sesame seeds | In Prosciutto of Perfection

Well another week has been gone by, time goes so quickly……

This week it was my youngest son Alex’s 9th birthday, I can’t believe my baby has turned 9. So exciting to watch them grow, but I wish I could slow it down just a little!!!!!! I remember when I had my first son Aden and so many people said to me, enjoy every second because it will be gone before you know it, man they weren’t kidding……………..

So of course birthday means, birthday cake. I love making the kids birthday cakes some years they pick what they want and other years I surprise them. This year it was a surprise for Alex, one of Alex’s favourite foods is hamburgers, and I have seen some great hamburger cakes on the internet, So it was a hamburger cake and biscuit fries for Alex this year.

The look on his face when he saw his cake was priceless, that look alone was enough for all the hours I spent baking and decorating. Big eyes, a big smile and a big hug what else could a mum possibly ask for.

I didn’t really follow a recipe to create this cake, I basically made two butter cakes and one chocolate cake, the chocolate cake being for the meat patty. I used plastic icing, red for the tomatoes cut into circles and yellow for the cheese, cut into squares. For the lettuce I used butter cream coloured green, which I piped on. I then covered the butter cake in a light brown icing to make the burger roll I had two shades of the brown butter cream to add some depth. once iced I sprinkled with sesame seeds.

To make the biscuit fries, I made a simple short bread which I rolled out into squares and then scored in some straight lines the width I wanted my fries to be. I brushed with egg white and sprinkled with raw sugar, then baked. Once cooled I cut along the score lines to create my fries.

My Brother-in-law and his family lived in America for two years, and when he returned, he said one of the things that they missed most was a good bagel. Unfortunately here in Australia a decent bagel can be a little hard to find, so he set about making his own. On one of his visits to our place (brother-in-law and family live in canberra and we are in Adelaide) he showed me some photos of the bagels he had been making. Well that got my baking “mojo” going, I have always loved bagels and I love trying new things in the kitchen, although I must say I haven’t always been successful with bread making. But I say never let a few failures stop you, learn from your errors and try again 🙂 So I set out on my endeavour to make bagels.

Now I can say that with complete surprise and amazement my first attempt was a complete SUCCESS 🙂 (I was doing a little celebration dance around the kitchen like you do! don’t you ?) The family loved them. Bagels for breakfast yum yum yum, we had bagels with smoked salmon poached eggs and hollandaise sauce, bagels with cream cheese banana maple syrup and walnuts, bagels with just cream cheese, bagels with honey, the list goes on and on. Heaven forbid when we ran out of bagels. I have been making bagels for a good year now and when I do I make a double batch. I like to do a mixture of different kinds, sometimes I add cinnamon other times I add dried fruits really you can add what ever you like. With a little bit of experimenting I have found that it is best to add your extra flavours in when you a shaping them.

RECIPE:

2 tsp active dry yeast
11/2 Tsp of granulated sugar
11/4 cups warm water
31/2 cups (500g) of good quality bread flour
11/2 tsp salt

METHOD:

In 1/2 cup of warm water sprinkle in yeast and sugar, do not stir. Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir until it all dissolves in the water
Mix flour and salt in a large mixing bowl, make a well in the centre and pour in yeast mixture.
Pour half of the remaining warm water into the well and mix add the remaining water as needed, you may need to add extra water depending on where you live and the weather. You want to result in a moist and firm dough .You can do this by hand or alternatively in a mixer with a dough hook attachment.
On a floured bench top, knead dough for 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Try working as much flour in as possible to form a firm and stiff dough.
Lightly brush a large bowl with oil and turn the dough to coat, cover bowl with a damp dish towel. Let rise for 1 hour, until dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down , and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
Carefully divide dough into 8 pieces ( I use a scale so they are all the same size). Shape each piece into a round . Now take a dough ball, and press it gently on the bench top moving your hand and the ball in circular motion to make a perfect dough ball
coat finger in flour, and gently press your finger into the centre of the ball to form a ring stretch to ring out to about a 1/3 the diameter of the bagel place on a lightly oiled baking tray.
After shaping balls cover with a damp dish towel and allow to rise for 10 minutes. Meanwhile , preheat your oven to, 220º( I found 200º worked better in my oven)
Bring a large pot of water to the boil, reduce heat. using a slotted spoon lower bagels into the water. Once bagels are in it shouldn’t take long for them to float to the top. Let sit for 1 to 3 minutes ( the longer you leave them the chewier your bagel will be.
If you want to top your bagels with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds any topping of your choice really, do so as you take them out of the water.
Once all your bagels have been boiled and topped with your choice of topping, transfer them to a lightly oiled baking tray.
Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack

I found this to be a fairly easy, simple to read and follow recipe, for a not so experienced baker like myself. There are many different recipes out there ,some using molasses in their ingredients, which I’m still to try. I also found that there are several different ways to roll a bagel; I’ve included the one that works best for me, but have a play around with it and you will find something different might work better for you. I would love to know how you go with you bagel making, or if your experienced and have some useful tips, drop me a comment I would love to hear from you. HAPPY BAKING 🙂

This recipe is taken from http://www.sophisticatedgourmet.com