Baking Bagels Part III

Yes, I am on a baking kick. I'm also experimenting. Fortunately, we get to eat most of the experiments and none, yet, have tried to take over Colorado.

So I exchanged my new bagel ingredients for those in AB5M, and tossed in a few of the techniques mentioned in the BBF as I threatened to here. The results were mixed.

The dough is very moist, as it is supposed to be for longer term storage in the refrigerator, so I threw a lot of flour over the balls in order to shape them into bagels after the resting phase. I substituted 2 lbs of high gluten flour for bread flour and about 1 1/2 tbsp of barley malt syrup for the sugar. I didn't bother putting sugar or baking soda in the boiling water, since Cook's Illustrated never mentioned a need for it, and shorted the boiling time to 30 seconds total. That helped to keep the surface from being quite as lumpy and gummy, so that was good. I also used 4 oz pieces of dough for bagels, instead of the 3 oz mentioned in AB5M. Three ounces is just too small.

Rising dough, coated in sesame seeds.

The bagels are still quite lumpy, even after all of those changes, but they were a lot smoother than the first time I had made them. Also, I took good care to make sure those holes were really big before I tossed the ring into the water.

Finished bagels.

I found that by barely handling the dough at all, just enough to make the hole, the bagels were a lot smoother, more like the ideal. I also cranked up the heat in the oven to 450 degrees and baked them on a pair of cookie sheets lined with Silpat. No cornmeal or pizza stone required.

Comparison shot of 1st batch AB5M (top), 2nd batch CI (right) and 3rd batch hybrid (left).

Inside, there is still a distinct difference in the crumb. The CI batch is denser and chewier, but the hybrid batch isn't too far off.

Crumb comparison.

The difference really is in the taste, which can't be pictured here perfectly, but Emma says she'll try.

"I approves dis bagull. Nom!"

Personally, while I thought it was good enough, it's not necessarily good enough for me to make it on a regular basis. I figure now that I have the syrup and the high gluten flour, I can take the extra hour and make bagels that I know I'm really going to love and accept that AB5M can't be all things to all people. The rest of the recipes I've made so far I've really enjoyed (Boule, Italian Semolina, light wheat, Kimball's wheat, European Peasant and just today: deli-style rye*) and it has encouraged me to try making bagels which I had never bothered to try previously, so win all around!

Next up: oatmeal bread!

* Yum! And I don't normally like caraway seeds! I suspect a Reuben sandwich may be in my semi-near future.

Baking Bagels Part II

Oh yes I did!

As good as my word, I put together the bagel dough from the Big Book O' Food last night and was never so glad I had a Kitchenaid mixer. They weren't kidding, that dough is stiff!

It was pretty easy to do, but time intensive. Mix the dough, roll it into balls and let them rest.

Roll the balls into ropes.

Form them into bagels.

Let 'em rise in the fridge over night.

After a night of retarding in the fridge (I love learning new baking terms!), they looked like this (A little puffier.):

Then it was time for boiling and draining and coating them in a topping (A little more puffy after boiling. I coated them in three flavors: kosher salt, sesame seed and onion).

Finally, it was time to bake!

They look gorgeous!

Comparison shot.

Too bad there's only 8 of them!

In a couple more days, I will try the AB5M recipe, substituting the high gluten flour and barley malt syrup and see how it does. Now, I must go taste test one of my fresh bagels! (I wrote this while waiting for them to cool.)

Baking Bagels

In the course of making bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, I stumbled upon their recipe for bagels.*

Rising balls of proto-bagels.

Bagels, I thought. If I could make bagels easily, that'd really be something!

Boiling the proto-bagels.

Yesterday I made the dough and today I tried it out.

Drying off.

As yummy as they were, they're not bagels. They're sort of like a crunchy English muffin. Yummy, but definitely not a bagel. Growing up in NY, I know what a bagel is supposed to be and I rather miss them.

Finished "bagels". You really do need to make those holes BIG!

So I broke out the Big Book O' Food (aka The New Best Recipe Book by Cook's Illustrated) and had a look at their bagel recipe. Hmm. High gluten flour and malt syrup and slow rising in the refrigerator. Hmmm.

