Bagels! Now who knew that I could make bagels? Well, thanks to Lilly Higgins beautiful new book ‘Make,Bake, Love’ I can. Mine may not have turned out quite as goldenly glazed as Lilly’s but they were delicious nonetheless.
Working from home I get to swing out of the fridge and decide what I want to eat for lunch on a whim. It could be a pasta salad, home-made soup, a slice of quiche or maybe a stuffed portobello mushroom languishing under some melting goat’s cheese. Yes it could be any of those things but invariably it’s not. Lunch at home for me usually means two things. Bread and cheese. Now I do doll it up a bit and might use a toasted multi-seeded ciabatta as the bread and add some diced red onion and a tasty relish but the basis will be good bread and good cheese.
Last week I tweeted that I had enjoyed a ‘deliciously soft & creamy Cooleeney Cheese – Tipperary Brie on toasted focaccia’ for lunch one day and Cooleeney encouraged me to share a Tipperary Brie recipe with them. But a great cheese doesn’t need a recipe, it just needs some really good bread.
Lilly’s bagels were a perfect platform for a couple of slices of Cooleeney Brie, they didn’t have the Tipperary one in the shop this time but their equally delicious Dunbarra fit the bill accompanied with some juicy semi-sundried cherry tomatoes in herbs and olive oil.
Bagels from Make, Bake, Love by Lilly Higgins:
You will need:
300ml warm water
1 x 7g sachet fast-action yeast
1 tsp salt
pinch caster sugar
550g strong white flour
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 egg, beaten
sesame seeds
poppy seeds
Method:
Mix the water, yeast, salt and sugar together in a large bowl.Add the flour and oil. Mix together until a dough forms, then knead for 10 minutes.
Divide the dough into 9 equal pieces. Make each ball of dough into a bun. Using your thumb, make a hole in the middle and gently rotate to form a bagel shape.
Place the bagels on 2 oiled baking trays. Leave to rise for 50 minutes in a warm, draught-free place covered with a clean tea towel, or until doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease 2 baking trays and bring a large pot of water to the boil.
Gently drop each bagel into the water. Turn them over every minute or so. After 3 minutes of boiling, carefully place each bagel on a rack to dry slightly.
Place the boiled bagels on the greased baking trays and glaze with the beaten egg. Sprinkle with the seeds.
Bake for 15 minutes, then turn over and bake for a further 5 minutes, until golden.
This gorgeous cup and oversized saucer set is perfect for making your lunch at home that extra bit special and is available to buy at Dunnes Stores.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
Sheila, these look gorgeous.
We make our own too and the first time we tried them I
was shocked at how easy they were to make.
My favourite ones are toasted sesame bagels loaded with smoked salmon and lettuce and raw onion and my husband makes cinnamon sugar crunch ones that are not too shabby either. Your photos and styling – fab! I am a sucker for polka dots.
Thanks Mona 🙂
Oh fantastic Sheila – I’m a massive fan of bagels but always thought they were ‘out of the realm of my cooking skills’ 🙂 Thanks for sharing
Your welcome! Would never have contemplated making bagels myself if it wasn’t for Lilly’s book.
Gorgeous photos Sheila. I’m looking forward to Lilly’s book. I’ve never made bagels before but the kids love them so I must give them a go!
I’m with you on the bread and cheese lunch!