Bagels! (Attempt #2)

This week we'll be trying a totally different recipe from last time's effort, which not only gives me hope that these bagels will come out better than last time, but also keeps alive my "no-repeated-recipes" streak.

Start out by proofing 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast in 1/3 of a cup of warm water mixed with 1 teaspoon of sugar. After a few minutes, pour that in your mixing bowl, and start adding the following: another 2/3 cups of warm water, 3 tablespoons of melted butter (my one deviation from the recipe this week, which actually called for 3 tablespoons of "salad oil" instead of butter), 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 beaten egg. This will leave you with quite the tasty drink, I'm sure. Anyway, from here stir in, about a cup at a time, 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour.

The resulting dough will be quite easy to work with, so just knead it for a few minutes until it becomes nice and smooth. Put in a buttered bowl, cover, and set in a warm spot to rise. Watch out, though! This dough, if yours turns out anything like mine, will be completely out of control! I had barely looked away when all of a sudden the dough had almost expanded right out of the bowl. Which means it practically tripled in bulk in a very short time.

First Rising (1 hour)
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Euro 2008 has started! And so now, thanks to the big projector at the student union, I am now more than able to get my daily dose of soccer goodness. So, you ask, which team am I throwing my support behind, seeing as I have no real connection with any of the teams in the tournament? The Netherlands.

A strange choice, you think? Well, I have essentially two reasons. The first, and the one actually related to soccer, is that I think they make for some incredibly fun games to watch. For one, they have a fast, slick, fun, and at times simply stunning offense, counterattacking with speed and (so far!) seemingly able to pull goals out of thin air. And on the other hand, they have what seems to me to be a highly suspect defense, which makes at times truly boneheaded decisions. Put those two facts together, and you have a team that keeps the game interesting and exciting at both ends of the field.

And, my more superficial reason: Holland has both my favorite team nickname (the "Clockwork Oranje"), and perhaps the best named player in the tournament (that would be Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink). How can you beat that?
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Punch the dough down, recover the bowl, and set aside for the

Second Rising (1 hour)
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So, this past Thursday I went to the opening midnight screening of a movie (embarrassing admission: I really wanted to start that sentence "This Thursday last..."). Which was a first for me. In fact, I don't know if I'd even ever seen a movie on its opening weekend before, let alone its opening day. Sadly, the movie my friends and I went to see for this momentous event in my life was "The Incredible Hulk." Let's just say I was sufficiently underwhelmed by the experience.

Things started out with a brilliant display of competence from the projectionist, who, as a prelude to the film, allowed us to watch all of the previews for and the first seven minutes of "Kung Fu Panda" (which, to be fair, may well be a better film anyway). Fortunately, just when the audience had settled down and decided to make the best of the situation by watching that and not generally shouting at the screen, things got back on track and the intended movie was put in. I think, though, that my favorite pair of things about the movie were (a) the running commentary from the seats behind me - featuring such insightful observations as "Hulk..SMASH!" and "Oh, man, do not test him!" - and (b) reading a review of the movie after seeing it (something I don't usually do) - a review that has what is, so far, the slickest movie-review-slam of a performance (see the "Mr. Norton, ever the professional..." line) I've yet read.
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Punch the dough down, recover the bowl, and set aside for the outrageous and thus-far unprecedented

Third Rising (50 minutes)
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And speaking of personal firsts, just today I paid my first visit to a winery, one just outside of town. It was quite nice, even if I didn't particularly care for the wines we tasted. Perhaps most disappointing, though, is that I remain frustrated in my quest to taste and compare for myself a wine grape and a table grape. Well, serves me right for going in June!
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Set a pot of water (with 2 tablespoons of sugar added) to boiling, and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In the meantime, knead the dough for a minute or so, and then divide into 8 roughly equal pieces. Just as in our last stab at making bagels, shape them by rolling each piece into a ball, pinching in the middle, and gently working the hole until it is as large as you want it to be.

Drop the bagels (just a two or three at a time) in the boiling water for 2 minutes, and then flip them over to their other side to boil for another 2 minutes. I have to admit to a certain amount of trepidation here... the recipe claims the bagels will first float, then sink, then rise to the surface again. But I saw none of that. Worrisome. Anyway, after boiling, put the bagels on a greased cookie sheet, and brush them with a mix of beaten egg yolk and milk. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and then bake for 35 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Well, I'm getting closer, but I clearly still don't quite have the bagel thing down. The crust came out just about perfect (well, as far as I'm concerned, anyway), but the interior of the bagels still aren't really up to snuff. More like bread than a bagel. Still, I think I'm getting closer, and they still taste good, even if the texture still isn't there.