[Sca-cooks] iombils

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Thursday, July 3, 2003, at 08:06  PM, Robyn.Hodgkin at affa.gov.au 
wrote:

> Most bagel recipes seem to have some sort of leavening; yeast or 
> baking powder.. sadly the jumbals recipe doesn't have anything beyond 
> the eggs.
>  
> Kiriel

I get the feeling that these are supposed to be a crispy, eggy 
biscotti-type entity. I think the object of the game is to knead the 
bej**zus out of the dough; the recipe says the dough should be hard, so 
you have a high proportion of flour, with the sugar tenderizing it, and 
it should probably be as firm and as well/smoothly-kneaded as pasta 
dough. It might also be that a softer flour is intended than modern 
regular or all-purpose flour; that might allow for a crisper product.

I suspect the difference between this and bagels is that instead of 
full gluten development, you want gluten overdevelopment and breakdown, 
like Prince Bisket. The end result (if this is a biscotto, which later 
versions of the recipe suggest it is) is brittle, almost like a sweet 
pretzel.

Adamantius