Chili is always an intimidating thing for me to make due to people’s chili allegiances.  Similar to ribs, people have serious beliefs on what chili should be: beans, no beans, beef only, etc.  It can get a little crazy so I’m always a bit hesitant to make it for fear of causing a chili feud.

But it’s fall and it’s football season, and sometimes I just need chili.  So for the last poll, I posted only chili recipes, and then ended up making one that wasn’t even an option to vote for: buffalo.  Allow me to explain!  First, beef won and for chilis buffalo and beef can be used pretty much interchangeably.  Second, a commenter suggested I make buffalo instead of beef so it wasn’t really my idea to sabotage the poll (Hi Lauren!).  Third, buffalo is delicious, inexpensive, and underrated so I wanted to use it.

Buffalo chili really hit the spot.

Probably the best chili I've ever made.

This chili is spicy and has some intermediate elements to it like making your own chili powder.  The final product is amazing though and you can of course take some short cuts if you want like using canned black beans or pre-packaged chili powder.

You can fret about getting chili perfect, but at the end of the day it’s probably going to be pretty darn good regardless of what you do.

Buffalo and Black Bean Chili (Adapted from Bobby Flay’s recipe)
Makes enough to feed 6 very hungry people

Chili:
- 1/4 Cup olive oil
- 2 pounds buffalo (or beef) roast, trimmed of any large fat pieces and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- Salt, pepper, and a pinch of all-purpose flour
- 1 large red onion, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 Tablespoons chili powder (I made a blend of ancho and New Mexico chilis.)
- 1 Tablespoon ground cumin (roasted whole seeds are awesome)
- 1 bottle dark beer
- 2 Cups water (Bobby recommends chicken stock, but I think water makes the chili flavor really do all the talking.)
- 1 (28 ounce) can stewed, crushed tomatoes
- 4 chipotle peppers, diced (optional)
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 Cup dried black beans or 2 Cups cooked
- 1 lime, juice only
- Chips for dippin’

Cumin Cream:
- 1 Tablespoon toasted cumin seeds, crushed (you can use ground if that’s all you have)
- 1 Cup sour cream or creme fraiche
- Salt and pepper

Guacamole: (or avocado relish as Bobby calls it…)
- 2 avocados
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1 jalapeno, finely diced
- Lime juice
- Chopped cilantro
- Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
- Spice Grinder

If you just break this dish into parts, it isn’t all that hard.

Preparing the meat. A good 2 pound roast is the best for a dish like this.  You want there to be some fat throughout the meat which will make your meat really tender as it cooks.  Cut your roast into cubes and toss it lightly with flour and salt and pepper.

You don’t want the meat actually coated in flour.  You just want it to kind of dry out the meat a bit.  I used maybe 1 Tablespoon for the whole 2 pounds of meat.  You shouldn’t even be able to see the flour on the meat.  Hit it with a really good pinch of salt and pepper also.

Has some decent marbling on it.

Heat up your oil over high heat in a large pan with a lid.  You’re going to make the chili all in one pan.  Once your oil is hot, throw in all your meat and let it brown nicely on all sides for just a few minutes.  The goal here isn’t to cook the meat, it’s just to brown it a bit and get some flavors going in the pan.

If you have little brown bits stuck to the pan, that’s a good thing!  After a few minutes, remove all your meat and set it aside.  Take your pan off the heat until you’re ready to make your chili so all the bits of flavor in the pan don’t actually burn.  Don’t wash your pan though!

Pretty much rare.

Making the Chili Powder.  I think making your own chili powder can add a lot of personality to the dish.  For my version I used two different kinds of chiles: The New Mexico Chile and the Ancho Chile.  Neither of them are particularly spicy, but they have some good flavor.

I love these guys like family.

To make the powder, you just need to dry these guys out a bit more.  Split each pepper in half (remove the seeds and stems) and roast them in a 200 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes.  Then let them cool for a few minutes.  They should be very crunchy after that.

Then just give them a whirl in your spice grinder and you’ll have really flavorful chili powder!

Slightly different colors and flavors.

Obviously, you can make this earlier in the day or even days in advance if you are crunched for time.  It will keep in an airtight container for awhile.

Other ingredients. It’s probably a good idea to get all your other ingredients ready as well before you start building the chili.

You'll want these guys also.

Not pictured are beans.  I used some dry beans which I cooked according to the package (soaking the night before and boiling in slightly salted water.)  You could definitely use canned though if you want.  We’ll add in the beans at the very end of the chili.

