Awhile back, Sam The Cooking Guy, posted a video making homemade bagels, lox, and smoked cream cheese. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-m2E1M08c8) It looked like so much fun, I absolutely had to try it. And wow is it delicious! I have never had bagels this good and the lox is just out of this world.
You start two days ahead and with the salmon and bagel dough. You take a filet and pack it in equal parts of kosher salt and sugar with some lemon zest, fresh dill, and pepper. You wrap this tightly in plastic wrap, place it between two sheet pans with something heavy on it for two days in the fridge.
You then move on to the bagel dough, which is a pretty straight forward dough. After mixing and a little hand-kneading, I let it proof on the counter for two hours, then it went into a container to spend the next two days proofing in the fridge. (Oops, no photos of this.)
Two days later, start with the cream cheese. This is just an 8 oz block of Philadelphia cream cheese scored with a cross-hatch pattern and then sprinkled with everyday bagel seasoning. Into my Chimp it went for two hours at 225 F.
Look at that color! Oh it is so good! (It still astonishes me that cream cheese does not melt easily.)
You next make the bagels, which is a little tricky, but eminently doable. (I got better the more I made.) My dough was a little dry, so once I added a bit of olive oil, this became much easier.
You carve up your big dough ball into eight more-or-less equal pieces, flatten them out a bit, then poke a hole in the center and stretch them out. I don't think I did too bad for my first attempt.
You then pre-cook the bagels in boiling water for 90 second a side, which causes them to poof up a bit. Then you place them on a sheet pan, season them with your topping of choice (I used more everything bagel seasoning), and into a 425 F oven for 20-25 minutes.
Some of mine look like modern art sculptures.
Let the bagels cool slightly and then assemble!
Remove the salmon from the plastic wrap and wash well under running water. (Surprisingly, much of the seasoning will still stick to the salmon.) Slicing on the diagonal, slice the salmon thin.
Cut a bagel in half and generously apply the smoked cream cheese and lox. Top with the other half. Eat and smile.
This was sooooooooooooo good. The bagels were amazing: chewy, yeasty on the inside and just every-so-slightly crisp on the outside. The smoked cream cheese is fantastic. And the lox....blew my mind. It's a completely different texture than cooked or even smoked salmon. Very flavorful, especially with the dill. It did not taste salty or sweet at all....odd considering you use 1/4 a cup of each for the cure.
Absolutely, without question, will be making this again. It's really not that much work, either.
You start two days ahead and with the salmon and bagel dough. You take a filet and pack it in equal parts of kosher salt and sugar with some lemon zest, fresh dill, and pepper. You wrap this tightly in plastic wrap, place it between two sheet pans with something heavy on it for two days in the fridge.
You then move on to the bagel dough, which is a pretty straight forward dough. After mixing and a little hand-kneading, I let it proof on the counter for two hours, then it went into a container to spend the next two days proofing in the fridge. (Oops, no photos of this.)
Two days later, start with the cream cheese. This is just an 8 oz block of Philadelphia cream cheese scored with a cross-hatch pattern and then sprinkled with everyday bagel seasoning. Into my Chimp it went for two hours at 225 F.
Look at that color! Oh it is so good! (It still astonishes me that cream cheese does not melt easily.)
You next make the bagels, which is a little tricky, but eminently doable. (I got better the more I made.) My dough was a little dry, so once I added a bit of olive oil, this became much easier.
You carve up your big dough ball into eight more-or-less equal pieces, flatten them out a bit, then poke a hole in the center and stretch them out. I don't think I did too bad for my first attempt.
You then pre-cook the bagels in boiling water for 90 second a side, which causes them to poof up a bit. Then you place them on a sheet pan, season them with your topping of choice (I used more everything bagel seasoning), and into a 425 F oven for 20-25 minutes.
Some of mine look like modern art sculptures.
Let the bagels cool slightly and then assemble!
Remove the salmon from the plastic wrap and wash well under running water. (Surprisingly, much of the seasoning will still stick to the salmon.) Slicing on the diagonal, slice the salmon thin.
Cut a bagel in half and generously apply the smoked cream cheese and lox. Top with the other half. Eat and smile.
This was sooooooooooooo good. The bagels were amazing: chewy, yeasty on the inside and just every-so-slightly crisp on the outside. The smoked cream cheese is fantastic. And the lox....blew my mind. It's a completely different texture than cooked or even smoked salmon. Very flavorful, especially with the dill. It did not taste salty or sweet at all....odd considering you use 1/4 a cup of each for the cure.
Absolutely, without question, will be making this again. It's really not that much work, either.
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