The Baker's Dozen: Montreal Bagels

 

The Baker's Dozen: Montreal Bagels

I had high hopes for these. I bought expensive ingredients for them. Sadly, none of that mattered, because this was a fail. I am pretty sure it's the recipe that was wrong, because I've made bagels before, and they turned out fine.

Montreal bagels are like regular bagels, except they are sweeter. There is honey in the dough, and in the water bath. I have never had one before, and was looking forward to this one! I won't share the recipe, since it's faulty, but I'll go ahead and share my pictures of what I made.

As you can see, the ingredient list is pretty sparse. The recipe yields 18 bagels, and I did not need that much, so I cut the recipe in half. All the ingredient amounts were conducive to this, so that wasn't the problem.

This is the same brand of honey I used to make last year's baklava. It's a different flavor, but it's really good! This came from the honey shop at the Pike Place Market. It's costly, but it's supporting a small local business, and the products are amazing! I never really liked honey until I tried this brand and now I'm wondering if it's just because I've never actually had good honey before. That stuff in the bear-shaped bottle is just not that good!

Here is the liquid mixture with the honey, yeast, egg, salt, water, and sugar. The water is warm a helps the honey melt into it, but I did have to stir it for a couple minutes to get it to fully incorporate.

This is how it looks after I added the flour. It looks pretty dry, but it worked out fine.

Here's what it looks like after it is kneaded. I didn't have to add any extra liquid or flour.

The recipe said to only let it rise 20 minutes, which is nothing, so I let it rise for over an hour. It still didn't rise too much, but it got some rising in it.

Here are the formed bagels. They really mean it when they tell you to pinch and roll the ends together. Most of mine came apart in the boiling process.

They sink to the bottom, and like gnocchi or ravioli, they will float to the top.

When they float, you flip them over and boil for another minute. They are hot and slimy at this point and I dropped a few and they broke apart. Most of the others came apart at the ends on their own. I dipped them in poppy seeds.

Here's what they look like going into the oven...

And what they look like coming out...The one on the right is the under side. As you can see, they are totally burned. I should have put them on parchment paper, but I suspect they still would have burned. The recipe said to bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes. This is only after 20 minutes. The sugar content just made it get too brown too quickly, and then stuck to the bottom and burned.

The tops are actually ok, flavor and texture-wise. I think if I had it to do over again, I would lower the temperature and bake them on parchment paper. I don't know, though, I might leave this one to the professionals next time and just buy one at a bakery the next time I want to try these again! Oh well, they can't all be winners. I just wish it was the weeks that I wasn't using super expensive ingredients!!