Starting the chili. Remember that pan that you cooked the meat in?  Get it back on the heat.  You want there to be about 4 Tablespoons of oil in the pan so depending on how much oil your meat used and how much fat it gave off, you might need to add or remove some oil from the pan.  I just kind of eyeballed it and ended up adding another Tablespoon of oil.

Next add your red onions and start to cook them down.  After a few minutes add your garlic to the mix.  Keep a close eye on this so it doesn’t burn.  After another minute or so add all your chili powders and cumin!  I also tossed in a bit of cayenne for some heat, but it might have been overkill!

This will make a dark and mysterious paste-like thing.

Intense flavors!

It will smell really strong which is awesome.  Next, add your full bottle of beer.  It will hiss and steam and smell even better.

Open a beer for you.  You deserve it.

Cook it down. Stirring pretty steadily, let the beer cook down in your onions and chili for about 10 minutes.  It should reduce by about half.

Adding everything else. Once it has cooked down a bit more, add your buffalo/beef back to the mix and then add all your other ingredients except the beans.

Give it a good stir and bring it to a simmer.

The simmer is on.

Let this cook down on low heat, covered, for about 45 minutes.  Give it a stir every 15 minutes or so.

Note: If you look at Bobby’s original recipe it says to add 5 Cups of liquid.  If I would have done that, I would’ve made buffalo soup.  Basically, I’d recommend adding enough water to just barely cover your meat and veggies.

The Condiments.  The condiments for this dish are optional, but I think they were a nice touch.  For the Creme Fraiche, you could substitute sour cream, but just stir in a Tablespoon or so of cumin and stick it back in the fridge until you need it.

Meanwhile make this!

For the “Avocado relish” also known as guacamole, mix everything up in a bowl!

And this!

Once your chili has cooked for about 45 minutes, uncover it and add your beans and continue to cook it for another 15 minutes or so until it is nice and thick.  And as with most things: Taste it! What does it need?  More heat?  More salt?  Adjust it accordingly.

Serve it with a big scoop of avocado and cumin cream with lots of chips for dipping!

Some serious comfort food.

This is just one of those meals where you feel complete after eating it.  It’s so perfect for a rainy day when you just want to curl up on the couch and eat some comfort food, but it’s equally good for pleasing a football watching crowd!

So while I’m no chili-officianado, I know what thing:  This chili is good.  And if you’re in need of some chili love, this recipe will provide it.

Buying fresh herbs always stresses me out.  I feel like they are pretty essential in some dishes and really add a ton of flavor that’s sometimes hard to replicate with dried herbs.  There are normally two problems when I buy them though.  First, they are incredibly expensive.  Most herbs are weeds.  Or trees.  How is it possible the 3/4 ounce costs $4?  This is not an illegal narcotic we’re talking about.  It’s rosemary.

Second, once I buy them, they always go bad before I can use all of them!  I’ve tried freezing them and drying them and all of that is fine, but I always find myself wanting fresh herbs a week later so I just buy more.  It’s a sick cycle.

The one herb that is definitely an exception to this rule is basil.  When I find it on sale, I buy as much of it as possible.  Take this box of basil that Whole Foods had on sale a few weeks ago.

I'm a sucker for basil sales.

Now that is a lot of basil!  It’s about 4 ounces to be exact.  Total cost: $5.  Keep in mind that mere feet from where I found this box of basil, you could purchase the very tiny 3/4 ounce of basil for $4.  You can do the math people.  I’m buying the big box!

Once I got home, I used the tiny amount I needed for a dish, which I think was chicken parmesan.  This left me with about 3.8 ounces of basil left.  Also known as still a lot of basil.

So, I decided to make a bunch of pesto out of it and freeze it!  The pesto maintains its flavor a lot better when frozen than just the raw basil leaves.  I think it might have something to do with the oil keeping it fresh.

Let’s make it!

Basic Pesto
Makes 1 Cup of pesto, or about 8 ice cubes worth

- 3 Cups basil, washed and dried.
- 1/4 Cup olive oil (might need a bit more or less)
- 1/8 Cup pine nuts
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
- Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
- Food Processor (I have the mini version.)

Now you could go crazy with this and add roasted red peppers or tons of other things, but I wanted to keep it simple for this version.

Basic stuff for pesto.

Making the pesto. Pesto is pretty straightforward to make.  Because I just have a mini food processor, I had to make mine in a few batches.  Just try to only add enough olive oil to make the ingredients form a paste.  You don’t want it to be too oily.

