Two of the most popular foods are pizza and bagels. So, following the mini pizzettes for my daughter's birthday party last week, I also made mini bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon.
I've made bagels several times over the years, so I looked for recipes on blogs, but there didn't seem to be any. Zero. I don't think I realized for a long time that the purpose of a food blog is to promote recipes.
I can't remember how I made it, so I used Ed Kimber's recipe and it worked great. Just made a few small adjustments.
Even if I use yeast, I make the dough a few days in advance, let it rise slowly, and knead it repeatedly to make a little sourdough. I also do this with pizza. Sometimes I make the dough 5 days in advance.
mini bagels for party
If you have time, make the dough a few days in advance.
serve 30 mini bagels
ingredient
- 500 g strong bread crumbs
- 10 g good sea salt
- 7 g Fast Action Dry Yeast
- 300 milliliter water, not hot
- 2 table spoon Malt syrup (1 for dough, 1 for boiling water)
- One tablespoon baking powder
- 50 g poppy seeds
To serve:
- 400 g cream cheese
- 500 g smoked salmon
- Black pepper and lemon wedges
guideline
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Place the yeast, water, and malt syrup together in a container and let sit for a few minutes until foamy.
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Set your stand mixer to speed 1 (you can do this by hand, but it's quite difficult because the dough is tough) and use the dough hook to combine the flour, salt, and water mixture. Mix for about 10 minutes. Occasionally stop the machine and pull the dough from the hook. After about 10 minutes, the bowl should be clean with no traces of dough on the sides. Remove the dough from the hook, cover the bowl, and let rise in a cool place for about 8 hours.
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If you're not in a hurry, do this a few more times, patting the risen dough, covering it, and leaving it overnight.
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Then, cut the dough into 25g pieces and shape them into balls. Using your heavily floured fingers, make a hole in the center of each finger. Make it pretty big because the hole will start to close. Place the small bagels on top of the silpat, cover and let rise again for a few hours.
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Place water in a large pot and bring to a boil. (Because I use Agar, I use a different baking tin on the burner to allow enough room for the bagels.) Add 1 tablespoon malt syrup and 1 tablespoon baking powder.
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Preheat the oven to 200C.
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Carefully place the bagels in the water and boil for 1 minute, then flip over and leave for another minute. The longer you boil it, the chewier it becomes.
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Scoop out with a slotted spoon and place on a tray lined with parchment paper or silpat. You may need to use kitchen paper to remove excess liquid from the tray.
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Sprinkle poppy seeds generously on each bagel.
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Place the tray in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.
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Remove from the oven and place on a rack to dry. Leave to cool, then cut into pieces and spread with cream cheese, smoked salmon and black pepper.
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When serving them at a party, I had a few lemon slices to squeeze on each bagel just before handing them out.