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When kitchen meets experiment- make your classic sourdough bagel with 'lye'

Yes, it is correct- I ordered some food-graded lye on Amazon. If you are not familiar with lye, aka sodium hydroxide here, it is actually a very corrosive chemical. You know, my nerdy scientists, we use it in lab all the time. But when it comes to making pretzels and bagels, do you also recognize that the classic pretzel wash has lye in it. A quick dip in the magical/alkaline water creates a rich brown sheen with thin crust on the dough.


Sounds intimidating, it is acceptable for someone who deals with other hundreds of millions of 'sort-of-scary' experiment every day lol. (I've been thinking about what my years of labwork& research have brought me for my life: for real, protocol reading and testing things out.) Plus I'm just such a bagel fanatic- that explains a lot.


I guess I fell in love with bagels even before with New York City, where the best bagels are made. Toasted bagel, cream cheese and some slices of smoked salmon makes those busiest New Yorkers' perfect morning. I guess that's also why this on-the-go/ kind-of- healthy (definitely if compared to doughnuts) food is just so popular here. Right across the street of my apartment is one of my favorite bagel spots, so I haven't been bothering to make my own bagels until recently.


Thus, making my own bagel is purely out of curiosity I should say? After all, I've been making so many regular breads. The bonus is- I can add as much poppy seeds, garlic and sesame as I want XDDDD

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