Now I have a plan: I'm going to try the recipe as written in the Big Book and then I'll try it again in AB5M, using the high gluten flour and malt syrup and then I'll see how it goes. If it's just about as good using the simpler methods, I'll stick with that. If it's still nothing like a bagel, I may either stick to the Big Book method (good but labor intensive) or I'll...[Gasp!] continue to buy bagels.

Wish me luck!



* In case you're wondering where the heck I've been, I've been...sad. I'm working on it. It's hard to write or edit photos in this state.

Need that dog!

From today's Off the Mark comic.

Rough Day

Almost lost my kid today.

Why is it that when you're late to pick up your perpetually late child, that this is the one time she gets out of the building on time? Then, when she doesn't see you anywhere nearby, starts wandering off.

Where exactly was she going? No one knows.

Wait. Let me back up.

So today was Parent Teacher Conference* day and I was running late. Originally we were going to take the twins, but they decided they had an urgent date with their blankies and cribs, so I left them in Eric's care. However, the leaving process took a little longer than intended and I was late to pick Caitlin up.

I looked for her outside, but saw neither hide nor hair of her.

I looked for her inside, but was assured by her teacher that she had already pulled an Elvis (The Caitlin has left the building!).

I went around to the playground, expecting to see her playing with a friend. No luck.

I went to the office, hoping to see her there all upset at my tardiness. Nope.

Then I started asking the other moms and received word that she'd headed off that-a-way. That-a-way, of course, is not even vaguely in the direction of our house. That's when the worry started creeping in.

Several moms thought it odd that they had seen her heading in that direction, but didn't stop her. Now, clearly, they were all wondering why they didn't check in with their gut instinct as they watched me crank up the Freaked Out Mom expression.

A cop pulled up in a cruiser and I was desperate enough to begin describing her to him when it struck me that I didn't even know what she was wearing that morning. I could describe her and her coat, but was she wearing blue jeans or some other color pants? She didn't wander off with someone, but could she be walking towards someone's house? Why not ours? (If you're going to pick a direction to go wandering, why wouldn't you pick the direction you know your house is in?!)

Just as I was regretting not having my cellphone on me, one of the dads drove up and announced that Caitlin had been spotted and was reeled in by one of the other moms. She was waiting for me in the office.

After thanking everyone profusely, I set off for the office. I could feel my heart hammering in my chest as the adrenaline, which had been set for Flight, was now resetting into Fight. I now understand why my mother would be so upset when she "lost" me that she'd take it out on me by yelling at me angrily once I was found. Wait, I thought you were scared. Why are you yelling?

I get it now.

I decided not to yell at Caitlin. I did have a hard time not crying though. However, Caitlin started crying in reaction, so I let her cry for both of us.

In case you're wondering, yes we've had this conversation before but she apparently "forgot". She was walking towards her friend's house to have his mom call us, completely forgetting that they have telephones in the school office.

Ack!

I'm now thinking about putting a low-jack on that child.

Or maybe The Clapper.

I suppose I could go "old school" and just get a ball and chain, but that might put a cramp in her style at school.

What would you do?




* She's doing great! Thanks for asking.

Down the Rabbit Hole

I don't know how I wound up here, but I did. These are some crazy wonderful sites!

You really must go see them!

I especially liked this one (Takes a long time to load, but it's worth it!) and this one (Loads really fast and is great street photography. There's something incredibly beautiful about the girl in the orange sweater and the little pink socks. You'll know what I mean when you get there.).

Now...what was I doing again?

Clicky! Clicky!

Multi-tasking

I am doing laundry, baking bread, letting another batch rise, washing dishes, blogging and drinking tea all at the same time.

Technology is wonderful!

Now I must go pack. We're goin' to the mountains this weekend for some family time.

Baking Bread

I know I said I was going to make bread in the summer, but my fridge was stuffed full of garden veggies and a giant box of peaches on such a regular basis that there just wasn't room for a bucket o' dough.

Now though...I have no giant box of peaches and (more importantly) it's cool or cold out (it's currently 67 degrees) and I have finally turned in the gift card I was given on my birthday last year (Thanks Heather!) for a copy of the book I had mentioned previously (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day). I just threw together the dough and it is now slowly rising on the counter. I don't know what our elevation will do to the basic recipe, but I'll see how the first batch goes and then fiddle with it.

