he vuelto//bagels.

He vuelto {I'm back}.

Yes I'm learning Spanish. But how do I learn during the summer, without formal classes to guide? One way is to regurgitate everything I am thinking in English into Spanish.

solid method.

I haven't posted in a while, and that's because posting hasn't been my priority. Traveling as a Teaching Assistant, you reserve less time for what you're doing and thinking and spend more time doing and thinking things with your colleagues and students.

But ahora, he vuelto. So, I'll indulge. With bagels. Let's begin with this short video:

Food Science understanding adapted from thekitchn.com

Ingredients. 

This recipe is adapted from Margaret Anne's "Best Homemade Bagels".

Yield: 8 bagels [Today's making yielded 7 –– we lost some dough along the way]

Time: at least 3 hours.

Le Dough:

• 1½ CUPS warm water (Margaret's recipe calls for the water to be 110° F – I didn't have a thermometer)
• 1 TABLESPOON active dry yeast (a little more than the yeast in one of those Fleischmann's packets)
• 1 TABLESPOON brown sugar (I didn't have brown sugar either – scroll to the bottom for what I did to cope)
• 4 CUPS flour (I used all-purpose unbleached)
• 2 TEASPOONS salt

Le Water Bath:

• 8 CUPS water
• 2 TABLESPOONS brown sugar (one again, what did I do to cope? scroll down)

Directions.

1.) Pour the water into the bowl, and sprinkle in the yeast and brown sugar. Let sit 5 minutes. Add in the flour & salt and mix (you can mix with a mixer, but I don't like to use mixers. I use spoons & hands). A dough is now formed. Knead the dough gracefully for 10 minutes, like I did below: 

2.) Place the dough in a greased bowl (I greased the bowl using the bare end of a stick of butta), cover with a kitchen towel or cling wrap, and let rest for 1-1.5 hours.

resting just to rise. so poetic.

eyes targeting individual messes. not so poetic.

3.) Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts to shape into balls. Punch a hole in the middle of each ball and swirl the thing around your finger with its tip on the top of your work surface. Cover whatcha got with a kitchen towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

it's the bro. 

his hands were too lovely up there to the right so i made them black & white

these are my hands tho.

4.) While the dough is resting (to save time, of course), prepare the water bath by heating the water and brown sugar to a gentle boil. I was going to use a large pot, by Margaret recommended a wok. I didn't have a wok, so I used a large sauté pan.

upstage – what i was going to use

downstage – what i actually used

5.) Preheat the oven to 425° F. Re-poke a hole through the center of each ball, as some holes may have closed over. Swirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole, like you did before.
Place each newly-swirled bagel on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.

6.) Transfer the bagels to the simmering water, four at a time. Simmer the bagels for 2 minutes, flip over, and simmer for another minute.

7.) Use the end of a wooden spoon to remove the bagels from the water and return to the baking sheet.

8.) Ah! Because you preheated your oven, it is now hot. Bake the bagels for about 25 minutes, or until they look like the best NYC bagel you've never had.

9.) Transfer the bagels to a cooling rack 5 minutes before serving. Serve with whatever you'd like. You probably already have something on your mind...

Cream cheese ~ Lox ~ Butta ~ Bacon ~ Eggs ~ Cheese~ Bacon, Egg, & Cheese ~ Peanut Butter.

Y'all know I tend to opt for the PB. I won't add an end photo here because I don't want to perpetuate bagel paragons. You make what you make. 

enjoy.

****brown sugar note:

this was why I did not have brown sugar.

so I made brown sugar instead! 1 tbsp molasses for every cup of white sugar.

All videos made with Splice Video Editor by GoPro. Download it here --> it's free!

DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ENDEAVOR//and why

today. listen carefully:

oh no! the biscuits even injured my mother!

family was coming over. i wanted to share love through biscuits. and the recipe i referred to looked great! it called for only 3 ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

16 oz sour cream

1/2 cup whole milk

plus, it was found on a mom blog:

http://momonamission.me/worlds-easiest-sour-cream-biscuits/

plus, it provided evidence: 

PLUS, mom blog.

