homemade bagels

One of the things that one can surely miss from living in New York is, definitely, a fresh bagel.

Last Sunday, I woke up at 6am (that’s the latest that we get up ever since Marco was born hehe!) and started preparing the dough for the bagels. By 9 am we were enjoying some great bagels!

For this recipe, you’ll need:

  • 2 cups organic unbleached all purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp organic sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp salt
  • 2 tsp dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tablespoon water

In a large mixing bowl add the sugar, salt, undissolved yeast and 1 cup of flour. Stir gently.

Attach the kneading hook to your kitchen aid and slowly add 1/2 cup of the warm water into the bowl while mixing on medium speed.

Add the rest of the flour and the rest of the water gradually. Scrape the bowl if necessary. Knead for about 10 minutes.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a dry kitchen cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes. This dough will rise but it won’t double in bulk.

After that resting time, transfer the dough to a floured surface. Cut small balls of the dough and make the bagel shape by creating the whole in the middle of the ball using your thumb.

Place the bagels over a baking sheet using parchment paper below.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 more minutes.

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After the resting time, bring water to a boil in a big sauce pan. Simmer bagels for 3 minutes on each side and remove them.

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Place them on the parchment paper covered baking sheets. Let it cool for 5 minutes. If your want, this is the moment when you can sprinkle some sesame or poppy seeds to the bagels.

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Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove them and brush them with the slightly beaten egg white with the tablespoon of cold water. Return bagels to the oven and bake for 12-15 more minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool.

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Enjoy with cream cheese and scallions!

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argentinian sweet aniseed breadsticks

These sweet aniseed breadsticks were one of my favorites back in my childhood.

If I’m right, they are actually from Spain but, as so many other things, we adopted it from our European immigrants and make this sweet bread a classic at any bakery (specially in the Northeast of Argentina).

For this recipe, you’ll need:

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp dry yeast
1/3 cup organic sugar
2 tsp aniseed
3/4 cup water
4 tbsp unsalted butter (I use Kerrygold, made from grass-fed cows, the most similar to the Argentinian butter)
1/4 tsp salt
1 large organic egg

In a small sauce pan bring to a low heat the water with the aniseed. Don’t let it boil, it has to be just a little bit warm.

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In a mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, sugar,  dry yeast. Stir Gently.

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Attach the mixing hook to your kitchen-aid and pour the warm water with the aniseed slowly into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

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Add the egg and the butter. Feel free to add a little bit more of flour if the dough needs it (in this case I added about 1/8 cup more). Once the dough is sticky but uniform, cover it with plastic wrap or a kitchen cloth and let it rest for 1 hour.

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After its resting time, put the dough over a floured surface and knead it for about 10 minutes.

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Cut pieces of the dough and shape them into little sticks. if you turn them two or three times, you’ll get the shape of traditional breadsticks.

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Put them on a non-stick cookie pan or use parchment paper below. As you see in the picture, I used both methods. I prefer the parchment paper because it’s less messy afterwards.

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Cover them with plastic wrap and let it rest for unless 30 minutes.

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Take out the plastic wrap and bake them at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

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Optional and delicious: You can glaze them with a light syrup made with 3 tbsp of sugar for 1/2 cup water and 1 tsp of aniseed.

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Let it cool for 15 minutes before serving these sweet breadsticks.

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They go perfect with a latte or capuccino!

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Enjoy!