Bagels with Lauren Groveman

Boom!

Hello, I'm Julia Child.

Welcome to my house.

What fun we're going to have

baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads

right here in my own kitchen.

Are you fed up with stale, tough, dry bagels?

Let New York's Lauren Groveman show you how to make and bake

the best and freshest bagels you've ever dreamed of eating.

And you can do them right in your own home kitchen.

Join us, on...

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Look at this beautiful bagel.

It's warm-- it was just baked this morning.

And look at that, inside there.

It's just absolutely delicious.

It's softly chewy

and Lauren Groveman is going to show us

how to turn our kitchens into a bagel factory.

That's right, and the best thing about this recipe

is that it teaches you how to have fresh bagels

first thing in the morning which is...

Great, every day.

Okay, let's assemble our dough.

The first thing I'm going to do

is dissolve my one packet of yeast

in one-quarter cup of nice, you know, warm water.

You don't need a thermometer or anything.

If it's too hot...

It kills the yeast, but you don't need a thermometer.

I'm giving it a pinch of sugar

which is yeast's favorite food.

Okay, so I'm going to let that get nice and happy over there.

Now I need my mixing bowl.

And here I have two cups of, again, warm water.

Any kind of liquid that you put into a yeast dough

needs to be about the same temperature...

Body temperature.

Yeah, nice and happy like you want to swim in it.

Yep.

I'm going to put three tablespoons of vegetable shortening

which helps to give my bagels, the texture, a nice bounce.

That was why we had such a lovely, softly chewy...

I'm glad you loved them; that makes me happy.

Sometimes, I don't like bagels, but I just adore these.

Okay, I'm going to put into this bowl right now

just one tablespoon of salt

and I need one tablespoon of sugar.

That's again for the yeast?

Yep, and flavor and coloring, helping it brown.

Now I'm going to use one tablespoon of liquid barley malt

which is... it's very nutritious.

I've never heard of that.

Is it, if you don't have it, can you leave it out?

You can, you'd use two tablespoons of sugar

but it's in health food stores.

It's very healthy.

It's from germinated barley.

And it also helps to give the dough a nice, um, chewy texture.

Okay, so now, I'm just going to stir that up here

to get it all mushed up.

The yeast isn't quite ready yet.

It's not... it's not happy yet.

It's getting happy.

I'm going to add some freshly ground black pepper.

Oh, in the, in the dough?

That's interesting.

But you don't have to, you can leave it out, it's up to you.

If you put it in, then it should be in.

You're the boss.

Okay, now... it's pretty happy, it's pretty creamy.

It's going to go right in there.

Now, I'm stirring in flour, one cup at a time.

Actually, you know something, Julia

I'm putting the flour over here.

It's more comfortable for me.

When it's totally liquid, you can stir in two cups at a time

You don't have to be precise about measuring it.

No, no, no, no, your hands... first of all

the dough will take a different amount of flour every time you make it

depending on weather conditions, on the flour

the amount of moisture in your flour.

What I'm doing here is I'm creating a glutinous network.

This is super gluten flour, which is bromated

which means it's treated with potassium bromate

so it gives the dough a tougher texture--

more bagel-like-- and it's very tasty.

More bagels...

More bagel-like.

Okay, so it's not just like, you now, bread, like white bread.

Okay, now what I'm doing here is I'm just going to stir this.

I'm creating a real elastic texture here.

And once this dough leaves the sides of the bowl

I get it out.

I never put my hand into my canister.

I always work from a scoop, just like that.

Now, it's almost ready to get turned out.

Now, I make a nice, flour bed and...

Do you ever use a machine?

Nope.

But you could, I suppose?

Sure you could, but...

But you like it by hand.

I do.

You know something?

It's a sport to me.

When I do it by hand, it feels more like a sport.

My whole body's involved.

I feel like I get a workout.

It's good exercise.

Yeah, so I can eat more.

Right?

Eat more bagels.

Right, okay, let's get...

