Bagels Aplenty

In a last hurrah before the kids go back to school, Vegan Mom and I packed up the kids and headed to Ottawa. We booked a suite in a downtown hotel equipped with a kitchen so we could cook our own meals. I am sure Ottawa has some great vegan restaurants, but we wanted to keep costs down and had no desire to cart four kids to an eating establishment and become "that family" that everyone wishes would just leave. To prep for the trip I made a ton of bagels--perfect for lunches, breakfasts, and snacks.

The basic recipe is from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice, but made a few changes. Let's go from right to left:

Multi-Grain Mixed Berry Bagels: I made the sponge out of 5 oz oat bran, 2 oz steel cut oats, 2 oz 12 grain cereal, and 9 oz white flour (plus the yeast and water the recipe calls for). I let it soak for an extra hour. In the final dough I replaced 4 oz of the white flour with vital wheat gluten. In the final minutes of kneading I added 1 1/2 cups of dried berries (I used blueberries, cranberries, and cherries).

Whole Wheat Bagels: Replace white flour with whole wheat flour, but replace 2 oz with vital wheat gluten. I find that bagels need good gluten content to remain that dense and chewy consistency.

New York Bagels: as per the recipe.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels: as per the note on p. 122.
Here is a pic of the centre block of Parliament that Son#1 took. You can see the Peace Tower, obviously, and down on the lawn are about 100 people doing yoga. Yes, Canada is a hippie paradise.