Who says good bagels are dead?

I have been reading death notices for the upper West Side H&H Bagels in New York City. When I lived at 86th & Broadway at Bretton Hall, it was across the street. It was open 24 hours, and something was always coming out of the oven. We felt the front of the Plexiglas display to see which one was warm.
My Sunday ritual involved a couple of H&H bagels, a small container of their pre-mixed cream cheese and lox or herbs and cream cheese, and a Sunday New York Times. If I was feeling particularly affluent, I went to Zabar's or Fairway down Broadway and got lox sliced so thinly you could read the Times through it.
Here on the West Coast, I have had very few bagels that fill the bill. I also understand H&H went downhill after I left.
My brother got me into the bagel-making mode about a decade ago, even showing me a finger-twirling trick. Once I had good sourdough going, it was a matter of experimenting to get a proper facsimile of a real pumpernickel bagel. These days, I use agave syrup in place of malt syrup, add spelt flour, throw in leftover sourdough pancake batter, etc. In other words, I play fast and loose, but as long as I adhere to the basics, they are infinitely better than anything available here.

My Pumpernickel Bagels

To 1 pint sourdough starter, add:
1 pint lukewarm water (105-110 degrees F. max)
2 tsp. of British malt syrup (1 tsp. sugar, or 2 tsp. honey or agave syrup)
2 cups unbleached flour
1/4 tsp. salt
Put the ingredients one at a time in a large mixing bowl, beating after each addition.
Add one cup of flour at a time and beat, adding flour and/or water until it's the consistency of thick pancake batter. Put 2 cups of starter back in a jar, let sit on counter for a couple of hours, then refrigerate until the next use (try to use it once a week. If you can't, stir in 1/2 tsp. sugar and a little water and flour to feed the yeast every 10 days).

In a small saucepan on the stove, briefly cook 1 cup bulghur or cracked wheat in 2 cups lightly salted water, adding 1/4 c. dark molasses after it boils and the cereal absorbs most of the water. It should be the consistency of gruel---add a little water if it thickens too much. Cool.
Add the following ingredients to the remainder of the starter in the bowl:
2 cups lukewarm water
1 tsp. salt
2 T. oil
1-1/2 teaspoons granulated yeast (SAP is best), or one packet, stirred into 1/4 cup lukewarm water + 1 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup gluten flour (if you don't have it, just use additional unbleached)
1-1/2 cups dark rye flour (I prefer Bob's Red Mill)
1 cup whole wheat flour
Cooled 'gruel' of bulghur or cracked wheat
2 tsp. caraway seeds

To top the bagels, 1 tsp. each poppy, flax, and sesame seeds
Optional - dried garlic bits, dried onion

Beat the batter well with a wooden spoon to get the gluten working; stir in the cooked, cooled bulghur/cracked wheat, then gradually keep adding flour to make a good stiff dough, working it with a spoon until it forms a ball in bowl. Sprinkle flour on the ball, then knead, adding flour a little at a time. When the dough is cohesive and doesn't take any more flour readily (knead it about 5 minutes), form a smoothly rounded ball in bowl, spray it with Pam, and cover it with a non-fuzzy towel in a warm place. Let it double. Grease your hands with salad or olive oil. Pinch off apricot-sized balls of dough, roll a round ball, and pierce center all the way through with your index finger. Twirl the dough like a hula hoop, keeping your index finger in the air, until the hole in the center is at least 1-1/2 inches across. It's fun, and you'll get the knack in no time.

Put the bagels on a greased cookie sheets; let rise 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450 degrees, and put a large cake pan half full of water in the bottom of the oven. Fill a large, wide kettle 3/4 full with warm water + 3 T. malt syrup, sugar, or agave syrup and bring to a boil on top of the stove (some people also add 1/2 tsp. baking soda). Carefully slide a few bagels at a time into the water until the surface is covered but they don't touch, 4 or so at a time, depending on the size of the kettle. After one or more minutes in the boiling water, flip them to cook the other side one more minute. Respray the cookie sheets, sprinkle with cornmeal and sprinkle the top of the bagels with poppy or sesame seeds, and/or onion or garlic bits, if desired. Bake each pan in very hot oven (425-450) until golden, about 10-12 minutes --- watch 'em. Have a pan or water in the oven, or spray them a couple of times (not with an electric oven with a light bulb --- don't ask.)
Serve with lox and cream cheese, or nosh 'em plain, if you wish.
These freeze well; bag half-dozens and thaw and toast as needed.
Have fun, and it's really not as hard as this recipe may sound.

