Last week I purchased 2 freshly made bagels for my lunch. For some strange reason I forgot all about them & left them in the trunk of my car.
I woke up early this morning remembering I bought bagels last week. I ran out to my car in my pj's & found them.
I was going to crush them up to make croutons when I decided to go online to find ways of softening them up and the following is what I found:
The quick way....
Soften stale bagel in the microwave
Tools needed:
• Heat-safe bowl
• Microwave-safe plate
• Paper towels
• Stale bagel
• Microwave
Step One: Heat some water. (Make it as hot to the touch as you can stand. You will need to put your hand in it, so be careful here.)
Step two: Dip two full-size pieces of paper towels in hot water.
Step three: Wring out the paper towel so that it is wet but not dripping wet.
Step four: Wrap the bagel with wet paper towels. Place the bagel on the microwave-safe plate.
Step five: Place the bagel in the microwave and heat up on high for 15 seconds.
Check to see if the bagel is warmed through. If not, microwave in 10-second increments until it is done.
======================================
The BEST way.....
Soften stale bagels in the OVEN
Tools needed:
• Hot water
• Aluminum foil
• Stale bagel
• Baking pan
• Oven mitts
Step one: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Step two: Get your kitchen tap water as hot as possible.
Step three: Place the bagel under the stream of hot water and get it fully soaked. I recommend allowing 30 seconds under the stream of water.
Step four: Loosely wrap the wet bagel in aluminum foil. Then place that on the baking pan.
Step five: Place the bagel in the oven and heat it up for 5 minutes.
Step six: Carefully remove the hot bagel from the oven. Remove the foil and enjoy the refreshed bagel.
**I am going to do the OVEN method** for my lunch.
======================================
By the way, if you find yourself with stale bagels, often try a little hack that will help you always have fresh bagels on hand.
What we like to do is slice the bagels in half when we first get home. Then we place two bagel halves in a freezer bag.
We throw those halves in the freezer. Then we want a bagel or half a bagel; we remove it from the freezer.
We throw that frozen half in the toaster and just toast it a bit longer than we normally would.
We don’t defrost it first. We just go from frozen to heating.
If you allow a frozen bagel to defrost on the counter, it may actually taste a bit stale.
However, if you heat it from frozen, they taste perfect and fresh.
SOURCE: cookingchew.com/soften-bagels.html
