I am turning into a bagel junkie, actually, I think I always have been a bagel junkie since I “discovered” bagels in Grade 7 music class. I bet you are wondering why our teacher brought in bagels and cream cheese into her music class that day, well, it was because we were studying the soundtrack for the 1970 rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. So what does bagels and cream cheese have to do with a rock opera? I have no idea as bagels originated in Jewish communities in 17th century Poland… but I am certain she had her reasons and I am ever so grateful she introduced her class to chewy, yummy baked bagels!
Since then, bagels have always been a part of my breakfast rotation. I usually just have them on weekends, but today being Wednesday and fresh bagels coming out of the oven this morning, well, who can fault me for diving into a fresh, hot bagel? Especially ones made with cheddar and jalapeño, a seriously awesome combination!
The sourdough bagel recipe I use is under copyright law so I am unable to share it here, but I can tell you which book it came from, “Artisan Sourdough Made Simple” by Emilie Raffa, and the recipe is called “Sunday Morning Bagels”, the link here, which is available from Amazon or from Indigo Books Canada here.
The actual recipe in her book is for plain sourdough bagels as well as additions you can make for cinnamon raisin, pumpkin spice, etc. But she did not have any additions for cheddar jalapeño so I was on my own in that regard for figuring out how much of both to add.
I settled on adding 8 oz of grated, 3 yr old cheddar and 2 large jalapeños that were finely diced.
This recipe calls for making the dough the evening before you are going to bake them as the dough needs to sit out in a cool environment for 12 hours. So I made my dough at 7:30 last night…and it was nicely risen by this morning.
Next up was to divide the dough and shape into bagels, I get 8 good size bagels out of a batch.
Next up is to boil them for 30 seconds each side before baking…
Then they are baked until they are golden and the house smells simply amazing!
It was really really hard not to dive into one right away, I had to let them cool for about 10 minutes before slicing and popping one into the toaster. Slathered in cream cheese and another 10 minutes later I had a happy tummy.
I highly recommend this book, it is by far the best bagel recipe I have ever tried, and believe me, I have tried oodles off of the internet that just do not measure up to a true, artisan bread chef product! and no, I do not get any compensation for my glowing review of her book, just call me a happy, satisfied bagel baker!
Deborah