the bomb

The recipe for NYC's Momofuku Milk Bar's Everything Bagel Bombs has trending on several sites but I decided against trying it because the recipe list and instructions seemed lengthy, but yesterday morning as I was parsing through a saved recipe folder for something to make for dinner, I saw the recipe and decided to take a closer look.  As it turned out, while the recipe was wordy, it was not difficult.  The only hindrance seemed to be the time it would take for the dough to rise.

I used the recipe found in the Amateur Gourmet website with some modifications.  I usually don't go about altering a recipe until after I have made it according to instructions but I was pressed for time and ingredients.   First, I want to stress that you should use bread flour or high gluten flour for the recipe.  While it is sold at most large grocery stores, I picked it up very inexpensively at Twinco (1/F, 137 Johnston Rd, Wan Chai). There is another baking supply store, Sweet Decorations on the 13th floor of the building. My other go to baking stores are in Causeway Bay on 22 Yee Wo Street (Ichi-Cake on the 8th floor and Sweetie Baking on the 10th).

For the cream cheese centers I skipped the scallions and instead used sauteed onions that I had in the refrigerator along with 2 oz. of shredded cheddar and chopped jalapenos.  I skipped the sesame/onion/garlic coating because I already had onions in my stuffing and forgot to buy sesame seeds so I sprinkled poppy seeds over the top instead.

So here's my version of the bagel bombs, which I did to save time in the morning: I mixed and kneaded the dough when I arrived home last night and then left it to rise as I made dinner. I also took the cream cheese out of the refrigerator to soften and make it easier to mix.  After dinner I mixed the cream cheese with the cheddar, onions, and jalapenos.  I did not place the plugs in the freezer.  I simply assembled the bagel bombs with unfrozen cream cheese centers and then placed my assembled bombs into the freezer and went to bed.

This morning I woke up, grabbed my bagel bombs out of the freezer, placed them on parchment paper, and popped them into my toaster oven at 160 Celsius for thirty minutes.  Then I showered and got dressed.  At twenty minutes in, I took a look at my bagel bombs and they were pale and fluffy.  Very near to the thirty minute mark I looked in on them again and some cream cheese had burst out of two of them just like what was described in the recipe.  I removed the bagel bombs, scooped the filling back into them, and served SB breakfast.  He loved them.  I loved them.

These had side explosions of cream cheese

One was intact while the other had a top explosion

The bread is chewy and delicious; It doesn't taste exactly like a bagel, probably because the dough doesn't get boiled before baking so they don't achieve the extreme density of a bagel.  But they are delicious and I will be adding this recipe to my permanent collection.

I also skipped the egg wash on top so they were pale in color but nonetheless tasty,