My bread today is bagels,  to have
with Christy's artichoke sauce.     ->  Started preheating  oven/stone
                                   to Very Hot Indeed
Now,  the only thing  I know about
bagels  is that my mother  used to  I pulled out handfuls of it (there
make  them when I was very  young,  were four) and stretched them into
boiling   them in a titanic   cast  strands   which  I  wrapped   into
iron pot that I think doubled as a  bagels.   Since the dough was very
washpot in a pinch. I think from a  wet and light  from being   risen,
cookbook  titled  Food That Really  they  kind  of  melted   together,
Schmecks.    It was one  of  those  though   they  maintained    clear
recipes   and practices  that  had  centres,   leaving  them on a  wet
vanished forever by the time I was  wooden chopping board.
double-digits.   I have also heard
about them from standup comedians.  These I scooped one at a time into
                                   a  small  pot of  boiling   salted
Anyway,  I'm pretty sure that       water for about two minutes, until
bagels  are just a dough  that has  they   looked  boiled  firm,   and
been boiled, then painted with lye  returned   them  to  the  chopping
and baked.  However  my mother had  board.
been   concerned   that  lye   was
poisonous, and I think omitted it.  I transfered them to the stone and
                                   painted  them with a bit of sesame
So I rose some standard  flour      oil I had around,  and put them on
dough  with my starter  overnight,  the top shelf  of the oven  on fan
quite  high  hydration  (a lot  of  bake. I played  this by eye rather
water).                             than time.  Maybe after 10 minutes
                                   I opened the oven to release  lots
                                   of steam, to allow their crusts to
                                   brown. I let them get towards dark
                                   golden  brown in places and turned
                                   off  the oven  but  left  them  in
                                   there.


Hang on, I'll try eating  one now.
Mmm.   Really  good, the crust  is
somehow  both crisp and chewy.   I
think I actually  added some sugar
to the original  dough though  the
sweetness is mostly gone, consumed
by the yeast. They're just a touch
sour (well, sourdough).

Next  time I will try folding  the
dough a few times in one direction
before   raising    it  (er,   its
secondary   raise in bread  terms)
and  use  that direction   as  the
bagel direction,  since this dough
was a bit anisotropic for the idea
of forming a circle.