Now, just going to scrape off my spoon

and we're going to knead this dough.

Okay?

Okay.

I'm right handed, this is my best buddy during this...

because now the dough is very sticky.

Okay, so in order for the dough not to stick to me

I have to use... my scraper.

That has a lovely, soft texture, doesn't it?

Oh, it's wonderful.

But you see, once it gets sticky

you just use your pastry scraper

lift it up, flour your surface and go.

To flour your hands

you don't flour your hands over the dough

but to the side of the dough.

That's... that really is a beautiful way...

and as soon as you hold on to it, it's sticky, yeah.

It's sticky now, but it won't...

Lovely quality.

It won't be-- I'm going to make this nice and glutinous.

Now, I'm just going to do this for a little while

until it becomes nice and smooth and elastic.

I'd like to give it a little...

Go for it.

It's just sort of rough, and I can feel it then.

Yes, I see.

That has a lovely feel to it.

It's like a baby.

Thank you.

Oh, any time, my pleasure.

( laughing )

I'm going to show you how you can

how you check the texture because that's very important.

And every yeast dough that you make

will check slightly differently

depending on the interior.

This dough is actually very easy to check because it's so elastic.

There's nothing to get in the way of building texture.

Okay, see when I push and I let go?

That's the development of elasticity.

Okay, that means it's ready, I go like this and it fills up.

I push it and it comes back.

It's ready.

You see that?

Now, now I'm going to knead it just one more second

and, Julia, if you would just butter

that rising bowl over there.

Okay.

The stainless steel one, thanks.

Not that it has to be stainless steel.

What we need here

is a bowl that will allow this dough to at least double in bulk.

Now, we're going to rise the dough when we do this

for anywhere from an hour to 2½½ hours

depending on how light-textured you want your bagel to be.

But then it gets refrigerated.

Kerplunk.

You want to butter the top?

And put some butter on-- fine.

And the reason for the butter is

just because it tastes so good.

Also, I guess it prevents things from sticking.

Yes.

Now, we're also going to grease the little bit of the wrap.

And that's just in case the wrap should touch

we know that it won't tear when we have to uncover it

to go and punch our dough down

and then to refrigerate it and then to shape it.

I'm going to put a towel over my bowl.

Keeping it warm.

Keeping it nice and snug as a bug in a rug

and I want to tell, you know...

things go on in your kitchen

you don't know what time it is.

This is, I want a one-hour rise, so I'm going to time this--

"Bagels punch down"

and I'm going to put this tag right on top of my bowl

so that no matter what my kids do and get me all upset

I can remember to punch my dough down.

And that's after about an hour?

I'm going to show you what this dough looks like.

Remember how small it was?

Yes, yes.

It sticks a little bit.

The whole point of not sticking

is so that you don't, you know, tear texture

that you've very carefully built, okay?

So, now I want you to give that little, give it a one-two.

Boom!

Like that?

Like that.

Still very soft.

Yes, it's very soft and can...

I'm going to divide this dough.

This dough makes ten large bagels.

So, if I have a family of five, and I want to eat fresh bagels

I can divide the dough right now, separately

and I can put one half into...

can I have one of those bowls?

That one's already buttered.

Right, one greased bowl

and the other one's going to go into another greased bowl just like that

and they're going to get covered and refrigerated

for up to four hours or overnight, or up to two days.

Can you freeze the dough?

You can, but, I... personally don't really like to

especially not for more than two weeks

because then the yeast

becomes little alcoholish and it affects flavor.

So, this way, we can have fresh bagels tomorrow morning

and the next day, or the next day, okay?

That's all right with me.

These are going to sleep now in the refrigerator.

Fine.

We're ready to make bagels.

Now, before we make bagels

there's certain things that have to take place.

You have to have a pot of water boiling

because we boil bagels before we bake them.

Here we are, boiling water.

Yes, so we have boiling water

and the oven is preheated to 500 degrees

for at least 30 minutes

and they're... they're lined with quarry tiles

to get a nice crisp crust.

