Ryan is my oldest son. All my kids like to spend time in the kitchen in various ways, Leah likes to bake, Isaac enjoys doing all kinds of little helpful tasks and Ryan likes to make bread. This weekend Ryan and I decided to make bagels together.

We set aside the time - because they do require you to be around and take slightly more effort than your standard bread. The kneading takes longer if you do it by hand because the dough is so stiff. They also have the additional step of being boiled. But they are oh so worth it. There is nothing like the smell of bagels straight out of the oven. This recipe makes roughly 20 bagels and by the end of the day there were only a handful left.

If you want something to potter with in the kitchen on a rainy day, these are perfect. The results are great, a chewy soft bagel that is every bit as good if not better than many that you would buy. Ours were smeared with cream cheese and smoked salmon, the best combination of bagel toppings in my book. We used the recipe from Home Cooking in Montana as a basis which has nice step by step instructions. Very clear and easy to follow. I could not find my usual bagel recipe - it’s lurking somewhere in my stack of recipe books I suspect.

Bagels with Ryan

Makes 18-20 bagels

Dough

• 7 cups white high grade flour
• 1 Tblspn salt
• 1 1/2 Tbspns active dry yeast or 1 Tblspn instant yeast
• 2 Tblspn sugar (divided use if using active yeast)
• 1 Tblspn oil
• 2 1/4 cups warm water (divided use if using active yeast)

Combine flour, salt and yeast in a bowl if using instant yeast.

If using active dry yeast - place your yeast in a small bowl with roughly half a cup of your water and 1 tspn of your sugar. Set aside until foamy before use, this takes roughly 5 minutes.

Add sugar and oil to the water and pour over the dry ingredients. If you are using active dry yeast add in your foamy mixture and your remaining warm water and sugar with the oil.

If your dough seems very dry don’t be afraid to add a small amount of additional liquid. The moisture content of flour can vary. The dough for bagels is not a particularly soft dough however.

Knead well for about 7-8 minutes if using a mixer or roughly 20 minutes by hand - use the windowpane test to see if your dough is ready to set aside and rise.

Form into a ball and put into an oiled bowl turning once to coat dough. Cover with plastic or a kitchen towel and let rise one hour or until doubled.

Ready to shape

Take a lemon sized piece of dough and shape into a ball - push your finger through the centre to make the hole in the bagel. You need to make the hole a little larger than you think it needs to be (I hope that makes sense) because as the dough rises again after shaping the hole will be smaller.

Ryan had the best technique for shaping - kind of pushing the edges under to make a smooth ball and then pressing his finger through the top. My technique - well .. lets just say I’m working on it.

Isaac had to get in on the act too, he had a somewhat interesting approach to shaping .. squeeze the dough as hard as you can then twirl it around on your finger super-fast.. I can’t say that worked very well, but it looked like fun!

After shaping your bagels they need to prove again - set them on the trays nicely shaped and leave to rest for roughly 20 minutes, cover with a slightly damp cloth so they don’t dry out.

This is what they looked like after resting for 20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil which has the following added to the water.

• 2 Tblspns of sugar
• 5 tspns baking soda

place 2 or three bagels in the water at a time to boil for roughly 1 minute. Place the bagels in with the top side down. Lift gently out of the water with a slotted spoon and drain well before placing on a parchment lined tray.

Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle your favourite toppings over your bagel. We decided to go with leaving some plain and some with sesame seeds today.

Pop into the oven and bake for roughly 20 minutes in the centre of the oven. We only did one tray at a time since our oven has a bit of a mind of it’s own.

You will have a beautiful pile of warm, chewy bagels to sink your teeth into.

If you are not already in New York, these will transport you there with their warm scent and the shiny surface that only a bagel has.. smear them with your favourite bagel toppings, toast them, melt cheese on them or turn them into a burger by slicing them in half.

We enjoyed making them so much we are going to make them again next weekend as a cinnamon raisin version. They are worth the little bit of effort they take, there was a real sense of pride in making these glossy sesame bagels. Maybe next time I’ll be able to shape them as beautifully as Ryan does.

I love to make this bread, it’s fun, easy and you will never buy pita bread again after you have made it at home. Unlike the bread you buy in the store which bears a strong resemblance to cardboard, this is soft and pliable. You can actually put things in it or wrap it around things without it shattering. Pita is a very old type of bread and comes in various forms and sizes. Wikipedia has a huge amount of information on pita.

The recipe came to me via Ryan. One day he came home from school after having had home economics class (cooking) and was most pleased with himself. “Look what I made Mum!” as he came in the door. He pulled out a tiny piece of pita, since he’d eaten most of it and dangled it up in front of me and asked me if he could make more.

