Measurements

 Made some bagels the other day (stay tuned recipe to follow) but before I started I did a little bit of research and it got me thinking.

A recipe I looked at called for 19gms of sugar and 6 gms of yeast. I thought to myself that if I put in a couple of gms more or less would the recipe be totally f@#@#ed. The answer is no, provided you don't go overboard it doesn't affect it.

Also one recipe said to add yeast and sugar to a small portion of the water and let stand for 5 mins and do not stir. Why? I thought as after 5 mins it said to stir the mix and add to the dry ingredients along with the rest of the water. Does not stirring the yeast mixture at the start really have an effect on the finished product. Would you bite into your bagel and exclaim "Oh no!!! the yeast mixture was not left to stand for 5 mins" Short answer NO.

Conclusion; Some of these instructions are a bit of a wank!!