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Okay, so I took the summer off from BBA due to a full calendar of events. My last course of action, before doing so, was to tackle the bagels! My whole family is crazy about bagels and were very excited with this challenge.
I wound up doubling the recipe. (Crazy I know!) See the thing was, I got this notion of making baskets and delivering them to neighbors and the in-laws! The total yield was 52 bagels. 25 sun dried tomato garlic parmesan and 27 cinnamon raisin. We had one casualty along the way, during the cooking process, so only 51 were fully completed.

Here are some the bagels as there were being set up to proof overnight.



Now I have to say, I wasn't fully aware of what I was getting myself into. My house is kept on the cooler side, thanks to my darling husband. Needless, it took forever the night before to get my starters to rise. I was up until the wee hours of the morning. The next day, was one of the warmest days we had all summer, and of course there I am over a "cauldron" boiling bagels & tossing them in the oven! I wish the heat was the only unanticipated occurrence. The thing was, I thought I was making mini bagels. I mean they were small when I shaped them & only slightly larger the next day. Add a boiling pot of water into the mix and suddenly my mini bagels were full blown, full sized bagels! Please note that I am not complaining, as I am a true blue bagel lover, but boy what a surprise!!

Here's a pic of my little lovelies as they came out of the "bath". See how they increased in size!


I brushed the cinnamon raisin ones with butter and sprinkled them with
Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle from Pampered Chef.

The sun dried tomato-garlic-parm bagels got topped with cheese, minus 6 that were left plain.


Finally the crumb!
(I'm working on the whole photography thing!)


There's a quote by Beatrice & Ira Freeman which says, "The bagel (is) an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis". This does not holds true for Peter Reinhart's bagels. They are wonderfully chewy and dare I say moist, for as moist as a bagel can be. I wasn't really sure about the cinnamon raisin ones, but once they got a chance to cool completely & set up, (the butter seemed to drag it out), they wound up being terrific! We found them simply wonderful!! They were a huge hit all around & I can't wait to make them again!!