Upon a Ladle

Bagels

I live in Chennai, India. Now in south India, bread isn’t a staple. Rice is. It’s only recently that there are a few decent bakeries that make almost good bread. But bagels, bleh. There is just one baker who sells bagels, and they are just donut shaped chewy bread. I’ve always wanted to make good bagels at home, but then, I don’t get malt powder or malt extract here in Chennai. And I don’t think using honey or brown sugar (which would give the color, but not the oh-so-wonderful bagel’y’ flavor) was an option. So I kept postponing bagel-making until I found malt powder.

And then one day I was buying my kids regular drink mix, and I found Horlicks right next to it. Horlicks is a malted drink. It has a bit of milk powder and sugar, but not much, and I figured, why not try it? And I did. I used the recipe from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  I halved Reinhart’s recipe. I didn’t need a dozen bagels. I also reduced the sugar in the recipe a bit to adjust for what I was adding with the malt-powder substitute.

They were perfect!

Bagels, shaped, proofed, and out of their over night rest in the refrigerator.

Fresh out of the oven.

And with some hummus, tomatoes, cucumber and peppers, a bagel s/w for lunch!

Submitting this to Susan’s Yeastspotting.