When you have a wood fired oven there aren't many excuses for not trying to make bagels. (Other than it is a 2 day process, and quite a lot of work.) Vince has now tried twice. We think that they are good. You see, we have never eaten a Montreal Wood Fired Bagel, or a New York Wood Fired Bagel, so we have no frame of reference. Ours are chewy and full of holes. They do not taste "like a bun with a hole" like most bagels do around here. I guess we need to enlist the help of a bagel aficionado to determine if they are close to the real thing.The dough is fairly easy to make. It must be quite stiff and the shaped bagels need to be "retarded" overnight in the fridge. We discovered that the bagels need to go directly from the fridge to the boiling water, or else the dough becomes too soft and they look really freaky when they are baked! We have learned that we place them further from the fire to start, and then move them closer at the end.
We set ourselves up in front of the oven with a burner and large pot of boiling water. We have an outdoor counter for our prep area.
The baking is the fun part! Vince has got it down to the dance of the bagels in the oven. New ones go in....the others are moved closer to the fire......then out they come.
The man and his bagels. Give us a call if you want to be the aficionado to give them their stamp of approval!
4 comments:
nice cinematography
Those look INCREDIBLE. After hearing that there's such a pent-up demand for good and authentic bagels in Edmonton, you could farm Vince out with a night job! :) Jenn
Did you use lye when you made your bagels?
We did not use lye in the water. We used baking soda the first time and then Honey the 2nd time as per some Montreal style instructions.
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