I also noticed that my baking stone is slightly too large for the middle of my oven because of the convection fan, so Eric is off to get a 2.25" slice taken off the stone at the hardware store.

What brought this on so suddenly? Well, it's a nice day, the twins are were napping and we spend an awful lot of money on bread products. If I can find a way to have homemade bread, English muffins and bagels on a regular basis that is easy for me to do, we'll save a lot of cash. Also, no more plastic bags. Every loaf comes in a bag, plus a pair of loaves together come in a single outer bag, making 3 plastic bags for 2 loaves of bread or dozen bagels or 4 pack of English muffins. That's crazy talk!

I'll let you know how the bulk bread making experiment goes!

The dough rose to fill the 5 quart container 1.5 hours into the 2 hour rise time. Eek!

Close up dough action.

Slashed and ready to pitch into the oven.

Singing and cooling, but not yet ready to eat. Must...wait!

I'll let you know how it tastes tomorrow.

Edited to add: Yummy. Very yummy. I may need to get a larger container to double the batch!

Small Discoveries

Not only can you use the hose extender tube from the vacuum cleaner to sing into, you can also use it to poke the cat at a safe distance!

Not only do cups make a nice noise when being thrown down stairs, but it brings mommy and daddy running!

Everything in Sister's room is fascinating!

If it's on a highchair tray, it's not good to eat. If it's on mommy's plate, it's yummy! If it's on the floor, it's even better!

Daddy will run away if you growl at him. Mommy will scream if you chase her. Especially if your hands are messy.

Music is for dancing. Books are made for chewing. Paper is for tearing.

Kissing my twin (Mmmm-wah!) will make mommy and daddy laugh.

Poop-capades

Now, everyone has a poop story, it's true. And it's a pretty gross thing, to even have a poop story, but they appear to be inevitable.

Like laundry.

Oh, and death.

Yesterday, I was in the basement, listening to the twins wake up. Generally they wake up laughing, giggling and squealing at one another. We usually let them stay in their cribs until they reach the hollering stage, since we like relaxing without short people grunting, "Ehn! Ehn! Ehn!" at us all of the time. Well, the laughing turned to crying and I heard Eric get up and go to the twins' room.

Then, after a pause in the screaming, I heard Eric cry: "Help!"

I finished up quickly and jogged upstairs to see Eric pulling all of Logan's blanket's out of the crib. On entering the room, my nose was assaulted by that smell. Logan had pulled off his poop-filled diaper and tossed it out of the crib. There was a little poop here and there.

Yuck!

However, they are twins. There are two of them.

We'll never know just who started it, but over in Emma's crib, there was a similar scene. Only...worse.

Emma was backed up against the wall, wearing only her shirt. Her hands were out to either side, unmoving and looking horrified. She had also removed her diaper, only hers was still in the crib, along with smears in a semi-circle in front of her, next to her, on her clothes and all over her feet.
The Poop Monster had come for Emma.

I saw her poor little shocked face and burst out laughing. Then I started the bath running. Bathtime!

I'm kind of hoping they were traumatized enough that they won't do it again. A girl can dream!

And no, there are no photos. (Although I did think about it. Heh heh heh!)

Newsflash!

Logan figured it out.

How to go down the stairs backwards, that is. It's almost as if he watches how Emma does something for a week or so and then just decides to do it one day. Then pow! He's off to the races.

Today, he started climbing down the stairs and he did it over and over and over again, while Emma stood at the top of the stairs and went "Ehn! Ehn!".

Apparently just as suddenly she's forgotten how to do it or has determined she doesn't like him stealing her thunder.

I'm betting it's the latter.

Theory vs. Reality of Nursery Rooms

When you have your first child, you often have this lovely vision of a beautiful, safe, color-coordinated room, stocked with the latest in educational and huggable plush toys. Everything has a place and everything is in that place. All of the time.

Then, the baby arrives.

Everything changes in an instant.

It's amazing how fast you can go from this and this and this to a steaming pile of mess.

