These brisk spring days can be really confusing for a cook. On the one hand, we’re psyched for salads and iced coffee, but then there are days, like a few Wednesdays ago, when it’s pouring rain and you’re freezing. Enter my Coq au Vin (chicken stewed in wine).

On that chilly day, I happened to have enough ingredients to pass for a classic Coq au Vin — chicken thighs, dried porcini mushrooms, a red onion, pancetta, and red wine. What I didn’t have was time.

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Who: Mary Ting Hyatt
What: Bagelsaurus, a twice-a-week micro bagel-bakery currently selling out of sandwich shop Cutty’s in Brookline
Where: Boston, Massachusetts

Ask Mary Ting Hyatt what makes a good bagel, and she’ll give you a very specific answer: “A shiny, crisp, crackly crust that has great chew, but not necessarily dense.” And she should know — for over a year she tested and tweaked what would become the signature bagel recipe of her mini bagel bakery, Bagelsaurus, which sells (or rather, sells out of) around 500 bagels every Friday and Saturday.

I admit I hadn’t had a good bagel in Boston until I tasted Mary’s bagels, so I was thrilled when she agreed to let me observe her bagel-making process one week. What makes her bagels so good? In short, high-gluten flour, a sourdough starter, and an overnight cold fermentation. Here’s a look at her process:

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You can’t go wrong with scones for Mother’s Day. And you almost have no excuse not to make something home-baked, especially when you can consider these mixed berry scones laced with delicate jasmine come together in just twenty minutes with the help of a food processor.

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