Bagels

After a recent article on Slate about making staples from scratch, I decided to make some bagels.

Bryan: When did bagels turn into staples?
Em: I like bagels.
Bryan: I like bagels too. That's not my point.

I used this recipe, as recommended in the article. It was pretty easy, despite the number of instructions.
Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. flour (I used whole wheat)
• 2 pkgs dry yeast (about 4.5 tsp? Check your yeast container)
• 3 T. sugar (I used brown)
• 1 T. salt
• 1 1/2 c. hot water (between 120-130 degrees F.)
• 3 Quarts water
• 1 1/2 T. sugar
• cornmeal

As you can see, I skipped the egg glaze, because I don't have any eggs in the house. The ingredients are in three colours because the recipe has three parts. Clever, innit?
Methodology

1. Put 3 c. flour and the other dry ingredients (from the part in RED) in a bowl and mix. Add the hot water (also in red) and stir. Add the last half cup of flour a little at a time. Eventually the dough will get thick and heavy and you won't be able to stir it with a spoon anymore, so turn it out onto a floured counter and knead it for about ten minutes, until it is firm and solid as pinched, adding flour as necessary.
2. When the dough is ready, put it in an oiled bowl and cover it. I stuck it in a humid microwave. Leave it to rise for about an hour, until it is doubled.
3. Bring three quarts of water to a boil and add the sugar (this is the orange part). Reduce the water to a very slow simmer.
4. Punch the dough down and divide it into 10 pieces. Make each into a ball (see picture on left). Let them stand for a few minutes to relax, then flatten and make a hole (I cut an "x" in the center with a knife, then opened it up and squished the edges a little). Cover and leave the bagels to rise about 10 min. - this is called a half proofing, I think.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease baking sheets (probably two of them) and sprinkle with corn meal.
6. Drop bagels 2-3 at a time into the simmering water. I used a stir fry spatula for this, since I don't have any deep frying baskets or nonsense. They will sink and rise again in a few seconds (or if you left them too long, they will not sink). Flip them about 30 seconds after they rise again and let them simmer another 30 seconds (total 1 min.) Scoop out and drain on paper towel, then put on the cookie sheet.
   
7. If you're doing an egg glaze, do it now.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until brown. When the tops are brown (about 12 min in), you can flip them. A long chopstick is ideal for transferring bagels to a cooling rack.

Notes

*That was pretty easy, and the bagels are delicious.
*Difficult to tell when whole wheat bagels are browned, since they are, um, already brown.
*I don't really have any changes to the recipe. Seriously delicious after a long run. Eat them with cream cheese. Mmm.

Cornbread Muffins

Cornbread. We originally made this for Thanksgiving, then I misplaced the recipe. This past weekend, B decided he really wanted more cornbread, so after considerable googling I found it again. From Epicurious, with very few adaptations.

Ingredients

• 1 c. flour
• 1 c. cornmeal (I used half white and half yellow)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. grated cheese (I used a finely grated Colby/Monterrey Jack mix)
• 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 3 T. honey
• 1/4 c. melted margarine

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 425.
   
2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, salt). Add in cheese.
   
3. Mix buttermilk, eggs, margarine, honey in another bowl.
   
4. Add wet into dry and stir to combine. Don't over-stir.
5. Measure in 1/4 cupfuls into a (greased) muffin pan. Bake ~10 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Notes

• Maybe cook 9 minutes instead? It was a little overdone. I guess 8 minutes and then let it sit and finish with residual heat, that would be ideal.
  
• Otherwise, very tasty; not too dry, quite dense. Goes well with chili.
• Needs a trifle more salt, maybe more honey? B says he remembers them being sweeter last time.
• Makes 12 muffins.
  

Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

Well this was delicious, but a little too liquid. It dripped down all the cupcakes it was applied to. But it was very tasty, and after I was done frosting the cupcakes, I put some on some matzo, and that was good too.

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. margarine
• 8 oz. cream cheese (I used fat free, I think this was a mistake on my part)
• 3 1/3 c. powdered sugar
• 1 T. rum
• 1 tsp white chocolate Godiva

Methodology

1. Mix margarine and cream cheese.
2. Add sugar slowly. If you want it less sweet, add less sugar.
3. Add the liquor.
4. If it is too soft, try refrigerating it.

Notes

This goes on chocolate cupcakes, of course.

I refrigerated this and it didn't actually help, I think because I used fat free cream cheese and margarine instead of butter. Even after having been in the freezer overnight, it is still not going to go in a piping bag. But it is delicious, I cannot help but stick my fingers in. Which brings up another point - do not drive under the influence of this frosting. I kept adding rum, trying to get a bit of a "kick", and finally added the Godiva for that (it was Meyer's rum, so pretty high quality stuff). And then all of a sudden it was almost too much.

Almost is the operative word here, I guess.

I can't think of any really good ways to fix it when your frosting is too runny. Maybe cornstarch, if I'd had any (I didn't) would have thickened it. Anyway it worked pretty well if you didn't mind getting frosting all over your fingers. So the moral of the story is that if you want decent frosting, don't try to skimp on calories.

Book Review: One Perfect Day

One Perfect Day: the Selling of the American Wedding, by Rebecca Mead

A survey conducted by the wedding website The Knot in 2008 found that the average wedding cost about $28,000. With something like 2.3 million weddings in America each year, this amounts to an absurd amount of cash changing hands - $160 billion annually as of 2006 (when Mead was writing). Each year, more articles on the attendant craziness and "bridezilla" culture appear - brides who spend $5,000 on a Vera Wang wedding gown, who ask their bridesmaids to get botox, plastic surgery, or worse. And each year, the rate of divorce seems to go up.

