omg bagels!

A friend of mine gave me a great excuse to bake (like I need it): the Blogger Bake Off. It's a charity drive where bloggers bake bread, share recipes, donate to Breadline Africa, and encourage others to do likewise.

So I took the opportunity to bake my first batch of bagels and I'm pretty darn pleased with how they came out. I wasn't certain how far to stretch out the holes, so there was some variance, but they tasted great with some cream cheese, tomatoes and fresh basil. They also lasted surprisingly well. Most of my homemade loaves last only a day or two before they start going stale (unlike store-bought breads which have agents to prevent them from going stale), but the bagels lasted a good three or four days. At that point they started needing toasting.

Go on, bake bread -- give dough.