Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

There are a few things we've gained since moving back to the west coast. Perfect weather, for example. Good mexican food. Beaches that can actually be enjoyed. On the other hand, there are plenty of things we miss. The walk-ability of the city. Reasonable public transportation. And all types of food; mostly though, pizza and bagels.

I've covered my attempts to recreate the thin crust pizzas of New York City. So far I haven't been successful, but its a work in progress. I've made quite a few pizzas so far and, although they aren't anything like what can be had in Brooklyn, you certainly won't hear me complaining about all the pizzas I've had to eat along the way.

Which brings us to bagels. The bagels in NYC are incredible. There was a corner store just down the street from our old apartment that made bagels fresh, every morning. If we were up early enough we could smell them from our balcony - but we were very rarely up at 4am! 

These bagels were just one of the hundreds of bagel offerings throughout the boroughs - served warm, with a large schmear of cream cheese. After New York bagels, its hard to find a good substitute. So I did what any good food blogger would do - I tried to make my own.

We are an open-bagel household; we love all kinds. Bagels have their place: everything or onion bagels for sandwiches, plain bagels for lox, etc etc. Our favorite bagel, though, is the cinnamon raisin. Its the perfect amount of sweet for breakfast and is good with cream cheese, butter, or even peanut butter. When it was time to decide what kind of bagel I would be making, cinnamon raisin was an easy choice.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

Adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice

Sponge
1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2 1/2 cups water, room temperature

Dough
1 teaspoon instant yeast
3 3/4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons malt powder or 1 tablespoon dark or light malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar
2 cups loosely packed raisins, rinsed with warm water to remove surfact sugar, acid, and natural wild yeast

To Finish
1 tablespoon baking soda
Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting
Melted butter for brushing (optional)
Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling (optional)

First, make the sponge. Mix the yeast and flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water, stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 2 hours, or until it becomes foamy and bubbly. The sponge should double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped.

To make the dough, add the rest of the yeast to the sponge and stir. Add all but 1/2 to 1 cup of the flour, and all of the cinnamon, sugar, salt and malt. Mix on low speed with the dough hook until the ingredients form a ball, then slowly work in the remaining flour until the dough is stiff. Add the raisins at the end of mixing.

Transfer the dough to a countertop and knead for at least 10 minutes. The dough should be firm, but still smooth and pliable. If the dough is too dry or rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough is tacky or sticky, add more flour. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.

Immediately divide the dough into equal pieces - 12 (4 1/2 ounce) pieces for super sized bagels, 16 (3.375 ounce) regular-sized bagels, or 24 (2.25 ounce) perfectly smaller bagels. Form the pieces into rolls.

Cover the rolls with a damp towel and rest for 20 minutes.

Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly spray with oil. Poke a hole in the center of a ball of dough and rotate your thumb to widen the hole. The dough should be stretched as evenly possible around the bagel.

Place the shaped pieces two inches apart on the pans. Mist the bagels lightly with spray oil and cover each pan loosely with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Check to see if the bagels are ready by using the “float test”. Fill a bowl with cool to room-temperature water. The bagels are ready if they float within 10 seconds of being put into the water. Take a bagel and test it. If it floats, return the bagel to the pan, dry it, then cover the pan and put it in the refrigerator overnight. If it does not float, return the bagel to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature. Check the dough every 10 minutes or so until a tester floats

 The following day preheat the oven to 500°F with both racks in the middle of the oven. Boil a large pot of water and add the baking soda. Sprinkle parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal or semolina flour.

Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit. They should float within 10 seconds. After 1 minute, flip them over and boil for another minute.

Place the boiled bagels back on the pans and bake for five minutes, then rotate the pans 180-degrees. Lower the oven temperature to 450°F and bake for another 5 minutes, or until the bagels are light golden brown.

Remove the bagels from the oven and let cool on a rack before serving.

Challah for Rosh Hashanah

Challah has been on my to-make list for a long while. When the Mister and I started dating he introduced me to challah french toast and I've been hooked ever since. Because he is not particularly observant we usually only have a loaf around the holidays, and my yummy french toast is a special occasion treat.

Last year at this time I worked in an area with a large Jewish population. There was a bakery that I had heard good things about, so I decided to get our holiday loaves there. The day before Rosh Hashanah I stopped by on my lunch break and found a line out the door and around the corner - there was no way I was going to get back to work on time. Luckily, a patient of ours recognized my scrubs and not only let me cut ahead of her in line, but also bought me two loaves of bread!

This year, both to cross an item off my list AND to avoid that line, I decided to make my own challah. I roughly followed a recipe from The Complete American Jewish Cookbook, which has been my lifesaver as the main cook in a half-Jewish household. One change I did make was to add raisins, and I didn't braid the loaf as is tradition at Rosh Hashanah.

The loaf came out very pretty. It was really fun to make and even more fun to cut into and enjoy as a part of our Rosh Hashanah celebration. (PS - Challah + honey = yum) I'm really excited to make it again, and to try braiding.

Shana Tovah!

Challah

2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup hot milk
3/4 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 eggs, 1 yolk reserved
3 cups flour
1 cup raisins

Melt the butter in the milk. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt and let cool to lukewarm.