How did we get here? What prompts this sort of behavior and why is it culturally acceptable? In fact, in a world where women make as much as men and are as likely to keep working afterwards, where we enjoy the ability to live with our significant others before marriage, why get married at all?

These are the questions that Rebecca Mead sets out to answer in One Perfect Day. And what she finds is very interesting to anyone who has been to a wedding or had thoughts of getting married herself.

The story Mead puts together is one of a fairly secular public with no particular institutions to turn to for guidance in putting together a wedding - with the exception of the bridal industry. Where traditional practices have been rejected for disallowing the sort of personalization that those about to be married demand for their ceremonies, the "traditionalesque" has sprung up to replace it, replete with bits of ceremony stripped from other religions, or even from TV shows or films that sound good. Huge industries have sprung up to allow the bride to find exactly the right meringue, which is then sewn for her by four hundred Chinese laborers making $0.50 per hour, or to remind her that her invitations match her shoes.

If family and culture dictate tradition, Mead says, traditionalesque is dictated by industry and driven by profit. Even the idea of a diamond engagement ring is a relatively new one, developed by the DeBeers company in 1938.

So does this hollowing of tradition lead inevitably to the hollowing of a culturally significant turning point in a person's life? Not necessarily. Mead attends numerous weddings over the course of the book, some of which seem especially poignant (for example, a wedding by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas) and some of which seem perfunctory or disappointing (including a tiny wedding in a church in Hebron, WI). In a world with no set bodies to prescribe what is meaningful, meaning is where you make it.

The one complaint I have about this book is that gay weddings and the question of "Why marry?" are addressed only in the epilogue. She does have some poignant things to say about the former (for example, addressing the way that every gay marriage seems like a triumph), but though she raises the latter, even asking a handful of brides, she never offers a good explanation. Perhaps, like the rest of a wedding, the reason must be created by the couple to suit themselves.

Rye Bread

From this recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 tsp yeast
  
• 2 1/2 c. warm water
• 2/3 c. molasses
• 5 c. bread flour
• 2 c. rye flour
• 2 T. wheat gluten
  
• 1 T. salt
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 1/4 c. cocoa powder

Methodology

1. Mix yeast, water, and molasses. You can pour molasses easier if you rub the cup with a little oil first. Also, make sure the measuring cup is big enough for all the liquid or it will get everywhere and be yuck.
2. Put yeast/water/molasses mixture in a bowl (I used glass) and add salt, oil, cocoa powder, 2 c. rye flour, 2 c. regular flour, and the wheat gluten. Mix it up, it will look like cookie batter.
3. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until it is all added. Towards the end it will look like there's extra flour, so just knead it in, then turn the stuff out and knead for about five more minutes, until it looks like bread dough. You know.
4. Microwave some water for a few minutes, then stick the bread in an oiled bowl, cover it with cling film, and stick it in the microwave. Go edit something for 90 minutes or so.
5. When it has risen, punch it down, divide it in half, and put each half in a loaf pan. Put the pans (covered) back in the microwave to rise another 45 minutes.
6. After about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. At the 45 minute mark, it should be ready to go. Slash the top of the bread with your knife and stick it in the oven.
7. Bake 40-50 minutes, until it sounds hollow when you tap it.
   

Notes
*Awesome crust.
*If your oven heats unevenly at all you may want to be very careful in judging them both baked at the same time.
*I think I would like to put some toasted seeds (like sunflower seeds) on top of the next one or perhaps oatmeal. Maybe make it with raisins. Something sweet. Anyway this went well with some cherry jam.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Aren't they pretty?

The white filling is leftover almond-chocolate chip filling from hamentashen we made earlier in the week. You can use whatever jam you want, though (the red ones are cherry). Don't overfill them, or the jam will run out when it boils in the oven.

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• jam or other filling
  

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Cream butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, and salt together. Add almond extract.
3. Add flour slowly until dough forms. If it's too soft, put it in the fridge for 10-20 min.
   
4. Roll into 1" balls and put on a greased cookie sheet. Push your thumb into them, then fill the indentation with jam or what have you.
5. Bake 8-12 min. Bryan's oven runs cool, so they probably could have gone even longer, but I was getting impatient.

Notes
The original recipe (found here) suggests there will be 36 cookies. In reality, this made a lot more. Also they are delicious.

If I were doing them to be super artsy, I'd use loads of colors of jams. I don't even usually like cookies that are not chocolate based, but these are great.

Potato Gnocchi

From Italian Cooking for Dummies.

Ingredients

• 4 potatoes (1 large, 3 small)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 c. flour (you will probably use more)
• salt and pepper

Methodology

1. Cook potatoes in microwave. Scoop insides out of skin and mash with a fork.

2. Add eggs and salt and pepper. Mix. Add flour until you have dough. This will eventually require that you knead the dough with your hands, so be sure the counter is clean.

3. Roll out into 1.5" diameter log, cut into 1" pieces.

4. Run over the tines of a fork and drop into boiling water for about 3 minutes. Scoop out about one minute after they begin to float to the top.

5. Serve with pesto.

Notes

*Easy easy easy. The longest part was waiting for the potatoes to cook in the microwave.

*0/7 on the disaster scale.