I had to do a few batches...

Give it a spin for a few seconds and it should be all mixed up.  I like to leave my pesto with some texture.  I want those little chunks of cheese and pine nuts throughout so I never over-process mine.  Just a few pulses will do the trick.

Smells good... trust me.

Freezing the pesto.  Once you have all your pesto made you can add it to ice cube trays!  Each of these trays is about 2 tablespoons of pesto which is, very conveniently, about one good serving.  So if you’re making dinner for two, use two cubes.  If you’re making dinner for two plus enough for leftovers the next day (as I always do), use four cubes!

Future deliciousness.

Let these freeze solid.  It’s best to just leave them in overnight.  Then you can pop the pesto cubes out and store them in a freezer bag.  If you have ice cube trays to spare you can keep your pesto in the tray I guess.  I wanted to return my try to its ice-making duties so I stored my cubes in a bag once they were frozen.

Artsy shot of the day.

Making Dinner. The advantages of these pesto cubes should be pretty obvious, but you can basically toss them into any warm dish and once they have melted down, you’ll have a very tasty pesto dinner!

For example, one night I cubed up some chicken, browned it in a few tablespoons of olive oil, and then tossed in a few cubes of pesto!

You can add these guys to lots of things.

I also made some pasta and once the chicken was completely cooked through and the pesto melted down and hot, I added the pasta to the dish for a super-fast but very flavorful pesto chicken dinner.

Still tastes great!

So the final score in battle herb usage is something like

Nick: 1, big-box-of-basil: 0, all other herbs: 23259.

But never mind that!  The point is that now you can capitalize on that huge box of basil that might be sitting, unloved, in your supermarket!

Also, I linked to this last Friday, but if you’re looking for a creative way to extend your fresh herbs for a few more days (or weeks?), check out the contraption that Jason made over at Well Done Chef.

Do you freeze anything in ice cubes to use later?

When I was a kid, in Wyoming, I played a lot of sports.  That may be because my dad liked sports, or because I was a competitive person, or because there was really nothing else to do in Wyoming.

Looking back, some sports had built-in moments that could crush a player’s confidence: spine-chilling moments.  These were plays where the weight of the whole team’s success would be on your shoulders.  The best example I can think of is taking a penalty kick in soccer.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with soccer, let me give you the breakdown.  For most penalties that happen within 18 yards of the goal, the attacking team gets to take a penalty kick.  This, more or less, should be a free goal.  A soccer goal is 24 feet wide and 8 feet high.  The penalty kick is taken from 12 yards out.  With just an average kick, there’s no way that even the best goalkeepers can stop it.

If you’ve ever seen a penalty kick, it might seem like it would be stressful to be the goalkeeper, but trust me, it’s not that bad.  All the stress is on the kicker because it should be a straightforward goal.

When you miss a penalty kick, it’s crushing.  More than once, I have missed the goal entirely.  It’s pretty sad to miss a 24 foot wide target…  I remember once being inconsolable for days because of a muffed game-winning penalty kick.

The only real way to restore confidence after one of these mishaps is to try again.  In fact, my coach had a rule that if you missed a penalty kick, you had to take the very next one.  My coach was a good guy.  And it worked.  Once you make one, you forget about the mess-ups.

What does this have to do with cooking? Confidence has a huge roll in the kitchen.  One of the top reasons I hear for why people don’t want to cook is that they don’t feel comfortable in the kitchen.   The entire meal is depending on them getting it right?  If you’re cooking for a crowd, it can be a lot of pressure.

But here’s the important thing to acknowledge:  You’re going to fail. At some point every soccer player has missed a penalty kick and every master chef has burned pasta.  It happens.  It’s happened to me.  And it will happen to you.  And I’m far from a master chef or professional soccer player, so I fail even more.  You probably will too.

Building Confidence. Given that you are going to have mishaps, I find it’s helpful to have little successes here and there to counteract the failures.  Think of these almost like practice.

Below are three things that I make a few times a week that are quick confidence builders.  They’ll also give you some building blocks for other dishes.

Practice with Pasta. Here’s an experiment:  When you dump your dried pasta into the boiling water next time, set a timer for one minute.  Take a strand of pasta out after each minute and taste it.  How does the texture change?  Is it saltier?  When is the texture just right?  When is it mushy?  What happens if you add more salt to the water?  Less? Olive oil? What happens if you start with less water? (McGee says it’s fine to start with less.  My grandmother would disagree.)

