BAGELS... WHEN YOU DONT LIVE IN NYC!

The first time I ever tried a bagel was....

...too long ago to remember, but what I do remember very well is the love story that begun between myself and bagels. But having lived in Europe all my life, bagels are not the easiest thing to find. When I moved to France 10 years ago, I had to hunt down the entire city of Paris to find some- and eventually I did, but they were overpriced (and I mean, ridiculously overpriced!) and I remember I would find them at only one shop in the 7th arrondissement. A few years later, bagels were easier to find as they gradually started to appear on supermarket shelves- but they werent exactly the tastiest ones, that's for sure.

SO what do you do when you dont live in a bagel city like NYC?? Well you just gotta make em!!! As intimidating as they appear to be, I knew that I had to give homemade bagels a try.

I tried two recipes, and I even went out to buy the famous hi-gluten flour that apparently is 'the' secret ingredient for successful bagels (fyi- for anyone living in France, hi-gluten flour is ''farine t80'').

The first recipe was off the BBC GoodFood website- which I absolutely love and have tried several recipes before with great success- but Im sorry to say, their bagel recipe is so-so. It was more like a roll-with-a-hole. Here are some pictures:

Shaping the dough:

And here's the test-batch in their water bath:

And then while they're still wet, I sprinkled some with sesame, some with poppy seeds and left some plain

20minutes in the oven, and here is what I got:

VERDICT: Good, but not GREAT

The second recipe however was from Elle a table- and this recipe ladies and gentlemen- produced some fantastic bagels! So fantastic that I am saving the recipe on my laptop, in my recipe notebook, on my cell phone, under my mattress and I'll even try memorizing it if I can!!

bagel recipe #2- the pictures:

I divided the original's recipe quantities by half, which made 6 large bagels and a baby bagel:

By the way- the white stuff on the plain bagels is corn flour. The recipe suggested to sprinkle corn flour on the parchment paper- but as I was half awake making those, I sprinkled the corn flour on the bagel! Aaahh... I call that late-night baking clumsiness!

And this time, significant improvement- they were simply beautiful and tasted just as good as they looked!

For bagel recipe #1 click here

For bagel recipe#2 (the one that worked for me!) click here

And translation for non-French readers for bagel recipe #2 off Elle a Table:

Makes 10 bagels

Mix 750gr flour (T55) + 1 tsp instant yeast + 4 tsps salt

Add 380ml water + 2.5 tbsps liquid honey + 30ml olive oil.

Knead dough for 10 mins, split into 10 equal balls. Form bagel shapes, leave to rise for 2 hours in a warm room on an oiled surface.

Preheat oven to 225C.

Boil bagels for 2mins in a deep pot containing 3 liters boiling water + 1 tbsp potato starch + 1 tbsp brown sugar 'cassonade' + 2 tbsps salt. Remove bagels after their waterbath and place on a baking tray covered with greased parchment paper and sprinkled with cornflour. If you want to add sesame, poppy seeds or whatever else- this is the time to do it!

Reduce oven temperature to 215C and bake for 20-25mins.

HOMEMADE NUTELLA

So, I am having fun lately making homemade versions of "supermarket food", such as the Digestive biscuits last time, and now: Nutella! I had been seeing many recipes floating around the blogosphere on how to make the infamous hazelnut spread from scratch and decided it was about time to give it a try.

Because I tend to have a nerd-y attitude when it comes to food, I like to research before taking action. What I noticed was that each "homemade Nutella recipe" called for some common ingredients but also for differing ones: some had butter, others had powdered milk, some used cocoa, some used chocolate instead, so on and so forth. With all these variations, I decided I'd have to figure it out on my own. I studied a Nutella label and tried to use some common sense. As long I wasn't using any palm oil in my recipe (yes, the evil palm oil).

At the end of the day, it all came down to three ingredients for a jar of heaven...

1- you will need hazelnut spread. Pure hazelnut spread, no sugar added. I found mine at Biocoop. You could also find this at Wholefoods or the sorts for those living in the US, UK, etc. 

It's like tahini- but hazelnuts instead of sesame!

2- and you will need unsweetened condensed milk.
Note that unsweetened condensed and evaporated are interchangeable- but cannot be substituted with sweetened condensed milk which has a much thicker consistency. 

3- finally, have some chocolate nearby. I made two versions- one with regular chocolate, and the other experimenting around with a caramel flavour, which gave a nice twist! As long as it's baking chocolate- so if you do go with a flavour twist, chocolates stuffed with oozing caramel or jelly fillings will not work.

And look what we have here...a to-die-for-hazelnut spread. 

Decadent, rich nutty chocolatey goodness that you'd have to hide in a password protected safebox! 