Meanwhile, dissolve the yeast in the water. Let stand until yeast has activated. Mix in 1 full egg and 1 white, then pour into milk mixture and mix well.

Slowly pour in flour, mixing well. Knead until smooth and elastic (I used my mixer; the book says it should take about 5 minutes). Place dough in a large greased bowl and cover with a cloth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.

After the rise, punch the dough down. Flatten into a rectangular shape and pour raisins down the center. Fold top of dough over and pinch edges shut.

Roll the dough into a long rope. Coil the rope into a 9" cake pan or pie pan. Cover and let rise for 1 hour, until puffy and full.

Whisk the reserved egg yolk with 1 tbsp cold water. Using a pastry brush, lightly cover the dough with the egg wash.

Bake at 375 for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Tent with aluminum foil if loaf becomes too brown.

Charoset

Someday, maybe I'll finish my Passover menu... someday :)

I was first introduced to charoset at the first Seder I attended with D and his family, and I was hooked from the first bite. I very seriously considered making it outside of Passover, but never really got around to it. When Passover rolled around this year I was so excited to have a bite of this appley goodness again.

Whats good about charoset is... well... everything. Its tasty, its healthy, its got booze in it. What else do you need? My version is a little non-traditional, but its the way I like it. Yum.


Charoset

6 Apples, peeled and chopped
2 cups raisins
1 cup nuts, chopped fine (I used almonds and walnuts, but walnuts are the most traditional I believe)
Splash red wine
Honey

Its pretty straightforward... chop the apples, chop the nuts, (I use a hand chopper... makes everything so easy!) throw everything in a bowl, let sit overnight. Add the honey and wine to taste, and remember that the honey will sweeten everything and the wine will mellow as it sits. Enjoy, preferably in mass quantities!

Matzoh Ball Soup

I have a love for matzoh that could only exist in someone not born Jewish. When I tried matzoh in the form of soup a few years ago at the first holiday I spent with D's family I was absolutely sold. I've gone to Chompie's in AZ just for a taste of matzoh. I even occasionally buy matzoh to use as crackers. Yes, I'm a little nuts.

Despite this, I'd never made matzoh anything before I made this soup. I'm a little intimidated by matzoh. Its so simple... just flour and water... that its almost a little scary. How in the world does something so plain turn into something so delicious? Besides, you always hear that matzoh balls are a tough thing to get right. They must be not too big but not too small, not too solid but not too fluffy, not too bland but not over seasoned. No pressure. Right?

I found a recipe that looked pretty straightforward and I went for it. And you know what? It didn't turn out half freakin bad. Its not Chompies by any means, but it was more than edible and I went back for seconds. Without further adieu...

Matzoh Ball Soup

4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1 cup Matzoh meal
1/3 cup oil or melted shortening
1 tsp salt
dash pepper

Beat eggs. Add water, melted shortening, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Add matzoh meal and stir thoroughly. Let stand for 20 minutes.

Form into balls and drop into soup or into 1 1/2 quarts of boiling water. Cook 20 minutes.

Rugelach: Fail. Then Redemption.

First of all... I like Jews. I think they are great people. I love Paul Simon. I love my Jewish boyfriend, and I love love love being around for his holidays, because if its one thing Jews like to do, its eat. My kind of people. I can go on and on about the merits of a good kugel, or what I think makes latkes perfect, or why challah really does make the best french toast. One thing, though, that I think is sorely lacking in Jewish cooking is dessert. I'm a chocolate lover, and things like honey cake and hamantaschen and mandelbrot just don't do it for me. Le sigh.

One dessert I had really enjoyed was rugelach. Rugelach has been floating around the food blogging world ever since the Tuesdays with Dorie group made them, and I thought they would be a perfect way to get rid of the extreme amount of jam I had sitting around my house: 1 jar of blueberry, 2 strawberry, 1 blackberry, 1 orange, and 1 grape. Sheesh, and I don't even really like jelly!

Let me tell you... it wasn't pretty.

I followed Dorie's recipe for the cookie exactly. It came out perfectly... a little flaky, with a delicious cream cheesey flavor. The filling I just kinda made up as I went, mainly because I wanted to get rid of as much jelly as possible so I wasn't wasting any time with nuts or fruit!

4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Let the cream cheese and butter rest on counter for 10 minutes. It should be slightly softened but cool.

Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and mix, just until the dough forms large curds. Do not work the dough too long.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and divide into half. Shape each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to a day. (dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

Shape the cookies: On a lightly floured surface, roll 1 round of dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle.

Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and spread with jam.

Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles.

Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each triangle becomes a little crescent.

So this is where things started to go wrong... I definitely did not spread "a thin gloss of jam over the dough." I slathered it on there. I wanted this jelly out of my fridge! Bad move.

Bake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350F.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden.

Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

The first batch was a MESS! The dough had unwrapped and all the jelly had come spilling out all over the place.




This guy was the worst... he was literally a flat cookie with some jelly in the middle. Arg!




But, like any good cook, I tried to learn from my mistakes. With the next round of dough I was MUCH more careful with my jelly application, and they came out great!



Yum!