Welcome to my Oscars’ Countdown! The past few years, I’ve done a tasting menu the night of the Oscars where I make as many installations as there are Best Picture Nominees. It all started as an idea in 2019, the morning of the Oscars, when I was nursing a hangover at a diner. I hastily scrambled during the day to buy all of the ingredients and make 8 different things that night, without ever watching one of the movies. Since 2020, I’ve made it my task to watch each nominee before coming up with a respective culinary offering. This year, though, I’m trying something a little different. Instead of posting everything the night of the big show, I’m going to lead up with daily posts, as well as two final posts on Sunday.
When I first heard of all the nominees, I joked that I could just make an “everything” bagel.
Of course, I wouldn’t EVER do that, because it’s too obvious…yet, here I am making an everything bagel for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once! To be fair, there were two bagel scenes in the movie. There was a whole lot more going on in the movie…a whole. damn. lot! There are not enough drugs in the world to explain everything that happened in the movie. While a bagel features significantly towards the end of the movie, an earlier bagel scene reminded me of my wife. She’s from NY and Waymond (or some form of Waymond) lamented about how hard it is to find a good bagel across the space-time continuum (or something like that). My wife knows his struggle all too well, living in Virginia now. She LOVED these bagels, so that’s a ringing endorsement…so I left her the biggest, and last, one this morning for her to enjoy.
Everything NY Bagels
adapted from NY Bagels, Cook’s Illustrated
NY bagels are soft and chewy on the inside, and are crispy (even slightly blistered) on the outside. These are best when split, toasted, and then schmeared with cream cheese and sliced scallions.
9 oz of cold water
4 tsp molasses
2 ⅔ cups bread flour
4 tsp vital wheat gluten flour
2 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast
2 tsp salt
¼ cup cornmeal
¼ cup sugar
1 tbsp baking soda
Everything Bagel seasoning
Stir the molasses into the water until fully dissolved.
Blend the flours and yeast together in a food processor for 2 seconds, then slowly pour the molasses-water through the feed tube with the motor still running. Mix for about 20 seconds, then stop the motor and leave everything for 10 minutes to rest.
After 10 minutes, add the salt to the dough and process an additional 60-90 seconds, redistributing the dough, as necessary.
Transfer the dough to an un-floured counter and knead until smooth, about a minute. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and form each portion into smooth rounds and cover loosely with plastic wrap, allowing all to rest for 15 minutes.
Dust a rimmed baking sheet with the cornmeal.
Working with one dough ball at a time, lightly sprinkle some flour on top and, using a roller, roll out to about 6 inch rounds. Tightly roll the dough downward into a cylinder shape, avoiding tapering the ends. Then wrap the cylinder around your fingers into a ring, pressing the overlapping dough together and rolling the overlapping dough against the counter to smooth out the circle. Alternatively, you can just wrap the dough not using your fist, but you still need to press/roll the connection as such.
Place the formed bagels onto the prepared baking sheet and cover loosely with plastic, letting them rest for an hour. After an hour’s rest, tightly wrap the tray with cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for 18-30 hours.
An hour before baking, place a baking stone on the upper third rack of your oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
Bring 4 quarts of water, sugar, and baking soda to a boil in a large pot, and prepare a rack-lined baking sheet, spraying the rack with cooking spray.
Drop half of the bagels into the boiling water, cornmeal side down, flipping after 20 seconds. Remove after boiling an additional 20 seconds, and repeat with the remaining bagel rounds.
Sprinkle on your everything bagel seasoning, or other preferred seasoning, and pour ½ cup of boiling water into the sheet pan, avoiding contact with the prepared bagels. Place in the oven and bake for 13 minutes. Flip the bagels and continue to bake for an additional 7 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let the bagels cool for at least 15 minutes before devouring.
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Copyright 2023, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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