another cooking journey

Since my cinnamon bun adventure turned out so well,  I figured, I'd consult my Vegan Brunch cookbook again and try my hand at making bagels from scratch.
While it was still fun, I had a harder time with the bagels than the buns. There are fewer steps, and it takes a lot less time, but you'll see where I slipped up as I take you along my cooking journey...

 

First you put the basic mixture (yeast, flour, yadda, yadda) in a bowl and knead the dough. This is another one of those recipes where flour will be your best friend because sticky dough = bad baking experience. 

 

Then, like normal, you let the dough rise--this one sat for about an hour, covered by plastic wrap. 

 

I used parchment paper to turn out my dough, cut it into 12 pieces and molded them into little balls. If the dough is sticky, get out the flour!

 

Then you gently make a hole in the dough ball and shape it into a bagel. If you please, you can then dip it in sesame seeds or poppy seeds or what have you.

Then you boil a huge pot of water and drop a few bagels in at a time. The recipe said the dough would float to the surface of the water, but mine didn't. I can't image this altered the quality of the bagels significantly. 

 

Where I really went wrong was when I stuck the bagels in the oven. I didn't spray the pan (I know, I know!), so the bagels were basically superglued to the baking sheets I used. This made for a fun 20 minutes or so of scraping. Also, my overly-sensitive smoke detector went off just as I was pulling them out of the oven, which scared the bejesus out of me. But, these things happen, and now I know for future bagel baking to spray the pan! Above is a pile of the few undamaged bagels. Now, who has some cream cheese?

how i spent my saturday morning

What's more cozy than the smell of cinnamon buns baking in the oven? And what's more satisfying than the feeling that you made them yourself--and I don't mean cracking open a tube of Pillsbury and squirting on some frosting. 
This morning, I embarked on a journey full of flour, cinnamon and kneading. And the result was cinnamon buns. I haven't tried them yet, but they smell fantastic. This isn't exactly fashion-related, but whatever. I created something in my kitchen and feel the need to share it with the world.

Step one: you make dough and knead it for a little while. Some people report kneading to be a pain, but I think it can be quite relaxing.

Step two: after creating a mixture of brown and white sugar and ground cinnamon, you spread it on the flat dough, add some butter and roll the whole thing up. If you ever try this recipe, use LOTS of flour. The dough can get really sticky, which gets majorly frustrating.

Step three: After slicing the roll into individual pieces, you place them on a baking sheet and let them hang out for a little while before sticking them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Step four: You have cinnamon rolls! Hooray!

The recipe I used came from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch cookbook. While I'm not vegan (and I admit, I used regular milk in this recipe), I am vegetarian and try to use vegan recipes when possible. Even if you aren't vegetarian, this is a really cool cookbook, so check it out!