Bagels

Twice this week on UKTV food, bagel recipes. One was one of my favourite episodes of TV Dinners - the one where a woman makes brunch to celebrate the return of her lover from the US. The second was on Rachel Allen's new series 'Bake'.

Been meaning to make bagels for ages so I took this as a sign that I should get on with it.

The dough is a standard 500g bread dough, mixed and proved in the normal way. The bagels are formed by sticking your finger through a ball of dough, making a hole and then twirling the dough like a hoola hoop.

The bagels are left to prove for 10 minutes then dropped, a few at a time, into boiling water and boiled for a minute, flipping them over once. They become very unattractive, flabby and albino like with only a faint bagel aroma promising their later bronze loveliness.

Once drained for a couple of minutes they are egg washed and sprinkled with seeds - I used black poppy and sesame seeds, and baked for 20 minutes at gas mark 6.

What comes out of the oven is stunning. Bagels, real honest to goodness bagels! But what is even better is the texture and taste - chewy with a soft flavoursome interior, so definitely bagel and not bread.

With low fat Philli and dry cure, unsmoked bacon, C pronounced them the best breakfast ever.

One interesting thing - although I made the bagels with white flour the inside was slightly grey. This must be because, as always, my white flour was unbleached.

These will definitely become a regular thing. Why buy them when these are so much better?