Bagels, Take 1

Bagels.....I have the same 'thing' about bagels as I do about pizza. A nice big fat bagel with just enough crunch and just enough chewiness is hard to come by outside of the Tri-State Area. Luckily for me, there is an awesome bagel place within 2 miles of my house. They are delicious and out of character for Maine, and every time I go in there, I swear, I get worried that they will change their recipe. I panic that one day they will want their bagels to taste like Maine, and not the New York ball of delicious jewish dough they already are. It's also the only place I've found Boar's Head meats since I've been here. And they carry taylor ham (not so Jewish), which I think is near impossible to find outside of New Jersey. Mmm...artery clogging taylor ham, delicious! I'll save the taylor ham for another post...back to the bagels.

I don't have the recipe because it was pulled it out of a book that I do not own. The recipe seemed fine, but the execution of the bagel, well, not so awesome.

The first problem came when the dough was too dry. The second problem came when the dough was over kneaded. By a very, very, very, VERY long time. And that was enough problems to have our bagels too small, and much much MUCH too tough.

They were still fun to make, and I look forward to a second attempt. To redeem myself for the bagel destruction!!!