Anadama, Artos, Bagels, Meatballs and Mini Pizzas **Whew

I joined a new weekly bread baking group, Bread Baker's Apprentice(BBA). And we will be baking from the book. "The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread" by Peter Reinhart. It is a beautiful book with wonderful diagrams and step-by-step photos.

Google Books has the entire book scanned and you can find the recipes by clicking here.




Our first bread was Anadama Bread, an old New England yeast bread recipe, made with molasses and cornmeal. I made one single loaf and 12 hamburger buns. It was a very tender and delicious bread and although it did have molasses in it, I would not classify this as a sweet bread at all. Recipe is located on Pgs 108-110.





This is a Meatball Sandwich made with one of my Anadama Bread Buns.





Our next bread was Artos: Greek Celebration Bread which is a large, gorgeous bread. Although my family is not fond of breads with dried fruit and nuts, the bread was so beautiful I was looking forward to making it. Unfortunately, dealing with bread proofing and my own personal schedule sometimes does not work out. I had to let the bread dough ferment just a little too long and the crust has yeasty bubbles on the surface. But it still is a good looking loaf of bread and I had fun making and decorating it. Again the recipe can be found at Google Books Pgs 111-113.





Our third bread is Bagels. I've made bagels before and in fact used this same recipe and they turned out perfect. Please click here to see my first batch of bagels and the recipe including my changes. Making bagels is a two-day process, including making the sponge the night before and then finishing the bagels the following day.

But the next day the outside temperature was, unexpectedly, in the 90's, and my bagels rise was much to fast and they were very large. I mean gigantic, enormous suckers. Like 6" across and almost impossible-to-handle huge. They did not turn out pretty but tasted great. Next time if it is hot outside I will either put the bread in the basement for the final rise or stash them in the refrigerator.

But all was not lost, for dinner that night I made mini pizzas with over-sized bagels. Just cut a bagel in half, layer sliced fresh tomatoes, grated mozzarella cheese, minced garlic, 3-4 fresh whole basil leaves and top with pepperoni. I popped them under the broiler for a minute or so and viola...DINNER is served. Most definitely a meal for my Call-it-Dinner category. The mini pizzas were so good. Next time I make bagels I think I might purposely make some extra large bagels for mini pizzas! The Bagel Recipe can be found on Pgs 115-122

Here's the layered mini pizzas before broiling.





Hot out of the broiler and looking delicious. Gosh they were so good!!!






All Rights Reserved 2008-9 © Big Black Dog

It's Bagels!

Well today I eliminated 1 more TODO on my list and made bagels and it was great fun! I also added some sourdough starter and this prolongs the process as I like to let my sourdough starter rise at least 12-18 hours. But OH MY are they good!!

Melissa of Baking a Sweet Life is hosting this months Bread Baking Day and the theme is Breakfast Breads. What is better for breakfast then freshly made bagels!



Bagels
Recipe adapted from The Baker's Apprentice


Sponge:
1 tsp instant yeast
4 c. bread flour
2 1/2 c. water

My Changes:
Eliminate yeast
1/2 c. sourdough starter
1 TBL honey, malt syrup or brown sugar

Dough:
1/2 tsp instant yeast
3 3/4 c. bread flour
2 3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp malt powder
OR
1 TBL malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar

My changes:
Eliminate yeast, honey, malt powder, malt sugar or brown sugar

Finishing touches:
1 TBL baking soda for the water
Cornmeal for dusting the pan
Toppings for the bagels such as seeds, salt, onion, or garlic

My changes:
1 egg whipped with a little bit of water


The Night Before:

Stir the sourdough starter into the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and honey and stir until all ingredients are blended. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise over night.

Baking Day

Remove the plastic wrap and add 3 cups of the flour and the salt into the bowl and mix until all of the ingredients form a ball. You need to work in the additional 3/4 cups of flour to stiffen the dough, either while still mixing in the bowl or while kneading. The dough should be stiffer and drier than normal bread dough, but moist enough that all of the ingredients are well blended.

Place dough onto a clean surface and knead for 10 minutes.

Immediately after kneading, split the dough into a dozen equal, small pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth ball and set it aside. When you have all 12 pieces made, cover them with a damp towel and let them rest for 20 minutes.

Shaping the bagel is actually quite fun and brought back memories of playing for clay as a child. Pick up one ball of dough and punch your thumb through the center, then rotate the dough, working it so that the bagel is as even in width as possible.

Line the sheet pan with parchment and spray it lightly with oil before placing the bagels on the pan. Cover the pan with plastic, I used a medium plastic garbage bad and allow the dough to rise for about 2-3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Adding 1 TBL of baking soda to the pot to alkalize the water is suggested to replicate traditional bagel shop flavor.

When the pot is boiling, drop a few of the bagels into the pot one at a time and let them boil for a minute per side. Using a large, slotted spoon gently flip the bagels and boil them on the other side.



Line a sheet pan with parchment and sprinkle it with cornmeal. I used 2 pans for the 12 bagels. Remove each bagel from the boiling water one at a time, set them back onto the sheet pan. Cool.

When the bagels are cool, brush each one with the egg wash and dip the upper portion in your topping of choice. I used sesame seeds but you can use just about anything. Place the bagels back on the parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal.



Place the sheet pan into the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to 450 degrees, rotate the pan, and bake for another 5 minutes until the bagels begin to brown. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool on a rack.

All Rights Reserved 2008 © Big Black Dog