Everything Bagels! Gotta love ’em! And now, for my Destination Cooking Challenge, I not only loved ’em, but I baked them too!
I got the idea of baking bagels for this challenge when my AncestryDNA® results arrived. I was sure that I would find a fascinating history with a mix of ancient kings, conquerors, and philosophers. All that might be there, but it wasn’t obvious from the results. According to AncestryDNA® I’m 100% central and eastern European Jewish. I previously didn’t think anyone was 100% of anything. But there you go! Apparently all of my lineage traces back to Poland, Lithuania, and the surrounding area.
What better way to tackle the Destination Cooking challenge but to prepare a typical European Jewish dish? The one problem is that I’m not a big fan of most of that stuff. The one exception? Bagels. I especially love everything bagels.
Check out the video to see how I did. Hint: Nailed it! Help me win by clicking through to YouTube (here) and clicking the “like” button (it looks like a thumbs-up).
References
Bagel Recipe: I used this recipe by Sally’s Baking Addiction. Thanks Sally, it was awesome! Important Note: Sally’s recipe stresses the importance of using bread flour, but I used all-purpose flour and it still turned out great.
Bagel History: I summarized the history described in this article by The Atlantic: The Secret History of Bagels.
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Thank you for the cool background!
May I ask for a link of your iphone/camera holder? I’ve been looking for a reliable one.
Sure, I actually have two different ones. Both are a combination phone holder and selfie-light (helps for better lighting during Zoom calls, for example).
The one from the video is self-standing: https://amzn.to/35Syagw
And this one has a clamp so it’s perfect for my desk: https://amzn.to/3fGRTVh
Thanks a lot!
Growing up I was under the impression that I was 100% WASP. Well…after doing the DNA thang, I found out I was 1.6% Ashkenazy from Central Europe. So Greg….maybe we’re related!
I went to Tel Avia to get mine and lots were Free .
#stayinFrenchcave
I made the same exact recipe yesterday from Sally’s baking addiction. They turned out awesome. Just like NY bagels. It’s really hard to find a good bagel in Michigan. It is really strange to see that you made the same exact recipe at almost the same time. I’m perplexed how that happened since I have never made a bagel in my life. Don’t know how to attach a photo here of mine. Anyway, the hardest part is finding bread flour and yeast.
That’s really funny. This was my first time ever making bagels in my life also. And I’m also based in Michigan.
To share your photo here, put it on imgur and reply here with the link. I’ll have to approve it to make it visible.
Here’s the photo of mine…
Beautiful
Welcome to the tribe Greg – if you trust the ancestry results, which I’ve heard can be iffy. I took the Zingerman’s bagel class and like most things I was impressed at how much better they were homemade. The key is the boiling! So many places – like Kroger, mentioned by Losingtrader – call things bagels that haven’t been boiled, so the consistency is all wrong. Looks like you did a great job. And didn’t Polish rulers have great names! Always made me laugh me when my mother would talk about them. My favorite is Władysław the elbow-high.
I didn’t know that the DNA results could be iffy. Maybe I messed up the results by eating a bagel or Reuben sandwich before spitting into the vial.
Cool background! Hopefully your family immigrated to the USA before USSR and Nazi invaded that region :/
Thanks. And yes, on my mom’s side they had made their way to the US long before WW2. On my dad’s side, most were in South Africa.
Very impressive!
I’m thinking losingtrader is a loser…….
249,000 Deathmiles, so I guess you’re correct!
Thanks MalMel!
Losingtrader has an odd sense of humor. He doesn’t mean what he wrote. You can literally apply that to all of his comments on this blog. He doesn’t mean what he wrote.
Nice, but I can buy hot bagels for 59 cents at Kroger. The Jewish thing to do would be to buy.
At least that’s my take. Of course, this might be your new line of work when the blog fails.
but homemade kicks store-bought butt. there’s still no water like long-island though, no matter how we make them in the west they’re just not quite the same