Bagel therapy

As far as I'm aware Australians are not big on bagels, not that we don't like them, just that we haven't had the exposure to them that others have. Personally I haven't eaten a lot of them but there was a time a couple of years ago that I look back on fondly which involved bagels...

My little girl was about 6 months old and was sleeping terribly - up every hour and a half through the night and very whingy. This had been going on a while and left me feeling exhausted, often upset and quite down. A bright spot in my week was taking the girls (my big girl was 3 at the time) to a lovely dance class in a nearby suburb every Thursday morning. The girls loved the fun relaxed atmosphere and I loved the break in routine, seeing them having fun, the chance to catch up with my very supportive friends, and visiting the nearby cafe afterwards. The cafe is the type I really enjoy, interesting and vibrant. They had great coffee and these fantastic blueberry bagels served with ricotta and jam. It was just the pick-me-up I needed.

So when I started seeing posts on blogs about this simple recipe I thought I must try it. On the weekend I made a batch, half of them savoury with sesame seeds and salt flakes on top and served them with cream cheese and capers. The other half I sprinkled liberally with sugar and put some blueberries on top, trying to replicate the cafe ones*. I also got out a tin of blackberries I'd had in the back of the pantry for a while and put them in a saucepan with some sugar and a little lemon juice and just cooked it down for ages until it was syrupy*, to have with the bagels and cream cheese (in the absence of ricotta, which would have been better). They worked really well and I'll definitely make them again.

* apologies to any serious bagel or jam cooks out there!