To Butter a Bagel...

...you have to finagle
that hole in the center, you see.



Remember this book?



These are a recipe from that book, made with a bread sponge that I started yesterday.

Then this morning I got up at 6:30 and made bagels. Yeah, I know.

Actually I went to bed early last night because I wasn't feeling good and had slept poorly the night before. So the most natural thing to do upon waking up at a decent hour for a change (stop snickering) is to make bagels. That way they had time to rise and could have their time in the fridge while we were at church.

So when we came home, I poached and baked them and MAN! Are they good!

Mmmmmm... so yummy. Look, my eyes are rolling back in my head... mmmmmmm... poppy seeds stuck in the corner of my mouth... crunch, crunch... yum...

E-hem. Moving on.

I'm really enjoying this book. This is one of his "warm-up" recipes, using sponges as opposed to a hardcore sourdough starter. I'm getting to that part (since that's why I got the book in the first place), but this author is adamant that I must read and follow the book as if I'm learning to make bread for the first time. (He even claims that it's a "spiritual experience", but I think that's debatable.) I have to forget that I already can make decent yeasted and sponge breads and see bread-making with new eyes. And being a first-born and all, I have to follow the rules.

Not that I mind, because these are delicious (did I already mention that?), and tomorrow I'm making ciabatta.