Sunday, January 24, 2010

When life gives you flour, make bagels!





We love that there's a bagel place in Sofia, and that it has smoothies. However, the bagels do come in a deep freeze all the way from the U.K, and sometimes flavor suffers.

This week, I was browsing through some well-known blogs written by teenagers to show my "Introduction to Blogging" students, when I happened upon the rather amazing blog, 17 and Baking. As my students oohed and aahed over its splendid photography and witty writing, I oohed and aahed over a bagel recipe within its pages that seemed to require only about 30 minutes of work. Was it possible? Could I really make my own bagels with a bit of evening effort?

That night I kneaded, shaped, boiled and baked. Voila! Turns out bagels are a lot easier than I thought, and suddenly a whole world of possible variations has opened up to me...

This time I sprinkled poppy seeds and rock salt over the basic bagel recipe from 17 and Baking, maybe next time I'll try cinnamon raisin, blueberry, or chocolate chip. Bulgaria just keeps making me discover that my favorite foods don't have to come from the store...

4 comments:

Elissa said...

I'm somewhat speechless and completely amazed that 17 and Baking was used in an actual class for blogging - this is too cool! :) I'm so glad you liked the bagels and that your class enjoyed my site!

Anonymous said...

Synergy forever and ever! xom

Anonymous said...

Is this the same Betsy who struggled with chicken in SoCal?!! Amazing. Will surely give the bagels a try. They look awesome. Thanks for the new blog site, too. And, the previous post with the sand art gal -- that's super cool. Will surely show my class.
Mary

judy baker said...

Wow Betsy, your bagels look terrific! I haven't made them in years, but yours make me want to do it again. Time spent is worth the delicious reward. Judy