"Mom on a Mission." intoxicating.

where did the recipe go wrong?

ah, wrong question. where did i go wrong?

~~~~~time to reconsider my actions~~~~~

So, why is it that i can play knock-knock with my biscuits?

5 major reasons.

food threads offer a breadth of advice--and demonstrate individuals' amazing desire to help others.

(source of screenshots: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/442520)

1.) using whole wheat flour

this comment immediately resonated: whole wheat flour "can make biscuits heavier." 

Although the original recipe called for 4 cups of white flour, i substituted 1 for whole wheat.

i thought, wow, whole wheat flour. so healthy. but it can complicate the baking process.

whole wheat flour is less refined than all-purpose flour; it contains wheat germ and bran, both of which pack vitamin E, iron, fiber, and other nutrients. while vitamins and minerals are generally pluses, "Thing is," writes Smithsonian Magazine's Alastair Bland, whole wheat flour renders "life harder for bakers." Germ and bran (we'll call 'em G&B, for sentimental purposes) despite their nutritive potentials, propose their own pitfalls to baking:

1.) G&B soak up water more readily than refined flours (like all-purpose) do, creating drier products

2.) G&B make the dough heavier and less able to rise, "leading to loaves almost as dense as French cobblestone" (solid simile, Alastair Bland).

of course, baked goods made with whole wheat flour can still turn out airy and flaky; adding more water may help, again to compensate for G&B's drying effect:

"'You really need to hydrate the flour. Only then can you get really beautiful, soft bread.'" ~Dave Miller, whole wheat enthusiast

(source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-makes-whole-grain-bread-so-hard-to-bake-63878/?no-ist)

2.) overworking the dough

(source: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/basic-cooking/overmixing-doughs-batters)

first off, gluten is a protein found in wheat and other grains. when gluten is mixed with water, protein chains form. we'll call these protein chains gluten networks: they provide the elasticity that ultimately holds your ingredients together. stretchy dough illustrates this:

~~~~~though stretchy, my dough is not exemplary~~~~~

gluten networks provide structures in which carbon dioxide gas (CO2) can embed and expand, uplifting the dough. but where does the CO2 come from? 

fermentation. 

in baking, CO2 is produced as a byproduct of fermentation, or the chemical breakdown of sugars, typically by yeast or bacteria. yeast (a fungi), often used to make bread, chemically "eats" the flour sugars, producing CO2 and alcohol as waste. 

overall, fermentation influences texture and taste by producing:

CO2 bubbles. they allow the product to rise, giving it that nice airy quality

alcohol. in the heat, alcohol is baked off--but it leaves behind flavors that color our carbohydrate dreams~~

~~~~~HOWEVER~~~~~

"leavening agents would just be bubbling brews without something to contain them."

(source: https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/bread_science.html)

again, gluten networks provide structure. CO2, as a product of fermentation, is captured in the structure; little pockets of gas become suspended, expand, and some gas even escapes. overall, the dispersion of gas gives bread its airy quality and causes it to rise. 

~~~~ON THE OTHER HAND~~~~

overworking/overmixing dough or batter overdevelops the gluten. when this occurs, according to JoePastry.com, the gluten networks TRAP steam (in this case CO2). Although bakers use gluten networks for this very purpose--to trap and provide CO2 with structure--overdeveloped gluten networks trap the gas too tightly, impeding even distribution of CO2 bubbles. 

when overdeveloped, gluten networks have grips on CO2 that are just too strong. 

When CO2 is detained by gluten, baked goods increase in volume--resulting in dense, tough, rubbery, and tooth-chippin' products.

(source: http://www.joepastry.com/2008/what_is_overmixing/)

AND as The Foodie RD spares audiences of "the organic chemistry details," she highlights that BISCUITS are particularly susceptible to becoming hockey pucks. "Overworking biscuit dough," she writes, "causes not only too much gluten formation, but it also allows the carbon dioxide gas to escape" even BEFORE the biscuits are placed in the oven. here, CO2 potential has been doubly compromised; its ability to provide airiness is severely cut.

(source: http://thefoodierd.blogspot.com/2011/10/food-science-101-over-mixing.html)

watch it again!: do you think i overworked the dough? comment below!

3.) sealing the edges

as you can see, i did somethin' to those edges:

my first instinct was to separate the biscuits on the baking sheet, as i've learned to do with cookies. L.V. Anderson, an associate editor for Slate Magazine, recommends the contrary: "make sure they touch." 

"As they rise in the oven, their tops will brown and harden, but their abutting sides will remain soft, feathery, and white—just like the delicious insides."

4.) omitting buttermilk?

Anderson also contends that biscuits made without buttermilk "inevitably result in disks that are shorter, drier, and blander than buttermilk biscuits." She also warns against overworking the dough: "knead it just until it comes together."

(source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/04/18/buttermilk_biscuit_recipe_infinitely_better_than_baking_powder_biscuits.html)

i think Anderson's argument is extreme; one person's biscuit-making preferences do not apply to everyone. still, i look to experiment with buttermilk in the future.

SO from this

and this

failure happens, flour spills. but sweep it up and create.

oh, major error #5

5.) failing to visit Maeve in Ireland 

and the major take-away of this blog post: visit Maeve in Ireland and learn to make scones.

understanding how bread rises: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvD-8ZfxfOY