Hello, From way, way, down south.

Hi everyone, I'm one of those dreaded lurkers and novice bread baker. I've gotten as far as no knead bread and pizza dough. We are modern nomads and have been in Argentina for the last 3 years where I'm unable to find bagels. So... I'm going to try to make them. This prompted my signing up as I need help figuring out the ingredients in Spanish. :) Nice to meet you all! Mia.

Bagels can be made with any white flour but they're always more to my liking when I use a moderately high protein content flour. To me, appearance is only one important item. I personally don't think what Dunkin Donuts or MacDonald's sell in this country deserve to be called "bagels." They're more white bread rolls with a bagel appearance. I want more chewyness (sp?). So, what kind of flours are available in Argentina? Certainly, do not use cake flour. Also, you might find a baker in his shop who'll show you the label on a bag of flour he uses for breads which you like, as long as they're chewy, not light and fluffy. If your Spanish is good enough, ask him the flour's protein content. It'll be a number in grams which, in the US, will be 4gms if it's a flour for making bread.

I agree with you on the bagel chewiness factor! Down here "they" make bread in doughnut shapes and call them bagels. They are really quite bad. I don't actually eat bagels all that much. But I had a craving and though "I'm going to have to do this myself", which I do every now & then with cinnamon rolls & doughnuts when those carving come up. lol. I'm aiming to do the Montreal bagels without the wood stove though. ;) I have to say, the bread down here is not great. For wheat flour there is "bread flour" and all purpose flour. THey call it 000 & 0000 flour. I've found a specialty shop that sells all kinds of other flours like almond, pea, flax, and some "high gluten" but that seems to be more like 27%, I'm guessing. I have another thread going with that conversation. Oh, they also have rye, rice, buckwheat, barley, malt, "whole wheat", 3 or 4 different types of corn flours, semolina etc. I might do that semolina bread one day. Just seems your limited in the wheat flours to 000 & 0000. :)