BBA Challenge: Bagels and Brioche

I'm doing a double post for the BBA Challenge this week since I managed to delay so long on posting my bagels! I've had them made but have been busy setting up my new computer, which finally came! Yay. So, on to bagels!

These bagels were delicious. I made two batches, one a mini test-batch with all-purpose flour and brown sugar, and one with hi-gluten flour and diastatic malt powder. The test batch actually came out better because I under-baked the final batch by a few minutes (darn!). They looked done on top, but...not quite. They were still really yummy with salami and soft cheese, or with lox and capers. Here are some photos of how I made the bagels:

Here's the sponge before (above) and after (below) rising.

And here I've added the flour...

...Only to have it explode all over my kitchen when I accidentally turned my mixer up too high!

Here are some balls of dough kneaded and ready to be shaped into rings:

And here they are as bagels!
Boiling bagels...
Here are some shots of the final product! Mmmmm, bagels...

Overall, I enjoyed making the bagels but I don't know if I'd make them again because they were an awful lot of work. The mini-batch was more manageable, so maybe I'd make a half recipe for a special occasion sometime...my mixer seemed to be able to better handle a smaller amount of dough anyway.

I also made brioche. For this recipe, PR offers three options, all with different amounts of butter. Since we had another rich bread coming up (Casatiello, which I'll post about next week), I decided to go for the Poor Man's Brioche, which has the least amount of butter (thought it's still pretty rich!). I thought the bread was buttery enough to eat plain, and it was also delicious with jam or Nutella. We gobbled up both loaves in no time, and I will definitely be making this one again sometime! I would also like to see what it's like as a pie/tart crust, as PR says this is a possible use for the recipe. I didn't get any shots of the "process" for this one, but here's a photo of the finished product (the slice of bread is spread with Nutella).

I'm sending this post off to this week's YeastSpotting, a weekly round-up of yeast-y goodies. I've gotten so many great ideas from this round up...I definitely recommend checking it out! New round ups go up on Fridays.