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Montreal Bagels, Challah, Malt and more

goldman@betterbaking.com
Mon, 2 Sep 2002 07:49:54 -0400
v102.n039.2
Hi fellow bakers

I AM a Montrealer and a professional baker. I live seeing the passion for 
bread baking in this digest - It is inspiring.

My own Montreal bagel recipe is authentic - I have 3 decades of watching 
them made and testing out my recipe against purchased bags of them to 
attest to their authenticity. The recipe should be at my website 
www.Betterbaking.Com and certainly in my first cookbook. You can also find 
it in archives of Eating Well Magazine where my bagel feature appeared as 
well as in the New York Times Archived recipes of 1987 - when I did a 
feature on Montreal bagels for them.

My first cookbook, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking (Doubleday 1997 - 
third printing) is your best source for ALL ABOUT BAGELS. It also is 
where.....  I have about 8 pages alone written on the differences in yeast 
- instant, active, rapid, quick, bread machine and fresh! It IS confusing. 
Instant or bread machine is about the best dry yeast for home bakers but it 
is POTENT. SO, use less and allow for more conservative rises. I love 
instant yeast - but fresh yeast is about THE BEST for breads...especially 
challah (which yes, of course, I have alot of those recipes too - what else 
could you expect in a Jewish baking book) - because it makes challah fairly 
spring to life under your hands. I make an apple challah around this time 
of year - as well as the trad. sweet one.

I write more about yeast and bagels in my second cookbook, The Best of 
Betterbaking.Com which will be out in october - although it is being 
ordered now. I think the dry yeast market is confusing and people need to 
know more.

As for malt - I get mine from local bagel bakeries OR simply order it from 
a bakery wholesaler found in any city's Yellow pages. They will sell to 
anyone if you pick up and pay cash. You might have to purchase a lot (10 
pounds or more) but it lasts forever and non diastatic is fine. Malted milk 
powder is not the same.

I also sell malt via my distributor, Golda's Kitchen.com - They stock all 
the ingredients I like for my visitors to my website - at their retail 
online store. Malt powder, special vanilla, my own designed rolling pins 
which my friend, Beth Hensperger, an amazing bread baking author herself - 
endorsed to the tune of orders for 80 pins! Golda's is also a canadian 
operation so it is very good value for american bakers.

My cookbook also has New York Bagels - and describes the differences 
between all bagels. Montreal bagels are smaller, have honey in the kettle 
water, and NO SALT in the dough. We also have a loose fire code and thus 
nicely banked wood fires are what are used to bake our bagels (although a 
home oven and my recipe will reproduce superb montreal bagels). Montreal 
bagels also have malt and oh yes - amazing Canadian bread flour in them.

American bagels vary - some have malt, some do not. They are larger, they 
use american bread flour, the kettle water is not sweetened usually, they 
can use rack ovens, sometimes steam rack ovens (thus no kettling) and gas 
or electric (not wood) ovens. The dough always has salt and they are seeded 
more modestly than montreal bagels. Montreal bagels come sesame or poppy - 
no blueberry, sundried tomato chip or butterscotch chevre ripple. We are 
purists here. :-)

Happy baking  -
marcy goldman
head baker and editor
www.betterbaking.com
1997 - 2002
5th Year Anniversary Issue (sept 10)