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What is a bagel?
A bagel is traditionally a hefty, dense ring of somewhat bland tasting
bread. But with different flours, such as rye and wheat, bagels take
on different tastes. Add raisins, blueberries, strawberries, dates
and nuts for a dessert-like bagel. Add veggies, onions, poppy seeds,
peanut butter and other ingredients for an infinite variety of taste
combinations.
The popularity of bagels is as much attributed to what you can put on
them and in them as to what you add to the unbaked dough. They are
the perfect vehicles for spreads. Most often spreads consist of a
cream cheese base that may be mixed with salmon or lox, fruits,
vegetables and spices -- in myriad combinations. There are regional
differences in how bagels are made, and ongoing arguments about what
constitutes the "perfect" bagel and best spread combination.
The traditional bagel sandwich consists of cream cheese, lox, a slice
of onion and a slice of tomato. But that's only the beginning. Bagel
sandwiches are so popular that bagel bakeries often list 40 or 50
sandwich variations on their menus. then there are mini bagels and
bialys. For catered bagel brunches, there are 3- to 6- pound bagels
that are filled and then cut into pie shaped wedges.
Bagels have a lot going for them. They don't crush or smash while
being carried; they don't melt from the heat or suffer from freezing.
They're at their optimum goodness when fresh and hot from out of the
oven, but they're delicious, too, even when frozen, thawed and
toasted. If they get stale, they can be made into bagel chips or
ground into bread crumbs. They're an all-around convenient, no-waste
food product that is well suited to today's health conscious
consumers.
The plain water bagel is low in calories compared to other traditional
breakfast foods. Estimates as to the number of calories in a bagel
differ, and its size is a factor. Most bagels weigh 4 to 5 ounces,
and tally up to between 150 to 200 calories. The addition of nuts,
raisins, berries, chocolate chips and other ingredients will add to
the count. I saw a cracked wheat bagel in a health food store that
had 320 calories. Some bagels weigh 6 ounces. Mini bagels may be 1 to
3 ounces, so the calories vary accordingly.
It's the toppings and spreads that shoot up the calorie tab, though
this can be tempered by using light and fat-free cheeses, and spreads
without cheese. A whopping dollop of cream cheese slapped onto each
half of a bagel (2 tablespoons of cream cheese have 10 grams of fat
and 100 calories) will wipe out the innocence of the plain bagel. Two
tablespoons of regular preserves (there are sugar free varieties,
too) can add on 50 calories but no fat. And peanut butter? Well, you
would rather not know, if you're counting calories and grams of fat.
Still, you're better off with bagels than with a doughnut, which has
176 calories and 11 grams of fat. A homemade bran muffin (not the
giant restaurant or bakery size) has 112 calories and 5 grams of fat.
A large croissant has 300 calories, 17 grams of fat and 85 milligrams
of cholesterol. The butter will do it every time. There is no butter
in a bagel recipe. Only egg bagels have cholesterol; even that can be
eliminated using egg whites instead of a whole egg (or 1/4 cup liquid
egg substitute). But a sweet roll with nut and raisin Danish filing,
and icing, can top them all with about 360 calories, 2.3 grams of fat
and 82.2 milligrams of cholesterol.
The Best Bagels are made at home Donna Z. Meilach ISBN 1-55867-131-5
Carolyn Shaw April 1996 From: Homenet Cook
Servings: 1 text file
About Bagels Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads
The History of Recipes
It is quite feasible to follow the history of transcribed cooking instructions back into the far past, certainly as far back into recorded history as the Egyptians, and quite possibly further than that. Interesting though that is, mostly, these early cook books were just very basic hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing meals.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe found, according to historians is a collection of ancient tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel `blissful`. As we move into The time of the romans 25BC a man called Apicius created a few documents detailing recipes prepared by the Romans. In his scrolls, he describes how the meals of wealthy Romans were separated into hors d`oeuvre, main course and dessert, a very modern way of dining. This early Roman chef informs us how the ancient chefs were skilled in the use of many spices, including a few you will know for example bay, mint and dill. Moving on, we have a couple of cookery books from the fourteenth century - one book entitled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary named `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are somewhat misleading tho`, these are unconnected to the indian food that we all know today, but instead recipes for the types of meals cooked for the rich and powerful of that time. Later, in the 15th century, knights returning from the crusades brought us a variety of foods, spices and herbs from the Middle-East, including spices like coriander, parsley, and basil. These new foods and tastes caused a torrent in recipe manuscripts, most of which are now in private collections. By the time we get to the twentieth century, cooking publications are highly popular due to increased literacy, people having increased free time and having more money. Like it or not, the introduction of TV brings us TV cooks and the spin-off recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, permitting us all to access thousands of recipes like the ones you can find on this web site. |
We hope you enjoy this About Bagels recipe.
