A bagel café or bagel shop is a place where you get products made with bagels. Bagels are rich in nutrients and hence it is one of the preferred breads. Bagels are generally served with cream cheese for spreading.
What are Bagels?
Bagels first became popular among the Jewish communities. Bagels are round in shape and made using white dough and yeast. Bagels are prepared first by boiling and then baking. Bagels are topped with sunflower seeds or sesame seeds. Most bagels generally have a crispy crust, are chewy within and have a freshly baked bread flavor. Many varieties of bagels are available in the market. Popularity of bagels are increasing daily. Most people prefer freshly baked bagels for day-to-day needs.
Bagels are usually prepared in three places. They are:
1. Large Commercial Bakeries: Large commercial bakeries produce a huge quantity of bagels. They bake the bagels and package them fresh or freeze them and then distribute them to grocery outlets.
2. Local Bakeries: Local bakeries produce bagels in limited quantity, mostly on a daily basis. They are usually more fresh compared to bagels that are prepared in large commercial bakeries.
3. Specialty Bakeries: Specialty bakeries and bagel cafés are specialists in producing different varieties of bagels, and this is where you will get them the freshest. They use them to make special varieties of sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks.
Most Common Varieties of Bagels at a Bagel Café Are:
Bagels are used not only for eating alone, but also for making sandwiches and come in a great variety of flavors.
1. Onion Bagel: Here bagel batter is stuffed with a specially prepared onion mixture and onion seed is usually sprinkled on top.
2. Sesame flavored bagels: Sesame flavored bagel bread is a common variety of bagel. The bagel is garnished with sesame seeds.
3. Egg Bagel: It is made of up of dry eggs. It is a sweeter variety of bagel.
4. Garlic Bagel: It is a variety of bagel bread which is dipped in garlic and sesame. It is meant for garlic and sesame lovers.
5. Blueberry/ Strawberry/Raisin Bagels: The dough for these have added fruit for those who like a little sweetness in their bread.
6. Cinnamon/Cinnamon Raisin: The dough is suffused with cinnamon or cinnamon and raisins for a cinnamon raisin toast flavor.
Bagel cafes have grown in popularityin the last few years mainly because everyone loves to eat freshly baked bagels compared to other types of breads and bagels made fresh are simply better than store bought. Bagelville is a bagel cafe, located in Boston, Massachusetts.