This will help you get really comfortable with pasta, but also it will get you into the habit of tasting dishes as you cook them which is maybe the most important thing you can do in the kitchen.  If the first time you taste a dish is when you are eating it off a plate, you might have some issues.

Master the Marinara. If I had to guess, I’d say Betsy and I ate some sort of pasta 8-10 times last month.  We probably have a serious pasta dish twice a week at least.  That said, I never opened a jar of spaghetti sauce.  Making a quick pasta sauce is a great way to practice some basic chopping and cooking techniques.  Not to mention, it’s an easy way to use leftovers and save money.

And making this quick pasta sauce takes almost exactly as long as it takes to cook pasta, so time isn’t a excuse here people.  Here’s my base:

Quick Pasta Sauce
For one pound of pasta

- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper

Optional ingredients: Parmesan cheese, basil, pine nuts, spinach, mushrooms, diced asparagus, kale, lemon juice, and the list goes on…

Start out by heating your oil over medium-high heat.  Add your onions and any other substantial veggies you might be using (except spinach, add that near the end).  Saute for a few minutes then add garlic and cook for a few seconds.  Next, add tomatoes.  Cook it down for 10 minutes.  Add cheese, basil, pine nuts, and/or lemon juice, and a good pinch of salt and pepper.

When your pasta is done, add it straight to your sauce and mix it all up!  Once you get the hang of it, you’ll never buy jarred pasta sauce again.

Dressing for Success.  Ok. My headers are getting a little out of control.  This isn’t about aprons.  It’s about salad dressing.  Instead of reaching for the bottled dressing, try this simple vinaigrette and then start experimenting with variations.  It’s really fast and you can customize it to your tastes.

Simple Vinaigrette
Enough for two large salads or 4 smaller salads

- 2 Tablespoons vinegar (balsamic or red wine work best)
- 1 Teaspoon mustard
- 6 Tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper

Optional ingredients: minced shallot, honey, dried herbs, molasses, pureed fruit, fruit preserves, tarragon, boiled egg, cornichons, get the idea?

Honestly, I never really measure this recipe when I make it.  I add some vinegar to a bowl, whisk in a bit of mustard, and then drizzle in olive oil while whisking until it looks like the right texture.  Then hit it with some salt and pepper! What’s the right texture?  Well, for once, I’m not going to show you. :)  You’ll have to try it.  Drizzle slowly and taste as you go!  No matter what, if you put this over some greens with a bit of cheese and some basic salad ingredients, it’ll be delicious.

You can do this. I have full faith that anyone who can read this post can figure out how to do any of the three things above.  Also, I really think that anyone who tries these three things, just once in awhile, can make huge strides in the kitchen.  Hollandaise sauce isn’t far from a vinaigrette.  Bolognese is just a few steps away from the quick pasta sauce.

And if you fail, no big deal!  Get back in the kitchen tomorrow and try it again!

Photo courtesy of Liber.

Betsy loves Tex-Mex.  And make no mistake that it ranks pretty highly for me also.  So a lot of times something in the Tex-Mex category is my default if I’m looking for a meal.  This is a recipe that I make every once in awhile and realized recently that I’ve never posted it.  What’s nice about it is that it’s actually pretty quick to make even though it tastes very elaborate.  The rice and bean mix uses mainly canned ingredients which speeds up cooking and you could even take some more shortcuts if you were pressed for time.

It’s also fun to stack layers of spicy rice and beans between freshly fried tostados.  Depending on your hunger you can stack as high as you want!

Yum.

I’ve made various versions of rice and beans before and I’m always experimenting with new ways to do it.  For this one I used whole spices which added a great flavor to the dish.  I think I’ll probably start doing that from now on.

Tostado Stackers
Serves four very easily

Rice and Beans:
- 1 1/2 Cups long grain rice (not instant)
- 1 (15 ounce) can black beans (or any bean that you want)
- 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 Tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 Teaspoon crushed red peppers
- 2 Teaspoons paprika
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil or butter
- Salt and pepper

- 12 corn tortillas (or as many as you want to stack I guess)
- Canola oil for frying
- 8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
- Sour Cream (optional)
- 2 Avocados, for guacamole
- Hot sauce (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
- Spice Grinder
- Deep fry thermometer

Making the rice and beans. You could add some sort of meat to this if you want, but honestly, I think it’s so flavorful from the spices that I don’t really miss the meat at all.  Plus it would add time onto your prep so for me this is a great vegetarian meal.

Good stuff.

If you are using whole spices, add them to a pan and toast them for 5 minutes over medium-high heat until they start to smell really good.  They should turn slightly tan, but don’t let them burn!