Now for the decisive moment- eat straight out of the jar, spread on fresh baguette, on a crepe...

...or eat straight out of the jar?

Recipe for Homemade Nutella (recommend to also read Notes below):

100gr good quality 50-70% chocolate, chopped

100gr pure hazelnut spread- no sugar added. 

200gr unsweetened condensed milk

Heat unsweetened condensed milk in a pot- just heat it but do not let it boil. Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Cover pot with a lid for 5 mins. Remove lid and swirl until smooth consistency is obtained and let cool. Then transfer this to a mixer and add the hazelnut spread- mix until perfectly smooth. Empty into a dry and clean jar and enjoy! 

Notes:

Of course, if you wish you can add sugar. The above version produces a not-too-sweet result, but I think next time I would want to add 50 to 80gr sugar. Preferably icing (confectioner) sugar to ensure finest/smoothest texture.

Also- the next day I noticed a white grainy texture which turned out to be the condensed milk that somehow solidified in the process. Nothing to panic about, simply use a mixer/blender and puree it once again until smooth. After that, the white grains should not reappear- at least it did not in my case.

I'm no expert on expiry dates, but I'm guessing this should store well for a good 10 days...considering that chocolate, hazelnut paste and condensed milk as individual ingredients don't call for refridgeration and usually have lengthy expiry dates. I would also recommend that once ready, do not store in the fridge- unless you live in a country where it's very hot.

Finally- have fun experimenting: use different chocolate flavours, substitute with almond or walnut paste if you wish, add some liquor, and for a bit of crunch try some chocolate chips or chopped nuts!

HOMEMADE NAAN

Without a doubt one of my favourite cuisines has got to be Indian. A few years back I used to hop over to London very regularly and because there is a big Indian community there, I must say I have a lot of delicious memories at some fantastic Indian restaurants (here in Paris on the other hand, it's much more difficult to find a good Indian restaurant!) And of course, what is a meal at an Indian restaurant without naans on the table... those addictive soft buttery flatbreads delicious plain, and maybe even more when oozing with melted cheese or jazzed up with garlic, coriander, or chilli... mmmmm!

So until now I thought the only moments in my life where I could enjoy a naan would be when I eat out (or the day I finally get to visit India!!), but last weekend I decided this would not be my fate! The thing is, there is something so intimidating about naans that I've never dared to make them from scratch, but with some courage, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

The recipe I used was the one featured in this month's Elle à table (a French culinary magazine).

However being the research freak I am, there was no way I was going to rely on just a piece of paper with a recipe written on it. Just to make sure this first attempt wouldnt be a fail, I spent almost my entire afternoon youtube-ing videos on naan recipes, just to make sure I get the technique right. So after hours in front of my computer screen, I took a deep breath and headed to the kitchen... and here's what happened:

Mixing all the ingredients...

Rolling out the dough:

Made some with cheese, and sprinkled them with sesame seeds:

And off goes a cheese naan onto the pan!

Close-up with the cheese oozing out, yum!

Here's what happens with plain naans:

Then it gets bubbly:

And with each naan you make, more and more bubblies and pouffies in different shapes:

Flip it over to the other side:

And here is your naan, ready to enjoy!

Recipe for Naans (from Elle à table, Jan/Feb 2010 edition):

The recipe reads for 4 servings- from my experience this made about 10 medium sized naans

300g flour

1 egg

1 yoghurt

1 tablespoon neutral oil (I guess they were referring to the acidity of the oil, I used sunflower)

4gr yeast

La Vache Qui Rit type cheese (optional)

Butter for glazing at the end

+ Oil for the pan (not in recipe, but I recommend)

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except the cheese and butter. Knead dough until it becomes supple (you can gradually add some warm water to obtain this texture). Leave to rest for 15 mins. Break out a tennis-ball size portion of the dough and roll-out on a floured surface- the thickness of the dough should be about 3mm thick. If you want to add some cheese, spread it at this point and close the naan by folding it in half and sealing sides together. Heat up a pan on a medium/high heat. The pan should preferably be very lightly brushed with some oil. Once heated, place a naan and flip it onto each side every 1 minute- you will have to just stay close and observe to know when it's ready. Remove from pan and brush with butter. Enjoy!

P.S: the recipe reads that after kneading the dough, you should leave it rest for 15mins- I left my dough out for 3 hours. From the research I did, it seemed better if you leave it out longer.

P.P.S: If you wish to add toppings (like sesame seeds, chopped coriander, etc) and it doesnt stick on the rolled out dough easily, you can use a rolling pin and very very lightly roll it over the dough (already topped off with your seasoning of choice) so that the seasoning "sticks" on the dough

P.P.P.S: when you place the naans on the pan, it will form voluminous bubbles, just tap it down with a large flat spoon or knife to then flip it on the other side.

