Following Tyler William’s description of cooking Christmas dinner, I thought I would share my cooking escapades. I was also inspired by the story in the New York Times of the Jewish woman celebrating Christmas. I figure if a good Jewish girl can get a Christmas tree, a nice Christian boy like me could bake some bagels.

I searched the Internet for a recipe. Our copy of Fanny Farmer’s has already been packed, and it is a remarkably Protestant cookbook anyway. I found several recipes and picked the one I thought would be best. One of the recipes had a great line about making the hole in the center of the bagel. It urged the baker to resist the temptation to use a cookie cutter, as that was a far too Protestant approach. Only hands should be used on truly Jewish bagels.

The first batch has just come out of the oven, and I have to say I am quite pleased with myself. Although the crust is not quite as crunchy as I would like, the texture is excellent. For the second batch, I have turned the heat up a bit to fix the crust problem. I made them for tomorrow morning, but although it is 1:30 at night I think I may eat a second one.

Update: The second batch came out better, with a wonderful crust.  The kids this morning went nuts over them.

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