This will make your house smell good.

Then give them a quick whirl in your spice grinder.  The spices that I used for this version don’t make the rice and beans really spicy, but they do make it flavorful!  If you wanted it really spicy, you could up the red pepper a bit and also add some cayenne to the party.

Lots of flavor in this bowl.

To get your rice and beans started, heat your oil over medium-high heat in a large pan with a lid.  Add your onions and garlic and cook for just a few minutes until they are translucent.  Then add all your spices and stir well to combine.

Next stir in you rice.  Sort of like making a risotto, you want the rice to absorb some of the spices and get hot before you add your liquids.  Just stir everything together for about 30 seconds.  It will smell good and it should look like this.

Kind of like a risotto!

Next add your canned tomatoes and about 3 to 3 1/2 Cups water.  Depending on what kind of rice you use exactly, you’ll have to adjust the amount of water.  Just remember that there’s some liquid in your canned tomatoes also.

Beautiful color.

Bring this mixture to a simmer and cook it covered over low heat for about 20 minutes.  Again, check your rice package as the cooking time will vary a lot based on what kind of rice you are using.  I usually check mine at about 20 minutes and give it a quick stir just to make sure the rice isn’t sticking.  You can also add a bit more liquid at this point if you need to.

Making the tostados.  I think you can buy tostados already made, but I think they are better fresh (as with most fried things).  They are easy to make than tortilla chips even.  Just add canola oil (or peanut oil) to a large frying pan until it comes about 1/2 inch up the side.  Heat it until the oil is 350 degrees.  It helps to have a thermometer for this, but if you don’t have one, just rip off a tiny piece of tortilla and toss it in as a sacrifice.

Once your oil is hot, toss in one or two tortillas at a time depending on the size of your pan.

When the tortillas hit the oil, they’ll have a tendency to form a bubble.  With some tongs, gently turn the tortilla over every few seconds to keep it as flat as possible.  Eventually then will start to brown nicely and stop bubbling.  This means that most of the moisture is out of the tortilla and therefore it’s super-crispy!

Move the tortillas to a paper towel or a paper bag to drain off the oil and add some salt to them right away.

Nice and crispy.

After 20 minutes or so, as I mentioned, check your rice and beans.  Add your beans near the end (drain them from the can) and also add a good pinch of salt and pepper.  Depending on your tomatoes and spices you might need more or less salt so just taste it and adjust.

When tasting it, notice how amazing it tastes.

Good just like this.

Making the stack. This is pretty self-explanatory.  The only tip I would give is to start with a layer of rice and beans so that your stack doesn’t slide around on the plate.  The basic layer is tostado, cheese, rice and beans, hot sauce (optional), and another tostado.  Top the whole thing with sour cream and guacamole.

If you’re a visual person, here ya go:

Get it?

Betsy usually does just one layer, but I like two.  If you want to be all crazy, you could try three or four.  Three tostados packed with the rice and beans and cheese and topped with guacamole and sour cream (or Greek yogurt if you want) is a pretty hearty meal.

Oh and for those people on a diet, maybe don’t slather sour cream all over the top like I did.

Go as high as you want.

Start to finish I would say this meal takes an hour.  Totally doable on a week night and the good news is that it makes a lot of food.  Betsy and I eat it for days.  It’s fantastic for lunch or a quick dinner later in the week.

If you wanted to change it up you could also use the extra rice and beans for a burrito.

You have to love Tex-Mex.

If I want to get my morning started on the right foot, I’ll reach for a bagel and coffee over almost any other option.  It’s not too much food, but it’s filling.  It works great for casual weekend breakfasts or if you’re in a hurry.  Seriously.  Who doesn’t like a good bagel?

I realized recently that I’ve never made bagels before, but I knew the process was somewhat similar to pretzels.  For my first bagel attempt I went with cinnamon raisin.  They are probably my favorite basic bagel.

Worth the work.

This recipe produces fantastic bagels.  I might be willing to put them up against any DC bagel I’ve had.  I’ve definitely had better in New York, but not by much.  They are really quite good.

The recipe calls for an ingredient that isn’t very common:  malt syrup.  I happened to have a jar of it laying around because a neighbor at work gave it to me because she didn’t know what to do with it.  I kept it in my fridge and figured I would need it someday.  I was so right.

