Admit it, you didn't know this about bagels......:-)

Shaped and waiting to be boiled

You can tell this is a small operation----we boil a dozen at a time.  The big bakeries have huge vats for this purpose.

Can you see the steam rising?   I know, me neither----but it's there.  I'm just a poor photographer.

From the top----time to fish these guys out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you smell these???  I know, me neither-----haven't figured out the app to convey that. You will just have to imagine!!

O.K. how many of you knew that bagels are boiled in water before they're baked?  (Rachel and Becky, put your hands down, you grew up in this bakery and have an unfair advantage...)

Just as I thought, you didn't know----so here are some pics to show how we make them here at Studabaker's.  One of these days I'll get brave and post a really hilarious and embarrassing video of Stu, me, Becky, Rachel, and our friend Moriah, taken about 15 years ago,  showing how Stu kneaded the dough by hand, and when it was ready, all of us took positions at the four corners of the baking table (Moriah was stationed at the end between Rachel and Becky) .  Like an athletic event.  Which it kind of was------Stu and I would roll bagel-size balls of dough, and then throw them across the table to whichever girl was empty handed.  The girls would then poke a hole in the ball of dough and shape it into a bagel shape, and then line them up on the table.  (sounds easy, but it's a learned skill.....much laughing was always involved)  In the background you could hear whatever music we were playing that day-----Bob Dylan,  James Taylor, Fiddler on the Roof.     The headgear on all concerned is flamboyant and----weird.  Stu is sporting a red bandanna tied around his head, I for some reason am wearing a ruffled mobcap, and the girls had interesting versions of either mobcap or bandanna on their heads.  We look like a cross between hippies and Amish women.  And the conversation is.....entertaining.  Maybe I won't post that video.....  Anyway, no matter how offbeat we were, the bagels were always good, and our girls got a very hands-on education.  Rachel recently commented that the bagel stand was a big part of their math curriculum! 

There's a new crop of potential bagel-benders coming up now-----our oldest granddaughter Shayna turns six this week!  Won't be long now before I can start showing her the ropes!     She was here this weekend for the Open Bakery event, and greeted people at the driveway and would show them to the Cottage Green, where the tables were set up.   A hostess already----this Mimi is smiling big :-)