Beigles

The fact that I do not know how you spell it in English does not prohibit me from enjoying them immensely. I remember eating them almost every day when I was studying in Krakow. You know, sort of a easily affordable student fast food. I have checked, and according to Wikipedia we have, in Poland, three closely related buns that are produced from yeast dough, which is boiled for a short period of time before baking. Wikipedia is not very specific what are differences but notes that many make a mistake of naming them improperly.
Well, I do not really care, as in my quest to become a perfect house hen I achived another important landmark - I have learned how to bake beigles!
All credit goes to author of this website, I am just translating and adding some useless remarks. Well, maybe I am too hard on myself. I have found two recopies and remarks contain synthesis of what I think is best.

Ingredients:


Dough:

• 1 1/2 cup of lukewarm water
• 4 cups of flour (I am mixing all-purpose flour with some full-grain or rye flour)
• 30 g of yeast
• 1 tablespoon of sugar

Additionally:

• 3 tablespoons of baking soda/2l of water
• 1 egg
• Sesame, poppy seeds, thick sea-salt
• Some paper towels and a brush.
  
• Preheat the oven to 250 C.
  

Preparation:
Mix all dough ingredients in a bowl. Dough should be soft but not sticky. Leave for approximately one hour, cover bowl with a cloth or something similar, so the dough won't dry.
Divide the dough into 12 pieces, make balls and make a hole in the center with your finger. Leave them on the table for 30 min.
Boil water in the pot, add baking soda (I am a bit uncomfortable about this. I have decreased the amount to 2 spoons, but I guess you can skip it altogether).
Boil the beigles, one by one for few seconds (according to second recipe it should be 1,5 min and I was boiling for that long). Flip them, while they are inside the pot so both sides are in contact with water. Dry them on paper towel and put on the baking plate covered with baking paper.
Use a brush to cover upper side of beigles with scrambled egg and apply topping to your taste. This is a good part. I love sesame and I remember being always convinced that street vendors reap me by selling me the ones with least amount of sesame. As you can guess, due to this traumatizing experience I am quite generous with the topping. Better yet, why not mix poppy seed, sesame and salt!?
After you sprinkle your beauties with topping brush some more egg, so the topping will be firmly fixed.
Now you are good to go, except one additional trick - I am using it as well for baguettes so the skin is more crisp - sprinkle some water in the oven so you have some steam inside before you put your beigles inside. Bake until they are brownish, it should be around 15 min.
Remember, if you eat them while hot you tummy can hurt so try to be patient!