Cold Pumpkin Soup & Sandwiches

Today, lunch was tomato & chicken sandwiches, pumpkin salad and cold pumpkin soup. We have bread these days more often than before. I found that adding some graham into the bread makes it delicious.

Basil & Cheese Pizza

Because I was watching a DVD at home today, I felt like eating junk food. I mixed basil leaves in the pizza crust and I put only cheese on the top. I watched The Jane Austen Book Club, which was charming, funny and romantic.

Sandwich and Soup

Today's lunch was a chicken sandwich and vichyssoise. I liked the vegetable soup served cold.

Teriyaki Chicken Burgers

This picture below is of the teriyaki chicken burger I made for lunch today. I baked and saved some buns from the weekend. The burger was very delicious with some honey mustard sauce.

Hamburgers

I made hamburgers for lunch today. My buns were a little more flat than usual but it made it easier to eat the hamburgers.

Hot Dogs

I bought raw sausages at the store today. I like that the sausage's ingredients are only pork meat, salt and spices. I don't like regular sausages since they contain too many sadditives.
I baked some buns when I came back home.
The sausages were delicious. We enjoyed many hot dogs.

Sweet Dinner Rolls

I baked sweet dinner rolls again. I really like the rolls. The sweet bread has much less butter and sugar than regular cakes or muffins that I usually bake but I find it interesting that the rolls' sweetness is very close to them. I eat the rolls as a dessert.

Buns & Sausages

I baked sausages in buns today. These buns had a unique shape...they were good for snack.

Sweet Dinner Rolls

I baked sweet dinner rolls today. I mixed cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, raisins and candied lemon peels into them. These rolls taste like hot cross buns.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel

After about a month since I stated baking bagels, I feel like my quest for finding the best bagel recipe is finally over. I searched and tried many different recipes from books and Internet sites and I think I finally found one recipe I like. My bagels are still not perfect and I will practice making them again and again. As a bonus, I finished 1 kg of cream cheese while I was trying many recipes.

French Toast

I made french toast this morning. I usually like to add a little of cinnamon and nutmeg in the batter. I ate the french toast with powdered sugar and maple syrup.

Poppyseed Bagel

Here is my latest poppy seed bagel. It was good when we toasted it and spread some cream cheese on it.

Plain Bagel

I baked bagels again. I am still not satisfied, so I used a different recipe today. The bagels were OK. I spread cream cheese and strawberry jam on it.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I baked cinnamon raisin bagels today. The bagels were flat and wrinkled because I let them rest too long. I have to be more careful when I bake bagels.

Anpan

I baked some sweet bread today. I put anko (sweetened beans paste) in the buns and sprinkled white poppy seeds on the top of them, and then baked them.
The picture below is when I cut the bun. It is called anpan.

Bagels with Dill Cream Cheese (& tiny bagel)

I baked a different recipe for bagels today. The recipe is unusual because it is uses a little oil. Unfortunately the bagels were soft and not chewy like regular bagels.
I mixed some cream cheese and dill together to put on the bagels.
This is Andrew's favorite way to eat bagels.
I actually made a tiny bagel for fun.
Here is the tiny bagel and Marilyn.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I baked cinnamon raisin bagels today. They didn't rise as much as usual. I might have kneaded them too much or something. I never know because I'm beginner in bagel-making!
The bagels were dense. I tasted one and put lots of cream cheese on, so then it was a little better.

Plain Bagels

I tried another recipe today. The recipe is from a person who is Jewish American and introduced bagels to Japan in the 80s. He uses the traditional rope method to make the bagel shape which is to create a rope and wrap them around the forefinger, long finger and ring finger and rolling the doubled ends on the counter to seal the ring. (He recommends the poke method for beginners.)
I like that the bagels looked shinier than my previous ones.

Method for Making Bagels (Cinnamon Raisin)

When I make my bagel shape, I follow this method:
After kneading, I divide the dough and roll it into balls and then let it rest.
I flatten the balls and roll them tightly.
I roll the dough until it is 20cm long.
I make it a little flat on one side.
I then connect both ends...
and stick them together.
This is my method. I don't poke a hole in the center of each dough ball as many English recipes say.After another rest, I boil the dough in the malt extract water and then bake them in the oven.
This time, I mixed cinnamon in the flour at the beginning and raisins in the dough when the kneading was almost done so the raisins were even this time.

Black Sesame Bagels

I baked sesame bagels today. I chose black sesame seeds this time. Since I didn't know how much I should put on, I put as many sesame seeds as I could. I guess the bagel has too much sesame though.