If you don’t have it though you can substitute honey without a problem or brown sugar.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels (From The Bread Baker’s Apprentice)
Makes a dozen bagels

Sponge:
- 4 Cups (18 ounces) unbleached bread flour
- 2 1/2 Cups (20 ounces) water, room temp
- 1 Teaspoon  instant yeast

Final Dough:
- 3 3/4 Cups unbleached bread flour or high-gluten flour (I used bread flour, but I bet high-gluten works even better)
- 1 Teaspoon instant yeast
- 2 3/4 Teaspoons salt
- 1 Tablespoon malt syrup (you can substitute honey or brown sugar)
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 5 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Cups raisins, rinsed and patted dry

- 1 Tablespoon baking soda for boiling

Making the Dough. I don’t think this recipe is all that difficult.  It just takes a little bit of love.  The dough is pretty straightforward.  Start by combining all your sponge ingredients in a large bowl.  It will be a soupy mixture (Top left).  Cover this loosely and let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours.

Meanwhile get all your final dough ingredients ready (top right).  If you don’t want to do cinnamon raisin, just get rid of the cinnamon and raisins obviously.  Also, cut out the sugar and reduce the yeast to 1/2 Teaspoon.  But assuming you are doing cinnamon raisin, be sure to wash your raisins to remove any dirt or natural yeast that’s on them.  Just pat them dry afterward (middle left).

After two hours, your sponge should be bubbly (mid right).  Then add all your dough ingredients except the flour (bottom left) and finally stir in your flour until the dough forms a ball (bottom right).

Get it?

Turn your dough out onto a floured surface and knead it for about 10 minutes.  It’s kind of weird to knead dough with a bunch of raisins spotted throughout, but it works just fine.  Eventually it should pass the windowpane test.

After a work out.

Making the Bagels. Once your dough passes the windowpane test, immediately start forming your bagels.  Cut your dough into about 12 or 13 even pieces.  If you have a digital scale this is super easy.  Just weigh your entire dough ball, divide by 12 or 13 and see what you get.  Then you can weigh out each tiny ball for evenly sized bagels.  Each one of my bagels was a bit over 5 ounces of dough.

Of course, you could also just guess.  If you end up with 30 balls, they are too small.  If you end up with 3, they are too big.

5 ounces each if possible.

Let your balls of dough rest for about 20 minutes just so they relax a bit (you want to catch them off guard you see).  Then grab a ball and gently press down in the direct center of it with your thumb.  Eventually it will poke through.  Then slowly work the side of the bagel out, making the hole bigger, until the hole is about 1-2 inches in diameter.  The goal is for the bagel to be perfectly even all the way around.

Making a bagel.

Set each bagel on a parchment lined baking sheet when you’re done forming it.  Let the bagels rise again for about 30 minutes.  You’ll know when they are ready because they will float!  You just have to test one and they should all be done.

Ready to go!

At this point Peter recommends letting them sit in the fridge overnight to develop more flavor.  I did this but my main problem was figuring out a way to stack two sheet trays in my fridge without crushing the bagels!  I eventually came up with a complicated system of props (including hand mixer attachments) that let me evenly stack two trays without crushing the bagels on the lower tray.

Not sure that this is necessary...

Of course, I think you could also just make the bagels immediately and avoid that whole mess…

Boiling the bagels.  Just like the pretzels, it’s very important to boil the bagels so they develop that nice chewy interior and get that great crust on the outside.  Put a large pot of water on and once it is slowly boiling add 1 Tablespoon of baking soda for approximately every gallon of water.  Now would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

Then boil your bagels a few at a time for 1 minute per side.  Move them straight to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.  If you were topping them with something, now would be the time!

Very different texture after a boil.

Baking the bagels. These do not need to bake that long.  Bake them for 5 minutes at 500, then rotate your sheet pans and bake them for another 5 minutes at 450.  You can bake them a bit longer if you like them darker.

Move them onto a rack to cool right away and let them cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting them open and eating!

So good.

Storing the bagels.  These are obviously great straight out of the oven, but I found that they lose very little in quality if you freeze them correctly.  Just make sure they are cooled completely and then store them in a sealed plastic bag.

I’m still eating mine that I made 3 weeks ago and they taste great!  To de-thaw them, just set the bagel in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes and then slice it and toast it as you would normally.  Works like a charm!

Couldn't resist.

These bagels are chewy and delicious.  They are jam packed with raisins and cinnamon flavor.  One of my pet-peeves is getting a raisin bagel with like two raisins in it.  I hate raisin rationing.

I thought these were really fun to make.  The final product was very tasty and they store great.  What’s not to love about this recipe?