SWEET BUTTERY GOODNESS

And so here we go- more cookies. Sweet buttery goodness, cute innocent shaped sables made from a fantastic base recipe that can lead to infinite variations. I went for orange-poppy seeds & caramel-with-a-pinch-of-salt.

Nothing better then a sable with a cuppa tea to comfort us throughout this unbearable winter cold....

Creamy butter with chunky orange zest... sinful, so wrong but so good!

Finally- the poppy seeds I brought back from Budapest came to use! (did I tell you that poppy seeds were all over the place in Budapest?)

I like that the orange zest was chunky

DONE! Fragrant crunchy delicious orange-poppy seed sables!

That's not it... at 2 in the morning (yes you read right- 2 in the morning!) I went down to the kitchen and got back to baking- salted caramel this time! Afterhours baking is the best :)

Base recipe for sables- just 3 ingredients & no eggs!

makes approx 20 sables

180g butter, softened

80g icing sugar

300g flour

Preheat oven to 160C

Whisk butter with icing sugar until creamy. Add the flour until crumbly, then mix by hand to form a consistent cookie dough texture. Roll out, cut out shapes and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 mins. Remove and let cool.

For orange-poppy seed:

add 2 teaspoons of orange zest into the butter & sugar.

add 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds with the flour

For caramel-with-a-pinch-of-salt:

add 3 tablespoons of caramel sauce into the butter & sugar

add 1/2 teaspoon salt with the flour (taste if you feel you want more saltiness)

HOMEMADE DIGESTIVE BISCUITS!

So lately I have been going through a total cookies baking phase. Actually to tell you the truth, if there is one thing I'm not so great at, it's baking cookies...even though at first they appear to be the easiest things to make, but from my experience they are the trickiest.

Anyway, so I guess you can say I've been "practicing" a lot lately, and one successful experience I've recently had was making homemade Digestives! Yes indeed, I'm talking about making the famous treats that the UK has blessed the world with- the totally addictive McVitie's Digestive biscuits from scratch! 

After some intense Googling, I came across a recipe which worked out beautifully. The end result was fantastic, very close to the store-bought version. This is a recipe you do not want to lose. I'm keeping mine safe, hidden under the bed mattress.

First things first- weigh out the oats and grind them in a mixer

After having mixed in all the ingredients, your dough is ready.

And after a couple of minutes of baking... glorious "Digestive Biscuits" ready for some tea-dunking action.

Recipe for Digestive biscuits (from Pascale Weeks)

Makes 18 biscuits

100gr wholegrain flour

100gr oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

50gr brown sugar

100gr salted butter, softened

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Place oats in a mixer and grind until powdery texture is obtained. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add the butter and mix until crumbly. Add the milk and mix dough so it is no longer crumbly but a bit more firm. Form a ball and place in fridge for 15 minutes. Then take out dough, spread out to 3mm thickness and cut out 6cm diameter circles. Bake for 15 minutes, take out and let cool.

Notes:
Sweetness: for some, the result may not be sweet enough- you can increase the sugar to 80gr.

Chilling the dough: When the recipe says place the dough in fridge for 15mins, it really means 15mins! I accidentally left mine in for an hour and it came out ROCK HARD.

Chocolate Coating: Next time I'll make these again but coat one side of the biscuit with chocolate. Can't wait to dunk those in a glass of milk! mmmmm!

MISCELLANEOUS

Right- so as my post title clearly indicates, today I feel like sharing visual snippets of randomness that has been happening in my kitchen lately.

One involves an appetizer-ish idea that I actually came up with while driving back home (for some reason, I always get all my ideas while driving or sleeping, hmm...) and the other is an absolutely fantastic mushroom Gordon Ramsay sauce- absolutely DIVINE.

Do you happen to have some olives, cheese (feta ideally) and a roll of puff pastry (yes, I admit- puff pastry is one of the few things I don't make from scratch!) at your disposal? Make some tall chunky crunchy appetizer sticks to nibble on with a good glass of wine.


They don't have to look perfect- that's the whole point of making these at home rather then giving into industrial ready-made puff pastry sticks!


Admire the layers of crunch! mmm


And now moving onto something totally different: the magical Mushroom, sherry & grain sauce concocted by the very talented (and furiously hot blooded chef!) Gordon Ramsay.

Definately not the most photogenic sauce... but it was absolutely delicious!


I served it with beef filet, but I cleaned the leftovers away with bread! Definately a versatile sauce that would go just as well with beef, chicken, or pasta.


Have a great start of the week everyone!
x
Marianna