Bron and the Bearded Bagel Baker

Once upon a Saturday, Bron and her bearded beloved decided to bake bagels for the first time.

The library lent them "Bread: from sourdough to Rye" by Linda Collister. The bagel recipe looked promising (though they didn't recognise any of the recipes supposedly from Australia and NZ in the last chapter!)

They mixed the dough, let it rise, punched it down, then formed it into a dozen springy balls. Next they poked their fingers through each ball, spun it around on their fingers, and made a bagel-ly, doughnut shape. Then they remembered to take pictures for posterity!

After another rest, the dough was plunged into a pot of boiling water and Bron and her bagel baker took turns to deftly flip each bagel with a scoop.

Each doughy tourniquet was brushed with egg white, and some were sprinkled with sesame seeds.

And baked in the oven to golden brown perfection.

It was hard to wait for them to cool down.

Beautiful bready aromas filled the kitchen as Bron and the bearded one waited... and waited...

... and finally gave in...

... smothering their beauties with homemade strawberry jam! MMMMMM!