Fun Bagel fact:

Bagels originally came from Austria in 1683. Folklore says a baker was grateful to the King of Poland for saving Austria from invading Turks. He reshaped a local bread into the shape of the king's stirrup and called it a beugel, derived from the German word for stirrup, Bügel. As bagels were brought to America, the word was changed to bagel.  

Leslie's Whole Grain Bagels

2 tsp SAF yeast (Click here) 

1 3/4 cups warm water (approx. 110 degrees)

2 Tbs. honey

5 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

2 tsp salt

The Night Before:

1. Combine yeast and warm water in Bosch bowl and let stand 5 minutes.  Stir in honey.

2. Add 2 cups flour and salt; mix at low speed (Bosch speed 1).  Gradually stir in remaining flour to make a soft (non-sticky) dough.

3. Knead on low speed 8 minutes.

4. Divide dough into 12 equal portions and roll each into a smooth ball.  Cover and let rest for 5 minutes.  Roll each ball into an 11 inch rope.  Bring ends together and pinch and seal.  Slip hand through center and roll into a smooth ring.  Place on baking sheets (sprayed with cooking spray) cover and chill 12-18 hours.

The Next Morning

1. Bring 3-4 quarts of water  to a boil

2. Add bagels 2-4 at a time and cook 30 seconds, turning once.  Remove bagels with a  slotted spoon and place on wire racks.

3. Brush bagels with a mixture of egg white and water "glue."  Dip one side on topping of choice.

4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Coat baking sheets with cooking spray and sprinkle with corn meal.

5. Place bagel on prepared pans.  Bake at 450 degrees for 13 minutes or until golden brown.

Make 1 dozen.   

Check my Paula's Bread Blog or Paula's Bread Face Book to see more varieties of this fun fully nutritious bagel AND step by step instructions on making bagels!  

Note from Paula:

You can make lots of bagels ahead and freeze them ready for you to pull out for breakfast or making sandwich lunches more fun! 

Kinds of Flours

Commercial bakers require several types of flours to be milled to specification for used the products they produce while home bakers are most likely to use all-purpose, cake, bread, and whole-wheat flour.  Serious bakers will even use pastry and semolina in their baking.

All-purpose flour

This is finely ground wheat and is often a blend of soft and hard wheat that produces a flour suitable for many types of products. All-purpose flour is usually bleached.*  Note that bleached flour is one more step to making the flour more unhealthy for consumption.  See the note below. 

Bread flour

This flour comes from hard red or white wheat, because of its strong gluten strength that will make great bread. Bread flour is usually unbleached.

Cake flour

Cake flour is simply finely ground mix of soft wheat and red wheat. It is usually bleached and is used for cakes, cookies, crackers, quick breads, and some pastries. It has a lower gluten content, which makes the products more tender.

Durum flour

The finely ground durum wheat.  Durum flour is usually found in specialty sections of supermarkets or health food stores. It is used primarily for making noodles/pasta.

Gluten flour

Gluten flour is a part of the wheat grain milled from hard wheat and makes a high-protein (gluten) flour. It contains about 45 percent protein, whereas bread flour is usually about 12-14 percent protein. Gluten flour is added in small amounts approximately one tablespoon per one pound loaf.  If you use this with your Bosch Mixer, your bread will be even lighter and fluffier than it already is! 

Pastry flour

This type of flour is not as commonly found unless you have your own mill and can grind your soft wheat. It makes a fluffy pastry, flaky pie crusts, etc.

Self-rising flour

Self-rising flour started in southern States and is the oldest "mix" found in America. It is an all-purpose flour with leavening and salt added to make quick breads.  One cup contains 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Semolina flour 

Semolina is a coarsely ground flour from high quality durum wheat and is used for making pasta. It can be used for breads due to its high gluten quality.

Whole-wheat flour

Whole-wheat flour is also called graham flour and stone-ground flour. Whole-wheat flour is ground from the entire kernel containing 100% of the wheat kernel!

Remember, when you use your Nutri Grain Mill you can make any grain 100% whole grain...whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, whole semolina flour, whole durum flour!  

Just a note about bleached flours....

Enriched flours are often bleached for two reasons:

1. to lighten the flour color

2. improve baking qualities

Bleaching oxidizes the gluten slightly and therefore makes cakes and pastries more tender. When flour is bleached, it is exposed to chlorine gas and benzoyl peroxide. Humm...is it really worth the tender pastry to compromise your health? I don't think so!  

Improved baking qualities are given because the bran/fiber isn't in the flour which will produce a "better" baked product.  I disagree because there is no flavor in this flour!  

Enrich means that 4 B-vitamins have been chemically put back into the flour.  We lost 34 vitamins and minerals in the deal!  So sad.   

I guess I can't encourage you enough that a Nutri Grain Mill give you not only fresh 100% flour but you get ALL the nutrients in the grains.  You will also have better tasting baked goods because the flour will have all the nutrition from the grain.

 

The beauty of today's kitchen is refrigeration.  You can refrigerate fresh flour to preserve the nutrition for up to 2 weeks.  You can freeze the freshly ground flour for up to 4 months and still get the benefit of all the nutrients.  The Nutri mill bagger attachment comes in handy for this storage.  You can mill straight into the bag and then keep the fresh flour labeled in the freezer for when you need any variety of grain flours! (Click here to learn more!)