Wow, those went fast.

All of my bagels were sold out at 9:40am yesterday morning. I think that is a record for the 15 dozen I brought, but I'd have to check last year's records to be sure. Thanks to everyone who helped me sell out so early, it gave me a chance to shop at the Farmer's Market and bring home some tomatoes and cucumbers.

Bagel Pictures

One of my customers has sent me some wonderful pics of my bagels prepped for eating. So here is one of them, big thanks to Aly for her photographic endeavors!

The weather is forecast for scattered thunderstorms this Saturday, let's hope it stays clear in the morning.

new mixer cranking out the bagels..

I forgot to post this, but last week I purchased a 10 qt Anvil commercial mixer.  It is a fine machine, and cranks out the bagel dough beautifully.  Unlike the KitchenAid 600 (which is a fine machine, but not made for the amount of baking I do) it is made to handle a big 3.5 lb lump of dough, 12-16 times in a single day every Friday during Farmer's Market season.

Today I'm doing experiments with Lime Basil bagels (tried once before, trying again for better results) at the request of a friend, and I'm also trying challah bagels.  The first batch of challah bagels has shown me that they need a lower bake temp because they are much higher in sugar content than the other bagels, and the outside browns quickly.  I'll play around with them in the future, but doubt that they will become a high demand item.

no market for me this weekend...

I have a commercial mixer on order but it didn't make it to me yet, so no baking today and no market for me tomorrow.  My apologies to the regular customers who usually stop by, I'll be bringing you bagels unless something else delays the arrival of my new mixer this coming week.

How to Kill a KitchenAid Mixer...

I knew that I was putting quite a strain on my KitchenAid 600 mixer by doing so much bagel dough every week, but I finally killed mine.  With no time to get it fixed, I got a backup mixer.  Which, straight out of the box, couldn't handle the dough like the other mixer did for months.  So back it went to the store (it really couldn't handle dough at all, not good) and now I'm looking at a true commercial mixer, which will probably set me back a grand.

In the near future I'll be trying a new flavor suggested by a friend, Lime Basil.  More on that after the experiment, which will be after I get that mixer upgrade (hopefully before Thursday so I can bake this Friday).

Weekend update...

This weekend I introduced the new apricot bagels, which sold well.  A dreary morning and KU graduation made for a slower morning than usual, but it picked up later.  

I'm always astounded when people tell me that they got to market earlier so they could get to my booth while there was a greater selection of flavors.  I sure wouldn't get up early on the weekend if I wasn't working, so I appreciate it when people actually make that effort.  

Just so anyone who actually visits this blog knows, I won't be at market on Memorial Day weekend due to out of town travel, but I will be there the week after.

Weekend report...

This was a very good weekend.  Since I sold out so fast last weekend, this time I upped production to 16 dozen, which is where I maxed out last year at peak season.  I sold out at 10:30am, half an hour before market close.  I think I need to up the baking by another dozen or so.

On Thursday I received delivery of my oven upgrade, a GE 3 rack convection oven and a single rack regular oven above it.  After a little tweaking, I was able to get the cook time the same in both ovens so I am able to cook 2 dozen bagels at once. This is a vast improvement over my 1 dozen at a time baking in the old oven, and I don't have to rotate pans because of the convection.  This also means that I can get my vast amounts of baking done earlier in the day rather than being up all evening trying to get all the bagels baked.

On a side note, I baked my first batch of madeleines tonight.  They are a lemon cookie baked in pans that give them a shell shape, they have a spongy inside with a delightful taste.  I highly recommend trying them out.