Bookshelves no longer have books stacked lovingly on them. They are naked, save for all of the paper books on top of the shelves, out of the reach of paper shredding little devils. Boardbooks are dragged around with chew marks here and there, covers barely attached. The trashcan (Who needs a Diaper Genie? Not me!) is on top of the changing table to keep marauding fingers out of stinky trash. Dresser drawer pulls are removed to keep the finger smashing to a minimum. Look at how pretty the holes in the dresser look! Laundry is tossed into the laundry basket, at least. Toys are strewn throughout the room and tossed into a large plastic bin at the end of the day. Other books and toys and clothes float throughout the rest of the house, dragged there by child or cat or toddler.

After all, you never know when you're going to need a bear in the bathroom.

Cribs are pulled out from the wall to keep the wall banging damage to a minimum. The cute little throw rug is crunched up under the wheels of the cribs in a pathetic attempt to keep the babies from rocking the cribs all across the room (Whee! Roller derby!). The closet is filled with boxes of quickly outgrown clothing and toys, but nothing is on the lower shelves of the shelving unit placed there for that purpose initially. Instead, it doubles as a climbing gym.

Well, at least it's still baby safe!

Sixteen Months

Did you know that my kitchen floor is made of lava?!

That's right. Red, hot, burning lava.

Just ask Logan.

Mr. Screamy

So the twins are 16 months old now and have lots of amazing new skills to show off. Among them is the ability to use their imaginations. Logan and the Lava Floor are a prime example. Quickly followed by the High Chair is Lava and the Floor is a Plate. What? You didn't know? You're behind the times! Keep up!

Apparently the No Baby Down Club has been meeting quietly on the side and discussing additional items to add to their Charter. They seem to have agreed that being put down to eat in a high chair is evil and that it shouldn't happen any more and that food can only be eaten while wandering around the kitchen, dining room and living room. Lost juice cup? No worries! We'll find it again in a few days when it's fermented and finish it then. You want to make dinner/wash dishes/sit down to eat? Not without a baby in your lap!

Whaaaat? This is a New World Order! There's a new President in the White House! Anything could happen!

"Aaaaaaaaaah!"

If you try to put Logan down on the floor to get anything done, he'll treat you to a scream fest that will have your ears bleeding, your head ringing and your nerves freaking out from watching him throw himself to the floor from a standing position. Crack! goes Logan's head as it hits the tile floor!

"Eeeeeeeeeeee!" Thunk.

You can't help but wonder if he's losing brain power every time he does it.

Emma, on the other hand, has been busy figuring out key skills like how to go down stairs, how to climb onto my bed and the sofa, and climb on and off the wheeled horse and rocking tiger.

"I gots skills!"

She has also climbed into the shelving unit in her closet and gotten stuck.

"Ehn! Ehn! Ehn!" comes the cry from the bedroom. Where's Emma? There she is! Stuck on a wire shelf.

You can't turn your back on the two of them for a moment or they'll shoot up the stairs and get into everything. Cat food dishes? Check! Water dish? Check! Clean/dirty laundry? Double check! Dresser drawers? Check! Toilets? Denied! Mom and Dad keep shutting the doors to the bathrooms. Dang it!

Today, Eric and I were sitting in the kitchen when the phone rang with one of its special rings. One is for Misty and another for Eric. Since Eric was sitting right next to me, clearly the ring must have been Misty. Eric answered with "Hello?" and paused. "Hello? Hello?" Giggling came from the phone.

And from upstairs.

Turns out they had grabbed Eric's cell phone, managed to dial the last number he'd called and reached our home number. Little monkeys!

Have I mentioned how much they like telephones and anything that has buttons that go beep? Yeah, they sure do!

On the food front, they seem to have decided that everyone on my plate tastes better, even if it's exactly the same thing they're eating. They now want to both sit in my lap and be fed my dinner. In order to get them to bed without making my ears bleed, I've just been feeding them that way. Then, Eric and I have dinner after they're down for the night with a lot less screaming. We do still have Caitlin to ride herd on, so it's not as relaxing as it might otherwise be (Please use your napkin. Take smaller bites. Use your knife. Sit down and eat your dinner. Please drink your milk/water. You need to eat your dinner. You're running out of time! Tomorrow is a school day and you need to go to bed in 10 minutes. Eat. Your. Dinner. You want dessert? Eat your dinner, now!).

Uh, but that doesn't happen at your house, does it?

