Bagels, Birthday and Goats give Poppie a melt down.

Booboo and I made our first experimental batch of bagels.  We have been thinking it is something that we would like to add to their line of baked goods.  We made up a regular size batch per the recipe.  We looked at many recipes until we found one we thought would be a likely candidate. I had been looking at recipes for well over a year on my own.  I had actually tired one about 15 months ago but was disappointed with the outcome so had not really pursued it until Booboo and I did it together.  I had learned from the first foray that I did not want to use baking soda again in my boiling water.  I had seen a piece on "How its made" about the Amish being the only commercial makers of bagels that still used lye in their water.  I was fascinated so had looked and looked to find a recipe for the lye to water ratio.  I spent alot of time looking and was shocked to find on recipe where the recipe writer instructed the reader to go to Lowes and by "lye" from the Drano department.  I went on in my searched figured if the writer didn't know that you were supposed to use food grade lye they probably didn't know how to use it.  I finally found an old recipe that was from a bakery site, so my water would be safe and to standard.

Booboo mixed up the dough and kneaded it.  We let it rise, which was probably a mistake so won't let it rise 2 hours like most doughs again,  only 20 minutes next time.  We rolled them out in the manner of good bakeries.  We rolled out our snake to twice the width of out hands and then circled it around our hand and rolled the snake together.  They worked out great.  I had tired to make them last time in a different manner and they came apart in the water, so success this time, with new instruction from another recipe and maker.  Love the knowledge you can get on the Internet.  I had also tired cutting them like donuts last time, not a good idea, and I had tried making a bun and putting hole in it and stretching it, not good either.  So success this time was rewarding.  Booboo struggled a little with her technique but will improve.  Next time I will make 8 out of the recipe, like it said, I thought the dough balls looked big so I cut them down and made 10, not a good idea. We boiled them in our lye water, a minute each side then Booboo sprinkled sesame seeds on them and we baked them 20 minutes at 425.  They came out of the oven with nice color and wonderful looking for the first try.  We will make changes and improvements but they are a success.  We took them to Grandma as it was her birthday and we were invited to a party for her.  She and Grandpa were impressed.  They said they were tender and chew which is what a bagel is to be like.  yay.

We got home from the Grands to find the goats in the garden, a blessing that it is not up and not all planted.  Poppie was mad, he had left the gate open.  They had been in the grain room as Poppie hadn't gotten the second gate done.  We got them all in the pen, Poppie went to the grain room to check the damage and there lay Carmel in a little sad lump he was laying with his neck at an odd angle under his body.  The herd had apparently stomped him.  He was breathing but it upset Poppie to see him suffering.  He couldn't even reached down and touch him he just walked away and blew a gasket.  He was mad at the goats, he was mad at the world, he beat up his motorcycle and the girls began to cry.  I ended up yelling at him and he eventually began to cool down but was still angry.  He finally walked away.  I went over to pick up the little guy and try to see if I could put Carmel out of his misery. I picked him up and low and behold he cried out and stood up, for some reason he wasn't hurt he just was in position that he could get out of and had lay there real still, maybe he had given up.  We got him up gave him some water and food, later we put him in the pen with the little goats.  We did the milking and went in the house.  The satellite man had come earlier in the day so we had tv and didn't have to watch the same recordings over and over again...... tomorrow.