Bags Of Bagels

I blame Ai for this, I really do. If you follow her blog, you'll have noticed that she has been baking some rather delicious looking bagels over the past couple of months. Her photos of her glossy, nicely-shaped bagels brought on a rather inexplicable bout of industry in my kitchen - I simply had to make some bagels for myself!

There are plenty of recipes out there in Googleworld, so I won't write one down here. My friend Deco Reco  swears by Smitten Kitchen's recipe, which takes two or three days to prepare. I'm much to impatient for that, so I prefer to use this recipe from The Sophisticated Gourmet as a guideline for quantities and times, with the addition of a second proof after shaping the bagels. 

The most fun part, I think, is the shaping. Some people roll the dough into little cylindrical tubes, then join the ends neatly together (like so). I prefer to roll it into a ball, then poke a flour-covered finger through the middle, and twirl it around my finger a few times to enlarge the hole (scroll down to about the middle). More fun than you imagine. 

So far, I've made bagels with rye flour, with 'farmhouse' flour (with added grains and seeds), with plain white bread flour, with cranberries and walnuts, with caraway seeds, sesame seeds, sea salt, and even fancy grey sea salt. Whatever the flavour, they've all tasted wonderful fresh out of the oven, with butter melting through it. I also like them with some mascarpone and honey, for when I'm being all hedonistic. They've all been a lot chewier than the shop-bought versions, and you get the satisfaction of people looking all impressed and stuff when they find out you've made your own bagels. There's a good reason to make your own bagels if ever you needed one. 

Dark Chocolate, Walnut and Mascarpone Brownies

I've recently embarked on a shy, fairly chaste romance with mascarpone, replacing cream cheese with it, and plopping in on sliced mangoes. It's creamier, and richer than cream cheese, and doesn't leave you with that slight sour tang you sometimes get from cream cheese. It was all good, clean fun - until I spied Ms. Humble's recipe for chocolate mascarpone brownies (with that seductive layer of chocolate ganache), beckoning me over with a salacious wink. 

Chocolate AND mascarpone? I'm fairly certain that it's illegal, and just like all those other things that are bad for you, it's also irresistibly attractive. And I am not known for my willpower, so I crumbled and gave in to temptation. Just go ahead and stick a third chin on me already!

Of course, since I can never leave well enough alone, I had to go ahead and fiddle with the recipe. While I love chocolate, I tend to find most brownies almost too cloying sweet. So I replaced the semi-sweet chocolate in the original recipe with dark chocolate instead - the 85% cocoa content in it provides a slight bitterness that helps counterbalance all that sugar. The ganache also features a hidden surprise - dark chocolate infused with chilli, for a spicy little kick at the end. There was a bag of delicious Polish walnuts languishing in my cupboard, so a handful of those got thrown in as well, just to add a bite of crunch to it. I like my brownies nutty. 

Dark Chocolate, Walnut and Mascarpone Brownies 

adapted from Not So Humble Pie

Ingredients

225gm unsalted butter

100gm dark chocolate, finely chopped (or preferred chocolate)

250gm granulated sugar

120gm cocoa powder

125gm mascarpone cheese

3 eggs

100gm plain flour

2 tsps vanilla extract (optional, I omitted it)

pinch of salt

50gm walnuts, roughly chopped (optional)

Directions

- Preheat oven to 165 degrees Celsius, and prepare your pan with non-stick spray.

- Melt butter in a saucepan, over low heat, then add the chocolate and remove it from the heat. Let the chocolate melt a little, then stir till smooth. 

- Sift cocoa into the chocolate/butter mixture, add sugar and salt, then set it aside while you get on with the next step.

- Beat the mascarpone, eggs and vanilla extract (if using) in a mixing bowl, on medium speed until smooth. 

- Carefully pour the chocolate/butter mixture into the bowl, and mix until no streaks remain. 

- Fold the flour in the batter, and then add the walnuts if you're using them. Pour the batter into your pan, and spread it out evenly, then bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

- Allow the brownies to cool, then prepare the ganache.

Chilli Dark Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients 

170gm chilli infused dark chocolate, finely chopped (I used this from Sainsburys, but you can use other chocolate if you prefer)

85ml whipping cream

25gm unsalted butter

Directions

- Place the chocolate into a heat safe bowl. Using a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer over medium heat, then pour it over the chocolate. Allow the mixture to stand for a minute, then stir it until smooth.

- Add butter, a little at a time, and keep stirring until smooth. 

- Release the brownies from the pan, and place on a cutting board or serving plate. Pour the ganache over it, spreading it evenly with a spatula (I just used a knife since I wasn't so bothered about it looking smooth). Let the ganache set - this may take a few hours - then slice it up and serve!

There you go, a two inch square of heart attack! Serve it with some vanilla ice-cream if you're feeling super-decadent.