Egg Bagels for November

This month, Kitchen of the Month, Karen BakingSoda of Bake My Day!, challenged the Babes to make Egg Bagels.  It’s been a long time since I’ve made bagels, so I was looking forward to trying a new recipe.  I kept waiting for the recipe to be posted in a readable format, but finally gave up and requested two of Beth Hensperger’s bread books from the local library, hoping against all odds that the recipe would appear in one of them.  Eureka!  It did!  The book in question is Baking Bread:  Old and New Traditions.

From there, it was smooth sailing.  I made the potato water and let it cool to the right temperature, then assembled all the ingredients.  While the dough was proofing, I turned on the oven and started heating the pot of water.  My oven seems to take forever to get to temperature, and a pot of boiling water takes nearly as long.

When the dough was ready (does this look doubled to you?), so was I.  

The whole process went quickly, and I ended up with a batch of lovely egg bagels that I’ve been nibbling on for the last week.

Karen has posted the recipe with her notes and variations on her website. 

Hope you join us this month!  If you do, send your information to Karen by December 1^st to be included in the Buddy roundup.

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth  (Kitchen of the Month)
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie
• My Kitchen in Half Cups - Tanna
• Bake My Day - Karen
• Feeding My Enthusiasms - Elle

Batter Bread for World Bread Day

Busy times!  I really hope this is not my new normal.  

On Sunday, I made plans to focus on baking two different breads, one for World Bread Day, and the other for the Bread Baking Babes.  Both posts appear today.  The saving grace was that the second bread was steamed, rather than baked, freeing up the oven for the first bread.

When time is at a premium, you want a bread that is quick to make but still delicious.  Enter a batter bread.  All the ingredients are mixed together, left to proof, then poured into a prepared pan and baked.  It is that simple.  I have made batter buns before, many times, but this is the first time I tried a full loaf. The resulting bread is just perfect for an everyday bread – delicious toasted, made into sandwiches, or for snacking.

This is my entry for World Bread Day 2018.  Hope you have a chance to make it and enjoy it!

Head over to Zorra’s blog to drool over all the wonderful bread entries.

 

America's Favorite Batter Bread

Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 3 cups water (120-130°F)
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil or shortening
• 6½ cups bread flour
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 package (2¼ tsp, ¼oz, 7g) RED STAR Active Dry Yeast
• Butter as desired

Instructions

1. In large mixer bowl, combine 3½ cups flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add water and shortening or oil to flour mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. By hand, gradually stir in remaining flour to make a stiff batter. Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 30 minutes.
2. Stir down batter with a spoon. Divide dough evenly between 2 greased bread pans, 8 x 5-inch. (See Notes for other pan options.) Cover; let rise in warm place until batter reaches tops of pans, 20 to 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Remove from pans immediately; place on rack. Brush with butter; cool before cutting.

(courtesy of Red Star Yeast and My Kitchen Addiction)