In other words, get ready before you do it.

Thank you.

Okay, now, this is for five bagels.

And that's still very soft.

Nice and soft.

I'm going to divide this into five.

And they won't be all perfectly even.

But they're homemade.

You know?

Okay, now when you want...

The dough has a lovely yeasty smell to it.

I love this.

Okay, I'm going to cover them while we work with them

just so that they don't develop a skin.

Now, I'm going to give you a piece, too

because I want you to work.

Now, it's a little on the sticky side

so you want to use the flour, okay?

Now, this is what I want you to do.

We're going to just pinch.

What I'm doing here is I'm pulling on all that elastic...

It's very much like forming little rolls, isn't it?

Absolutely-- now you make it nice and pinched on one end.

It's nice and smooth on the other.

It's absolutely like... this is the way I do my French rolls.

Now I want to do is I flour the bottom and I turn it

pinched side down and I flatten it a little bit, okay?

Take my finger, go right through.

Till we feel it on the other side.

Yes, now, this is the important part.

We want to make the hole disproportionately large

so it looks silly-- it looks like a silly- looking bagel.

And the reason for that-- and you have to use your flour;

don't be afraid to flour--

because if it's too appropriate looking, what happens is...

the bands of elasticity

this is so elastic, that the hole will close up.

Look how silly that looks?

You see?

You'd never think that was going to turn into a bagel.

Oh, actually, let's flour our towel.

Is this one all right?

That's beautiful.

You just put it down, just like that.

And it looks silly, but what happens is...

It's already shrinking in, isn't it?

Right, so here... there's another one.

So, because otherwise, what will happen is, if you don't do it

you'll end up having cute little buns with no holes.

They'll be delicious but they won't be a bagel.

Now, what do you have here?

This is my egg white glaze which will allow

a nice, shiny finish to my bagels

and will act like glue for my seeds.

Now, why do you strain it?

It removes the gelatinous, clumsy quality of egg white

makes it easier to apply with a pastry brush.

Okay, now we're going to go boil these bagels, okay.

Now, before I do

we're going to make the water a little sweet

which is good for browning.

Oh.

And I'm going to add a pinch of baking soda...

Quarter cup of...

Yeah, quarter of a cup.

I'm going to add

I'd say about a teaspoon of baking soda

also helps with browning.

Now, I'm just going to lower these bagels in.

Now, you want a wide pot

as opposed to a tall, narrow one

because these need to sit freely in the water.

If this was a great big pot, you could put more in

but this is, see it goes down and then it comes up.

I'm going to use a skimmer.

And you let this...

They look awfully funny, kind of wrinkled.

They are funny, don't they look funny?

They should be really rapidly boiling

and we're going to leave them this way

for a minute and a half.

Meanwhile, while these are boiling

let's just take care of our peel.

Actually, I flavor my peel--

I mean, flavor the bottom of my bagel.

Because I don't like that the bottoms

don't have anything on them.

So, I have... this is medium- brown cornmeal.

These are just, you know, nice raw sesame seeds.

Well, that's a good idea

because they're going to sit on there.

Yeah, and I put some poppy seeds.

Poppy seeds, that's a good idea.

And some caraway seeds.

Now, you can use all of these

you can use none of them

but you must have the cornmeal.

Otherwise your bagels will stick

and you'll be very sad.

Turning them over.

Turning them over.

Now they need about another...

About a minute, minute and a half.

Okay... so we're going to get these out.

And we're going to top them--

actually, if you would like to

just brush those with a glaze.

It helps to give them a nice shiny finish.

And then we're going to top them.

Was it about two minutes before you took them...

before they swelled up?

Uh-huh.

I guess you just boil them

until they really swell double like this.

Right, they sink and then they float

and then they get nice and puffy.

And then they puff.

Like a dumpling.

Yes.

Yeah, all right.

Just going to glaze that

and then we're going to top them.

All right.

Let's leave, let's say, two of them plain.

