Love Those Bagels!

I guess my jobs not half bad 😉 I get paid to get really messy and roll truffles. Anyone interested in a career change?! Haha!

Actually my day was incredibly tough. The first half was FUN and the second half was spent deep cleaning the entire kitchen….more on that later!

Anyhoo, back to the day—I got up around 5:45 again to have a little extra time in the morning. I think I’m going to start waking up early like this every morning because its worth it to me not to be in such a rush! I LOVE mornings! Its my favorite time of day and the time when I am the most productive. I’m actually one of those really rare people that loves to wake up early and I usually do so with a grin on my face. I hate being rushed so waking up a little earlier lets me check my email, the blog and spend more time making a good breakfast. It’s worth it! My body has finally gotten used to going to bed veryyyyy early, sleeping for exactly 8 hours and then naturally waking up. It works for me!

So, this morning I made another ultra-creamy bowl of oatmeal on the stove. The “jenna” bowl again with 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup silk, dried cherries, a banana and almond butter:

This gets my day started the right way.

For lunch, I was a lucky girl and got leftovers! A nice piece of leftover baked salmon from last night on a huge bed of baby spinach with creamy goat cheese crumbles. I also packed banana bread, an apple and a yogurt. (I didn’t end up needing the banana bread…..I got something better! More on that later! wink wink!)

I had the yogurt for my mid-morning snackeroo.

After work, I stopped at Publix to grab a couple groceries:

Ugh I was so mad. Right after I snapped this picture, as I was putting away my yogurts, I dropped one on the floor and it exploded everywhere! These yogurts are not cheap! 🙁

I had a pear as I was driving home from the store for a little snack:

Unfortunately it was as hard as a rock. Yeck!

I was planning on yoga today but my workout-du-jour ended up being the MASSIVE 2 hour deep clean that not only left blisters on my hands but also left me completely pooped. More on that in a bit. I figure I burned enough calories when I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floors though!

Betty is having another “soiree” tonight but again, I opted out politely. I’m so exhausted I just want to make some tea and jump right back into the final pages of my novel. I ate a truly comforting dinner tonight instead—-Annie’s Bunnies with Yummy Cheese, a spinach salad and a bowl of tomato soup.

LOVE this soup!

Holy goodness is it ever wonderful. 100% all natural, no preservatives and made by the people that bring us such fab imported evoo! I used to have it all the time in college and now I remember why! It’s something like grandma used to make….

For dessert I stuck with the Annie’s Bunnies theme and nibbled on a few 🙂

And now…..my daily recap! Complete with recipes and a “how-to” picture presentation! =)

So, today Adam and I set out on a great feat: homemade bagels. We are going to start doing a big Sunday brunch at the Club and they are requesting all pastries made in house (along with table-side flaming crepe service by yours truly…..haha). I have made bagels before in school and brought in my recipe for us to try. They turned out GREAT!!!! We were SO stoked! All the staff heard we had homemade bagels and were all around us trying to score one hot out of the oven. It was fabulous. We made plain today just to test the recipe but I am going to try out a honey whole wheat next time and other variations on the list include blueberry bagels and cheese bagels. Oh…the opportunities!

So, first we made the dough and let it sit and “bench rest” (aka rise) for about 25 minutes. After that, I shaped the dough into little bagels:

And we gave them a little bath in a starch solution for 2 minutes per side:

We made the solution by boiling potatoes for about half an hour, straining them out and using the simmering water. This starch solution creates a shiny and chewy exterior and really gives the bagel that nice texture we love so much!

After their bath, we ran the bagels over to the Pub kitchen where we baked them in the pizza oven at 450 degrees for about 7 minutes.

This was the result!

We garnished them with sea salt and poppy seeds. Unfortunately a couple were wrinkly because they were left in the solution (you REALLY need only 2 minutes per side!) a minute too long.

We scaled all the bagel dough out to be 4 ounces. It worked out perfectly except for a tiny one that didn’t make the cut. I decided to bake it anyways though and have it with my salad for lunch!

Awww mon petit bagel! It was SO cute and like those mini-bagels you can buy. I ate it right when it was hot—soft, chewy and totally perfect (a little wrinkly though)!

Plain Bagels

Makes about 15 bagels

.5 oz fresh yeast

2 lbs bread flour

.26 oz oil

2 oz molasses

.5 oz salt

16 oz water

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water with a pinch of sugar (this feeds the yeast and causes it to wake up and start workin’!). Set aside while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

2. Combine the salt, flour, oil and molasses in big kitchenaid bowl. Pour in the water/yeast and be sure not to let the yeast hit the salt in the bowl (this will kill the yeast).

3. Mix for 2 minutes on low speed with a dough hook and then for 4 minutes on medium speed.

4. Let the dough bench rest on your counter covered with plastic wrap for 25 minutes. While its resting, prepare the solution.

5. Scale out 4 oz pieces of dough and roll each piece to be about 7 inches long, even thickness. With a little water, attach the ends to create a donut shape. Let the bagels rest again for another 20 minutes.

6. Drop the bagels in the solution and time them 2 minutes on each side. When they are done, bake in a 450 degree oven on sheet trays covered with cornmeal for 7 minutes or until golden.

7. Enjoy!

**This recipe is formated for a professional bakeshop and uses the metric system to measure out ingredients. You NEED a scale for this recipe and it will not work if you try to convert it to cups and tablespoons. It’s worth buying a cheap scale for, I promise!

I hope yall try these! They are SO easy to make and so much fun! I brought one home and can’t wait to have a pb&j bagel for breakfast tomorrow!!!! They blow anything store bought away 🙂

Bagels were the main activity of the day. We were so excited about them and how well they turned out—totally soft and chewy. Other than bagels, I baked more pumpernickel rolls, 4 more loaves of pumpkin bread and some cookies:

Reverse chocolate chip

Oatmeal raisin

Other that that, I obviously rolled truffles (as you can clearly tell from my first lovely picture) and I remade some doughs for tomorrow. In the afternoon, Adam went over budgeting stuff with me to help me learn all that goes into owning your own bakery. He actually is in the process of starting up his own bakeshop here in Vero Beach. Quite an accomplishment! They are going to do all pastries, breads, desserts and wedding cakes and it will be open 24 hours a day (with bakers coming in at 2 am to bake bread for the day). It’s opening in about 6 months and I can’t wait to come back for opening day!

And then cleaned. Gag. We deep cleaned for 1 1/2 hours and my fingers are red, raw and blistered. We took apart everything in the pastry station, I scrubbed it ALL down with soap, water and a steelwool and then I scrubbed everything again with stainless steel spray. I also scrubbed the flour and washed the walls and huuuge bathtub sized mixers. Um yeahhhh it definitely constituted a workout seeing as I broke a sweat.

But yay! Tomorrow is my day off!!!! I plan to go to Church in the morning, run, and then relax and read in the sun all day. It’ll feel good!

Have a great night, yall! I’ll catch ya in the am!