happy birdycake: Bagels

My one problem with baking is that it is so disappointing when you've taken so long to follow all the steps in a recipe, you are anxiously waiting to sample your goodies, and the end result ends in a ... Ehhh. Just so so.
You don't want that!!!
You want deliciousness, you want applause at the table, you want mmmmmmm.
I'll tell you, there is ALOT of crap recipes out there. There is also a whole lotta crap cookbooks too. (Seems that now anyone and everyone wants their 5 minutes of print fame.)
Me? I leave the baking to the experts... The French. YES, the French! You've heard me right. The baguettes and croissants fresh from a French boulangerie can bring me to tears. And don't get me started about a pain au chocolat. I love bread... I'm not afraid to admit that, (or the tears.)
So back to crappy recipes . I would say this one, which called for baking for 30 minutes at 450* resulted in a more pretzel like bagel. Had I not peeked in the oven 15 minutes in, it would have resulted in major tears from honeypie and charcoal lumps for brunch . I would be sure that none of my friends "bubbe's" would in anyway be associated with these.
I think I will stick with some of my true and reliable books like "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart, "Nancy Silverton's breads from the La Brea bakery" by Nancy Silverton and the really great "Baking" by James Peterson, which is brilliant.
And just in case you were curious...
There are squagels (a square bagel. visited 'cosi' ever? ), flagels (a flat bagel) and "Bagel" is actually a Yeshivish term for sleeping 12 hours straight... e.g. "i slept a bagel last night!". A term used to refer to the fact that the bagel dough has to rest for at least 12 hours between mixing and baking... And can tell you I surely did not do that.

For now... Here's some pictures of our first bagel adventure.