Strictly from the eating perspective, I’ve always absolutely loved bagels. When I was introduced to the cinnamon and raisin bagel, I couldn’t believe there could be anything with a nicer texture and flavour!
In the Australian suburbs where I grew up, one of the many slightly unhealthy breakfast options was a thing called “cinnamon toast”, which was a highly-sugared supermarket white bread with some added cinnamon and sultanas. I’d like to think that today’s recipe is the healthier, grownup version of everything that is good about cinnamon toast. It is the flavour of the cinnamon toast with the texture of a properly made bagel and a lot less added sugar. The first time I tasted a properly made cinnamon and raisin bagel was on a holiday in New York. One of the best things about New York is that there are places that you can go at all hours and enjoy a freshly made bagel. That’s right, at 4am you can be eating a cinnamon and raisin bagel with freshly brewed coffee in a place with booth seating and full table service! I get the feeling that if I lived in New York I would be much larger than I am today… I can’t put my finger on what it is about bagels that makes them taste unique. They really aren’t just “bread rolls with a hole in them”, they have a very distinctive chewy texture that is really satisfying to eat. This is mostly created by ‘poaching’ the bagels in simmering water for 1-2 minutes, which is the only time I’ve ever seen dough dipped in water before baking. Apparently the professional bagel places use a lye solution and soak the bagel in that for only a few seconds. I decided not to do this because:
It is almost impossible to get lye unless you are a chemist. Lye is so toxic that you have to wear protective gloves and a protective mask. Lye can fully dissolve a human body in around 3 hours (Walter White would approve) and I’m not putting my bagels in that!
I went with the alternative, which is to simmer the bagels in boiling water which contains a little bit of baking soda and I was totally blown away with the taste and the texture of these bagels. Ania and I just sat there all morning, eating one bagel after another shaking our heads and going “I can’t believe we’ve made proper bagels”. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!