The twins are finally, really, sleeping through the night. As in, I put them to bed at 6-6:30 pm (That extra half hour gets ugly.) and they don't get up again until either 5:30 or 7 am. They wake up soaking wet in the morning, but they stay asleep at night. Except for when they don't, of course. Two nights ago, they woke up and started laughing at each other, then fell back asleep. What's so funny at 1 am? Sometimes we hear Logan thumping his crib against the wall in his sleep(Squeek-ah! Squeek-ah! Squeek-ah! Go the wheels. Thump! Thump! Thump! Goes the crib.), but he doesn't wake up.

They have a lot of fun playing together, but we've discovered what every twin parent discovers the hard way - if there's only one of a special toy, there's gonna be a fight. Everybody wants the horse at the same time, but only the strongest survives! gets to ride it.

Logan dismounts. Or is trying to mount. They look roughly the same.

Theft in progress.

"Survival of da fittest. You said. I push harder. I gets pony. You godda problem wit dat?"

If you don't want to listen to screaming, make sure you know when both baby phones are. Why does that book suddenly look so good to both babies when neither of them wanted it 10 seconds ago?

The real reason there are so few pictures of them together now. They want the camera.

The mysteries abound.

Another mystery is this: what's so fun about pounding your head against the wall?

Logan likes to bang his head against the floor/wall/door/window and then turn to me and laugh. Then Emma tries it. Yesterday, she decided to bang her head against...Logan's.

Now that was fun.

Babies! Geez!

Look! It's the outside world!

"I gonna go out dere when it not so cold."

Messy Desk = Brain Panic

When I talk about feeling overwhelmed, it's hard to explain what's causing that feeling because it sounds like ordinary stuff: babies, housework, bills, life, etc.

Here's a visual.

Panic inducing mess.

I had a minor panic attack just sitting here trying to figure out where to begin cleaning it. I haven't balanced my checkbook in months and months. I have checks buried in here that are expiring because I lost them and couldn't find them. I have replacement credit cards sitting in their envelopes pretending that they're important enough to replace the old ones in my wallet (Expiration date? What expiration date? It's a piece of plastic, why does it have to "expire"?). Business financial information. Paid bills. Past due bills. Caitlin's schoolwork. Old drawings. Seeds. Empty photo albums waiting for me to get my act together.

Yeah.

Panic!

I still haven't sent out holiday cards to my friends and relatives for whom I don't have email addresses. I haven't sent any thank you notes, either. My business taxes are due. I have photos to edit. I really really need to back up my hard drive.

I haven't finished my library book, either and now it's overdue. I had three weeks to read a book and I couldn't do it. Normally, a book takes me a few hours. Now? Oy!

I'm trying to clean it up a little at a time. I'm breathing deeply. I'll get through this mess.

It could be worse. I could be in my closet. Don't even ask about my closet. [Shudder!]

What's your most terrifying mess?

Babies Blowing Kisses: Part II

I promised photos of the cuteness phenomenon that is sweeping Chez Hatchet and here they finally are!

First, however, Logan wants to toast the new president. May he govern well!

A toast!

Then he wanted to tell you that he wasn't interested in sharing his kisses with all of the Internet just yet. Instead, he offers you a High Five!

Gimme five! And some toast!

Emma, on the other hand, knows that you are tired of winter and is ready to brighten your day.

Mmmmmm!

Waaah!

Emma's big smile. Apply as often as needed.

Nope, it doesn't get any better than that!

Inauguration Day

Did you hear that sound? It was a huge sigh of relief from around the globe.

Obama is no longer President Elect. He is now The Man.

Ahhhhh.

Must be time to get to work!

I can't help but wonder what my maternal grandmother would have thought about this? I'm not clear on her history, but I think she was the child of a freed slave in Jamaica. Or, possibly, the grandchild of a slave. Not that long ago.

I know that when my parents got married in '66, it was a really weird time and that my mother was questioned about us kids a lot. She says she let the ignorant remarks roll right over her, but I can't help but think it must have been insulting. I know that I received my fair share of mean and ignorant remarks simply by being a child of a mixed marriage.

Now, though? To have such a child (Who is only 7 years older than I am!) be in the Oval Office? How cool is that?!

Very, very cool. That's how cool.

