It’s been a while since I’ve updated much here, but there has been so much to add and I’ve been a bit overwhelmed…
For the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus on three important ingredients in the bagel-making process.
First is the oil. Those of you who spoke to me in the early days might have heard that I was having a hard time finding a good bagel oil. I wanted something that was not too far away (that ruled out Olive oil), but that could handle the high temperatures of a bagel oven without becoming horrible. I’d settled on Canola for its ability to handle heat and for its proximity, but had some serious misgivings – high-temperature processing, heavy pesticide use, GMO crops…
It took me some searching, but I found Highwood Crossing in Alberta. The Canola oil is cold-pressed, unfiltered, non-GMO, and ridiculously delicious. some of our recent customers have been subjected to me passing them an oil-soaked piece of paper to smell. It’s delicious and smells divine. I had no idea that canola could smell that good (like wildflowers).
Second is the eggs. This was an easier sell. There is roughly one whole egg used for each dozen and a half of bagels, so I can afford to get great eggs. Guenter Rieger of Rieger Farms in Armstrong brings me boxes of organic, free-range eggs every two weeks. They are fantastic and very local.
Third is the sourdough starter. This is another small way that my bagels differ from those in Montreal. Each batch is started with a significant sourdough starter (1.5 kg for each batch of 9 dozen bagels). I just really like the flavour that sourdough adds.
Have a great week!