All right.

And so we'll give you some sesame

and I'll do poppy and you do sesame.

And then let's do a "flavor all"

where we taste everything in every bite.

Okay, well, there's one sesame.

Okay, and then we'll do that one a "flavor all"

and those two we'll leave plain.

All right.

Lauren: So, we're ready to rock and roll.

Now, I want steam in my oven.

So I have a quarter of a cup of ice water

that I'm going to throw underneath the tiles.

Under the tile?

Can you just open the oven for me...

There are those tiles, red hot.

That's right, now we're going to

go under the tiles here, not on top of them.

There they go.

Close the door.

Now, that's at 500 degrees.

We're going to reduce the temperature

to 450 and bake for 25 minutes.

Okay.

So now that the bagels have baked for 25 minutes

and they're nice and golden brown

I've let them sit in the turned-off oven for five minutes.

Now I'm going to open the door

and let them sit five more minutes

with the oven turned off, yeah.

They look lovely.

They're ready.

Aren't they gorgeous?

I've never have seen bagels that have puffed this much.

They're chubby.

Obviously I've never eaten real bagels before.

That's the love in them, Julia.

Beautiful, I think it must be.

Now you don't want to eat these right away

because when something comes from the oven

you really have to look at the cooling process

as part of the cooking process.

Because hot dough is not good for your tummy.

How long should they wait?

I'd say at least 20 minutes.

Then we're ready to eat them.

Yeah, go for it.

So here are my beautiful bagels.

And they are absolutely beautiful.

Yeah, but you need to put something on them.

So I'm going to share some of my favorite spreads with you.

Very easy, all do-ahead...

like two days ahead.

We'll do this one first.

Okay, this is a vegetable cream cheese.

Very simple-- I just have 12 ounces

of whipped cream cheese that's softened.

I mean, you buy it whipped?

It is whipped cream cheese.

You can really use any cream cheese you want

but I happen to like it whipped, so that's why.

But it's 12 ounces.

I'm putting in grated carrots.

And the red?

Those are radishes.

Oh, radishes!

And these are scallions.

Very finely diced scallions.

And these are cucumbers.

And you know a good idea

is when you chop the cucumbers to squeeze them in a towel

to get some of the excess liquid out.

Otherwise they kind of break it down I little bit.

And that'll be for garnish.

And that's it.

Well, that's easy.

You can't have it easier than that, Julia.

But this can be done two days ahead

and left in the refrigerator.

Does it need salt and pepper, too?

It doesn't really need salt

so I'm just going to put some pepper in.

Doesn't need salt.

No, I don't think so.

And I'm going to just put it in this bowl right here.

It's pretty, too, isn't it?

It is pretty, it's colorful, it's textural.

And you can use any vegetables you want

I mean, you don't have to use mine.

Thank you.

And you just smooth out the top.

Over there I have smoked salmon and scallion spread.

Mmm, is the salmon all chopped up?

All chopped up.

And again, chopped scallions

and I put a little bit of scallions on the top of this.

Okay?

And what's this brown stuff?

Well, that's my favorite.

That's my chopped chicken liver.

Are we going to do that?

We're going to do that right now!

Great.

Okay-dokey.

So, I have a big skillet.

And I'm going to use two tablespoons

of rendered chicken fat.

( sizzling )

With that chopped garlic in there?

Yeah, chopped garlic and two large onions...

two large, big, fat, Spanish onions.

Big ones, okay?

And we're going to caramelize them.

That means cooking them till they're nice and brown.

Right.

That's a beautiful color.

They've certainly reduced in quantity, haven't they?

Now what I'm going to do is push them to the side.

Then I'm going to cook my chicken liver right in here.

Now I'm going to add butter to this--

this is not kosher chicken liver, I'm not kosher.

A person who was would not do that.

You'd keep with the chicken fat.

Add more chicken fat.

I happen to like the taste, the richness of butter.

Mm-hmm, so do I.

What's a little more butter, right?

