finally, bagel perfection

satiny smooth goodness flecked with fleur de sel

After many strange attempts, I finally made the perfect bagel. Of course, there's always room for improvement. But this bagel was everything I could ask from a bagel - plump, shiny, smooth, chewy, golden & delicious.

before rise ... plumper after 12hr rise in fridge


even plumper after boil ... golden & plump after 12min in oven

Earlier this week, I made the saddest bagels ever (see pic below) as a test run for a bake sale. My previous attempts had problems, but they were always plump and yummy. These were even lumpier, while also squat and dense: a winning combo. They didn't raise a lick during the 12hrs in the fridge. I used the Bread Baker's Apprentice recipe I've used before (which was ok, but far from perfect), but measured instead of weighed my flour. This set off a chain of events that I suspect led to the ultimate failure. This book suspiciously uses 4.5oz per cup while most other resources use 5oz per cup (which is also what my typical cup weighs). This discrepency always makes me second guess these recipes.

So this time I measured, as an experiment, potentially adding several more ounces of flour than intended by the recipe. My dough was so big and stiff, it was jumping out of my KitchenAid and I had to result to hand kneading. I was physically unable to add the final 3/4 cup flour and I couldn't knead nearly as long as I should have. The dough should be stiff, but it also must be kneaded good and long to develop the gluten despite that stiffness. So maybe with my poor kneading, the gluten didn't form properly, resulting in floppy, flat blobs. However, they were chewy and kinda tasty so I did eat three before throwing away the rest (I just couldn't stand looking at their sorry shapes anymore).

sad, lumpy, flat bagel wannabes

After this debacle, I almost gave up. But I had to redeem myself, so I tried the Cook's Illustrated recipe that I've been avoiding because it firmly states that you should not even attempt bagel making without high gluten flour (much higher protein than even bread flour), available only by special order. I live in Zurich and I can't even get bread flour (anything over 13g protein).

my new secret weapon

But my step-mom recently brought me a secret weapon - vital wheat gluten. You add 1 tsp per cup of flour to increase the gluten/protein level of any flour. I used 6 tsp to my 4 cups of flour and I think this made a huge difference. The dough was so elastic and strong, not just stiff. It was amazing! Shaping was a breeze; I rolled into a smooth rope and firmly fastened the ends into a circle, seemingly just as nature intended. And they baked into satiny smooth golden wonders, a dream come true.

Now that I've made the perfect bagel, I finally know what the dough should feel and look like - super stiff, super smooth, not one bit of sticky. With this knowledge, I'm confident I can try other bagel recipes (with sponges and other techniques to develop flavor) and adjust the flour properly (as all good bakers can) instead of strictly adhering to the recipe's measurements.

Gallery of losers:


attempt 1: lumpy, lop-sided and pale

attempt 2: lumpy (raisins don't help), swirl instead of circle

attempt 3: lumpy, no hole

Other things I learned:
- Shorter boil (30sec total) is better. The longer the boil, the thicker the crust, preventing it from plumping in oven.
- Rolled rope shaping is better than hole punching - ensures super smoothness
- You must create a big hole during shaping, at least 2.5in for normal sized bagel. Any smaller and it will completely disappear.

Unsolved mysteries:
- I'm still not sure what to add to the boiling water. I'm kinda sold on baking soda, though the Cook's recipe adds nothing and other swear by barley malt syrup.
- Must find barley malt syrup. All recipes include this in the dough for "traditional" flavor. I don't know where to get it in Zurich.

trailside grilling

what's better than a perfectly roasted marshmellow?