He proceeded to make a batch and I was completely shocked at the delicious bread that my 12 year old son brought out of the kitchen. It was actually good! So, thank you home economics teacher.

Pita

• 2 tspns yeast
• 2 tspns sugar
• 1 cup of warm water
• 2 Tblspns olive oil
• 1 tspn salt
• 3 cups of flour (white, wholewheat or a combination)

Measure the first 5 ingredients into a large bowl with one cup of the flour. Mix together and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes

Stir in remaining flour - knead for 10 minutes on a floured surface

Return dough to the bowl and leave in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes

Preheat the oven to the highest temperature on fan bake and place a tray in the oven to heat as well.

Cut the dough into 10 even pieces then roll into circles on a well floured board. The dough should be thin.

Cook the circles one at a time on the hot tray.

The pita will puff up then collapse slightly - the bread is usually done at this point - it will be slightly golden around the edges and on the bottom, normally it is still pale on the top. This is quick - it only takes 1-2 minutes for each pita - so watch them.

Eat as soon as possible with your choice of fillings. You will find you can split it through the centre making a pocket, it’s also pliable enough to use as a wrap. We usually eat ours with home made hummus, coleslaw and falafel.

I spent some time in the garden today, pottering about replanting tomatoes and pulling out weeds. The tomatoes are trying hard to produce some fruit, one of my little plants actually has two tomatoes on it! I picked a small handful of strawberries that were the size of blueberries, the tiniest things - ripe and sweet. Some raspberries, the first I’ve seen on the raspberry canes we have in the garden. I checked out the Romanesco - which is huge! I’m going to have to pick and cook that very soon.

Today felt like a bread baking day. I wanted to use the herbs from my herb pot at the front door, and the garlic from last years crop in the garden, so Focaccia seemed like just the thing.

For those of you feeling daunted by making bread this is a nice kind of bread to start with. A Mediterranean flat bread, that used to be cooked on the hearth or ashes of the fire.

Perfect with hot soups or with a selection of spreads and peppery olive oils for dipping and it looks so impressive! Golden with little dimples sitting in the top for the olive oil to pool in, it’s a nice treat. There is nothing like the smell of home made bread.

The recipe I have for you makes two good sized Focaccia loaves.

Herb and Garlic Focaccia

• 2 cups of lukewarm water (divided use)
• 2 1/2 tspns of active dry yeast
• 1 tspn of salt
• 5 cups of flour
• olive oil for to brush over the bread
• garlic roughly 6 cloves crushed(more or less to taste)
• herbs roughly 2 Tblspns chopped (more or less to taste)
• Finely flaked sea salt

Place the yeast in a large bowl with 1/4 of a cup of the warm water. Set aside in a warm place to foam for about 5 minutes.

When foamy, add the remaining warm water and the flour and salt. Mix to a dough.

Because the moisture content of flours can vary you may need to either add a dash more flour or a dash more water, use your judgement. You want to have a smooth dough that is not sticky or dry.

Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes until it is nice and elastic. You will feel the dough change as you knead it, it will become more pliable and stretchy. You can of course use the bread hook on a kitchen aid - but I think one of the nice things about making bread is the tactile element.

Put the dough back into the large bowl - smear a little oil over the dough (this helps to keep it cosy) and place a clean cloth loosely over the top. Put the bowl in a warm place for about an hour for the dough to rise - it will roughly double in size.

Take the dough out - knead it lightly to just deflate the dough and put it back as before in the warm place for the second rising, again for about an hour.

When you take out the dough this time it’s ready to shape and flavour.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F

Grease an oven tray with a little olive oil.

Divide the dough in half. Roll out the first piece on a floured work surface to a rectangle roughly 12 inches by 9 inches.Transfer to your greased tray.

Make the dimples in the dough by pressing your thumb into the surface. Then brush with olive oil, the oil will pool in the dimples that you made. Sprinkle the top with your choice of herbs and/or garlic.

This is what the rosemary and garlic version looked like at this stage.

The other loaf I topped with a mix of fresh herbs and sea salt. Sage, oregano, thyme and parsley.

Pop it in the oven for roughly 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it, you just want it to be a light golden colour, not dark brown and crisp. Eat it as soon as it’s cool enough to touch. I do cook just one loaf at a time, keep the first one warm covering with a cloth while you cook the second.

We pulled ours apart with our fingers and slathered it with an olive oil spread.

I am not what you would call an expert baker by any means, and bread was always one of those things that terrified me - from a making, not eating point of view.

But I can make this and it always turns out well, so I would encourage you to try it as your first bread making experience if you have not been brave enough to take the plunge.

It’s just so nice to be able to sit and enjoy something like this that you have made yourself from scratch, and of course - it’s darn good.