A Hankerin'

I got a hankerin' ("I'm in the mood for" - for those of you not familiar with that word) for bagels. For those of you not in the US or any other place they serve these yummies, bagels are a donut-shaped bread that is one of man's tastiest delicacies. This is fact. Not just my opinion. They come in all sorts of flavors from plain to whole wheat to onion to cinammon raisin. I've even seen them with chocolate chips. Purists may call this sacrilege. I call it delicious. They are versatile, too. Split open and toasted, you can slather them with cream cheese or butter for breakfast. Or, you can sandwich all sorts of ingredients in between two halves for lunch or dinner. Fabulous food.

So, why is it the French haven't figured out their usefulness? I've only seen one place in France to get these (not to say I've done an exhaustive search, but people just don't know they exist), and it was in Paris. They weren't even great (industrial stuff shipped over from NY). Just okay, so hardly worth making a very long trip to Paris just to get them. Oh, and they were pricey, too. That, and you had to sell off a child or two just to afford the cream cheese to go with them. It was a nice treat the last time I was up that way, but I can't get a bagel fix as often as I'd like.

I'm really in a pickle, it would seem, then, with this craving of mine. Luckily, I don't shy away from many cooking chores, no matter how time-consuming they might be. I've made bagels once or twice before - from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. Not the best bagels ever, but they were fresh and pretty tasty. Something I've been really wanting to try is the bagel recipe in my Bread Baker's Apprentice cookbook. Everything in there has been so tasty and so authentic tasting that I'm almost certain their recipe would bake up some really great bagels. So, I've gotten out the book and started up a batch. I'll let you know how it goes. I may even provide a photo experience of the process, which is quite involved. We all know this blog could use a few more pictures these days. Maybe we'll all get lucky and I'll think to do that.