A fun part of Swiss hiking is the trailside grilling. We tried it the first time last week and now we're hooked. Since you can't really camp in CH (well, you can if you want to pitch your tent next an RV, next to a busy road and eat at the camp restaurant), this is the next best thing.

typical camp site ... grilling station wood hut in Davos

We first saw a trailside grilling station in Davos, with a huge mountain hut full of wood (see above) and 12yr olds trying to chop wood with the provided axe. So Swiss. The typical station will include a hut of wood, picnic tables, and a fire pit with a grill. We decided to try it at Atzmänning. We had a few problems. First, the trail with the grilling station we wanted to go to was closed, due to Schiessgefahr - danger of stray bullets from nearby shooting range (later we realized we read the sign wrong and there was only shooting danger M-F).

who cares about dripping fog, wet wood, and cold wind?
a true boy scout can start a fire in any conditions

So we hiked farther, straight into a cloud, to a different station. We arrived at the supposed spot and wandered in the fog for 10 mins (could only see a few feet in any direction) before asking at the mountain hut where to go. They looked at us (ok, we sent Ty in to do the reconnaissance) like we were crazy (who grills in a cloud?), but said we could take some wood from the nearby farm and pointed in the general direction of the grill pit. There was no picnic table, the wood was wet, litter in the fire pit, and the cloud was all but raining on us. But that only made us more determined. Ty made a great fire and our steak, bratwurst, and s'mores were delicious, especially after our exhausting up and down hike.

third time's a charm - sunny, dry wood, an actual picnic table

We tried grilling again this weekend, this time in Arosa. We had much better weather, but that meant more people out grilling. The first grill station was packed with several families so we hiked on. At the next spot, the previous party was just leaving, so got the whole picnic table to ourselves and Ty got to tend the fire, unemcumbered - his favorite part. Ty was even able to cook our steak perfectly medium-rare - yay! Four other families stopped in while we were there to grill sausages. They were delighted to borrow our equipment, as we always come well prepared, with tongs, fire-proof gloves, billow, etc. We look forward to many more trailside grilling sessions next summer.

chocolate showdown

the leftovers

My step-mom loves dark chocolate. So when she was in town, we held a little dark chocolate showdown. We cruised around town buying one of almost every brand we could find, generally staying above 60% dark, ranging from super-market cheapies to specialty shop cuties. We arranged three blind testings, each with five chocolates. Then we had a taste-off of our favorites from each testing. We rated each chocolate on aroma, texture, and flavor, then gave an overall score. Here are our findings:

• The three of us (my step-mom, husband, and I) rated most chocolates very similarly. We had some definite preferences. But I thought our different palates would affect the ratings more significantly than they did.
• Per the taste test cliche, a couple supermarket cheapies ranked much higher than a couple gourmet brands - good news when making that flourless chocolate cake that requires 14oz of chocolate.
• The best-of-the-best taste-off was pointess. It was impossible to rank the top chocolates; they were very different in all aspects (aroma, texture, flavor), but all really good in their own ways.
• All the chocolates taste better on their own, without being compared. Since we only used three squares from each bar, I had a lot left over to nibble on. Chocolates that I rated pretty low in the showdown, still taste pretty good as a late night snack.

Here are the full results (slightly skewed toward my preferences):

Really good
Alprose Swiss Baking Chocolate 52%, 7.70sfr for 300g (not really fair at such a low cocao percentage)
Munz Swiss Premium 70% 1.40sfr
Cailler Noir Cacao Extreme 74%, 2.90sfr

Good
Suchard Sensations Noir, 70%, 2.60sfr
Frey Ecuador 65%
Frey Noir Special 72%, 1.40sfr
Villars Chocolat Noir 72%, 2.90sfr

OK
Teuscher Chocolate 66%, 7.20sfr
Teuscher Chocolate 77%, 7.20sfr
Sprungli Grand Cru Criollo de Maracaibo Venezuela 65%, 6.20sfr (I loved this one, but no one else did)
Michel Cluisel Les 1ers Crus de Plantation Los Ancones 67%, 9.40sfr (for 80g of 5 different varietals)
Dolfin Noir, 70%, 3.60sfr

Yuck
Frey Edel Bitter 55%, 1.40sfr
Frey Noir Supreme Authentique Extra Dunkel 78%, 2.10sfr
Mascao Eclats de Cacao (with nibs) 73%, 2.90sfr (really a DQ because the nibs completely interfered with the flavor and texture)

Here's a site that gives guidelines for chocolate tastings.