Umm...umm..Give it up for ice cream

My birthday present was a Cuisinart ice cream maker. Mom asked what I wanted this year, and that was it. The sugar-free ice cream available in stores usually has aspartame plus stabilizers. Although there are a few brands with Splenda, those with lower fat content are especially nasty, as they taste like chalk or are full of air, or both.
We found a Cuisinart ICE 21 on sale on Amazon.com, one of those with the tub you stash in the freezer.
The first two batches were disappointing. The main problem was the freezer's temperature --- our thermostat was set two years ago by my brother-in-law, who thought he was doing us a favor by saving electricity. No wonder things weren't keeping as long as they should. The first clue was an online posting that if the liquid inside the core of the tub is still sloshing around, it isn't cold enough to make ice cream. I turned the thermostat from around one and one-half to the halfway point, and the next batch was more like soft serve. It still needs to cure in the freezer, but it's about perfect in a half hour to 45 minutes.
The first batch may have been a little icy because I was basically making a sorbet. I used a can of low-fat coconut milk plus about a cup of fresh pineapple, a ripe banana, 2/3 cup of erythritol, and 2 T. agave syrup. The immersion blender was used to combine everything well. It was still pretty liquid after it was 'frozen,' but it became really hard in the freezer. I reblended it a few days later with juice and it made a creamier iced fruit drink.
The next attempt was cherry vanilla ice cream made with fat free half and half, sweetened with erythritol and fortified with Eggbeaters, which is pasteurized and presents no salmonella danger. Once again, the core wasn't cold enough and it became a bit icy when cured in the freezer. However, the texture improved when it was reblended and refrozen. The cherries used were canned unsweetened pie cherries. I cooked the juice first with the erythritol and added a packet of unflavored gelatin. When I used the immersion blender, some of the cherries stayed nearly whole, and while I appreciated the tart contrast, not many others would.
To make the first batch after turning up the thermostat, I reduced the amount of mix, filling it about halfway. This time I had 2/3 of a pint of half-and-half, the real thing purchased accidently by Mom because the carton looked just like the fat-free version. Since it was only 5 percent, I blended it with an equal amount of fat-free half-and-half and made fresh strawberry ice cream. I used about 2/3 cup of xylitol; (a pound package of it came free in an order of five pounds of erythritol from Emerald Forest). Once again, I used an envelope of unflavored gelatin, and this time I added 1 T. honey plus 1 T. agave, plus about 1/4 cup of Eggbeaters and one tsp. of vanilla. I used about 8 strawberries, and blended it using the immersion blender, leaving some sizeable chunks of berry. It came a little more than half-way up in the cannister, but expanded to the top as it froze. It was creamier, and had the mouth feel of real ice cream. The leftovers made an incredible milkshake several days later.
The most recent batch was dessert for Sunday dinner. I hit on a really creamy version, the perfect end to our picnic on the lawn under the big market umbrella.
This batch included about 9 ounces (two-thirds of a carton) of Tillamook non-fat sour cream, an equal amount (two-thirds of a can) of evaporated milk, plus about 2/3 cup of xylitol, 2 T. of agave syrup, 1 tsp. of vanilla, about eight fresh strawberries and 2 T. of homemade sugar-free blackberry jam. I didn't use Eggbeaters this time. However, I did use an envelope of unflavored gelatin nuked a short time with a little water. I used the immersion blender again, but this time there were few pieces of strawberry left, other than a few strands showing in the mix. Once again, it expanded as it froze, about doubling and turning into a creamy berry confection with soft-serve consistency. I put Mom's bowl in the freezer about 10 minutes as she finished her lunch, a tri-color penne pasta salad with multi-colored heirloom cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and green onion topped with leftover baked salmon on a bed of baby lettuce, with a fat-free balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
Talk about bliss. A couple of butterflies flitted across the lawn as we enjoyed a slight breeze under the shelter of our umbrella. We said we wished we could take a nap outdoors, then retreated indoors for a Sunday snooze. With a weekend including the Sternwheeler Days parade, playing a set of music at the high school reunion, taking photos at Gorge Blues & BBQ, and attending the Cowboy Breakfast, the peak of summer frenzy has arrived. Add the perfect weather, and our Sunday picnic was a much-needed respite, topped by a frozen berry delight.