Bagels!

i love bagels. as a man of few routines, i must have an everthing bagel at least 47 of the 52 sundays of the year. and i'll regret not having one those other sundays. so, in the year of bread, why not bagels? reinhart has this great looking recipe in his BBA. most of the work is done the day (or two) before you boil & bake them. then again, why go through all that bother when you can usually buy pretty darn good ones at the local shop when you want one? well, as i've learned so far in the year of bread, it's not that much bother. bread baking is more about timing than work. even kneading isn't that bad, and you can have your stand mixer or even use the "dough cycle" of your bread machine (in fact, the King Arthur Four Baking Companion claims the bread machine provides the best, most consistent results versus hand- or mixer-kneading). if you're going to be around your house anyway, then there's really not that much bother. now, the bagels are a little more work than most other breads. the dough is incredibly stiff, and my kitchen aid struggled getting the flour completely hydrated. this dough you HAVE to knead by hand (unless you're doing a smaller batch, i guess), and it's 10 minutes of hand-kneading of the stiffest dough there is. still, i have to say, it's worth it. these are really good bagels. chewy, malty, fragrant--and you control the toppings. i like a lot of onion, quite a bit of salt, and a good dose of poppy & sesame seeds, and i like them equally distributed on the top, bottom, and sides. as long as you top them this way, this is the way to go. if you're going cinnamon-raisin or pumpkin or bacon-cheddar, then you'd have to make a separate dough, and that is too much bother. and those aren't really bagels anymore, anyway. these are. i won't do it every week, but i'll definitely do it again. and again.