I'm going to add these chicken livers

right to the center.

Probably fresh chicken livers.

They're beautiful, these are gorgeous.

We're just going to sear them on each side.

Over high-- I'd like them to get even browner than that.

So I'm putting that back on the other side.

What's happening is it's going to caramelize on the bottom.

So we'll just wait a second or two till it happens.

So, now they're seared on both sides

and I want to just steam them through.

They smell good.

And I'm going to cover them and turn the heat low...

to help them cook through.

I don't want them to be too dark

you want them to retain a little pink color.

How long will that take?

A minute.

A minute or two, that's it.

Do you think they're done now?

I think so.

Let's take a look.

Ah, they're gorgeous!

Now I'm going to take my spatula and just...

just to get all that yummy stuff on the bottom.

And I'm going to raise the heat again.

Yeah.

Just to caramelize it just a little bit more.

Let me just cut into one.

I think that's nice, don't you think?

I think that's done.

Turn it off.

Okay, I just need my pot holder.

Now, are you going to put it in the food processor?

Right into, and it can go in hot.

Doesn't matter.

And notice I haven't seasoned it yet.

It doesn't matter, I'm going to season it in there.

Okay...

All of it, I want all of that butter.

I want all of every single thing that's in this skillet.

I want it in my food processor.

Every bit.

That has all that nice flavor.

And now, I'm going to put three hard-boiled eggs in here.

And now, chopped chicken liver is a little bit

like eating mashed potatoes.

It's got to be very well seasoned.

Don't be stingy with the coarse salt.

You know, when you taste something like this

when it's hot, it might seem a little overly seasoned

but once it's chilled

it dulls the flavors.

Needs over seasoning?

Yes.

Now I'm going to just process this.

Now we don't want to make mush.

You want to chop it in pulses.

It's nice to see little flecks of egg white...

Open it up...

I'm going to add a little bit more salts...

and maybe a little more pepper...

Think we ought to taste it?

We're going to taste it...

You have to go too, where's yours?

Oh, that's really good-- it's sweet!

Needs a little more salt.

Mmm, that's very... that's delicious.

Isn't that yum?

Those onions give the sweetness.

Yum, yum.

Okay.

And all you do at this point

scrape it out into a bowl, like this one.

Then you can take a nice decorating comb

and, you know... just to comb the top.

You could use...

Well, that's a good idea.

Yeah, but if you don't have one

you could use a serrated knife or a fork.

And now you have a choice here.

You can garnish...

A traditional garnish is minced onion

that goes around the border

but I'm going to use caramelized onions

because I love them so.

I think that's much prettier.

I do, too.

There's something you should know though.

When you're doing the caramelized onions

for the border here you don't want to use butter.

You want to use an oil.

Because the butter will congeal.

And it changes the texture and the look of the onions.

Chicken fat wouldn't work so well, either, no.

It's very much like butter and acts like butter.

Use a nice canola oil or something.

Yeah, a nice vegetable oil.

So now I'm just going to garnish the top

by crushing a little bit of coarse salt between my fingers.

And add a little bit of freshly ground black pepper.

And that's it.

And that's ready to serve.

Yes, it is.

Do you think we should dig in?

I want to, I want to.

Which one do you want?

I like that one, I think.

You like sesame, okey-dokey.

I've been waiting all day for this.

So have I.

I know.

We've been very patient.

Ah!

Well, that's lovely.

Now, which one?

I'll have a little of the salmon, I think.

What are you going to have?

I'm going to have...

I think I'm going to have...

Well, I'll let you try that first

and then I'm going to go into my chopped chicken liver.

Well, I have a knife here.

That's what I want.

This makes me happy.

I've never liked bagels until today.

Oh, I'm happy.

Because they were always were so, kind of dry.

Lauren, thanks so much.

I'm going to turn into a bagel factory, too.

And I just love knowing how to make these, thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

Julia's got the tastienter WGBH Educational Foundation]

Bon appétit!