kimberley Eddy, how long do you think the dough should rise? I left mine for about 45 minutes, but that was a totally random guess.<<
I usually let them rise between 30 minutes to 45 minutes. If you want them larger, you should just make them larger. If there is too much air in them, they get really messy in the water, and sometimes the hole closes up.
I can't believe you are 29 weeks pregnant. Your so tiny! No fair!!
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