The Obama family are additionally fascinating to me because they clearly are a cohesive unit. There is clearly a great deal of love between them all and seeing that is so very heartwarming. I think it bodes well of the new president that he (Gasp!) loves his wife and daughters so obviously. I really hope it means that he will take the long view of changes that need to be made in office and instead of focusing on how to get re-elected in 4 years, actually focuses on how to make the world a better place for his children (and ours) to live in.

The planet needs the US to step up and get global climate change under control, if at all possible. I really hope it's not too late. I really hope that Obama will be given the grace and the help he needs to accomplish a lot before his term(s) is (are) over.

Here's to Hope!

Spelling Bee Time!

We're off to go see Caitlin in her very first spelling bee at school.

If she makes it through a single round, I'll be thrilled. If not, I'll still be proud that she made it to the bee as one of only two 2nd graders in the entire school. Awesome!

Later I'll tell you of the trials and tribulation regarding studying for said Bee.

Sigh!

- - - - -

Woo! She made it past the first round!

Caitlin's word was "topical" and she totally nailed it. It was a big thrill. I had tears in my eyes. The other girl had "forlorn" and also got it correct. The second graders made it into round 2!

In the second round, both of them flubbed their words, but that's OK. This time they were "futon" for Caitlin and "poi" for her friend. The end of the bee was drawn out when the final pair kept messing up the same words until finally, "chronology" and "blithe".

Hurrah! for good spellers!

We'll Call Her..."Houdini"!

I remember wondering why the highchair we'd bought 7 years ago had a 5 point safety harness.

I wondered how fast they thought we might be rolling it around the kitchen to require such serious safety straps. Perhaps they thought we might want to feed our baby in the back of a moving pickup truck? Who knows?!

Well, now I am no longer wondering for whom they made those straps.

Clearly, they made them for Emma.

We have two of the Chicco Mamma highchairs, one we borrowed from Val. That one was missing its straps (Lost somewhere "safe", we presume.) and the other one only had the lap belt on it. We'd removed the upper belt when Caitlin was small. She never tried climbing out.

For the longest time, Logan didn't try climbing out of the chair without straps, but on the day he figured it out, we knew we were in trouble. Now we have him lashed into it with a fabric belt. It seems to do the trick. (Think elephants with rope tie-downs - he only stays because he thinks he can't get up!) Emma, however, has decided that the lap belt is not enough of a challenge any more.

We put her in, snapped it on, walked away and then upon returning with food, watched as she swung a leg onto the tray table in a bid for freedom. Fortunately I remembered where the top half of the belt was and grabbed it. Let's see you escape this time, ya little monkey!

We're ready for a highchair roller derby in the kitchen now!

Now for her next trick...

Classroom Volunteer

In the spirit of getting the heck out of the house, I signed up to volunteer at Caitlin's school. Today was my first day.

I learned very interesting things today, but foremost among them was the fact that I wouldn't last for five minutes alone with a room full of 7 year olds.

Nope.

I'd want to feed them all to a critter with very large teeth.

They're in constant Brownian motion, they don't ever stop talking and they don't listen very well at all.

Teaching today is very different from when I was seated on the small chair side of the classroom. Now that I've officially outed myself as an Ancient Curmudgeon, let me note that I was pulled out of my first grade classroom (By the Evil Mrs. Carmen) by my ponytail and marched down to the principal's office for talking in class.

Don't get me wrong: it's not that I recommend the disciplinary methods from the days of yore (One teacher used to whip erasers at the heads of kids caught misbehaving in class; another used to drag miscreants out by their ear. Did I mention that this wasn't Catholic school?), it's just that it was a very different world back then and that teachers today clearly have the patience of saints. They need to be paid more to put up with all of our darling children all day long.

Yeah. Wow.

What did you do today? Alternatively, did you ever get in trouble spectacularly in elementary school? Spill!

Babies Blowing Kisses

Is there anything cuter?

Especially when they add in the "MMMM-Wah!" sound?

I think not!

Of course, now I have to try and capture this skill on film and those babies are tricksy little buggers when it comes to the camera. I will have to hunt them down with great stealth.

Or a long lens.

Or have Eric hold them. They've been lunging for the camera, lately.

It'll be worth it, though. Mmmmm-wah!