First make a “sponge” with a heaped tsp dried yeast, 1 tblsp sugar and 100ml warm water. Leave for 10 minutes in a warm place to get the yeast going. Then add 450g strong bread flour, 1 tsp salt (Paul Hollywood would say 10g but I try to keep the salt level in my food down) and another 200ml warm water. Mix to a soft dough with your fingers and then knead for at least 10 minutes until smooth and pliable. Very important to note that this is stickier than normal bread dough so don’t go adding a load more flour to it. If it sticks to the work surface just keep kneading it and eventually it will de-sticky itself.

Leave the dough for about an hour in an oiled bowl until it doubles in size. Then heat the over to 200 fan (I suppose 220 conventional if anyone still uses those). Boil a large pan of water and add 3 tbsps. dark brown sugar (or treacle) – this is to help create the bagel colour. Tip out the dough and cut it in to 8 equal sections – roll into a thick sausage and bend over the ends securely and seal to make a ring shape. Then stretch the ring until the hole in the centre is about 4cm across – you can whirl it round your finger if you feel flash (if you don’t make the hole big enough it will close up when cooked). Drop the bagels two at a time into the boiling water and cook for 45 seconds on each side (no longer or they will go soggy). Lift out with a slotted spoon on to a baking tray lined with parchment. Brush with egg white (not sure why not the whole egg) and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.

Bake four to a tray for 20 to 25 minutes until nicely browned and sounding hollow when tapped on the bottom. Serve either with smoked salmon slices, light Philadelphia cheese and gherkins or pastrami and cheese (or all of them if you like the Scooby snack approach). V. yum.

I found the pastry to be very very delicate – I more or less had to mould it into the dish by hand as it fell to pieces when I rolled it out.  When cooked it was lovely and crisp, but a little sweet for my taste.

Making the curd topping I wimped out and cooked it over a pan of water rather than straight in a saucepan as it said in the recipe.  This worked ok and it made a lovely filling though it took a bit of a long time to thicken.  To my taste, again, it was too sweet and I would have reduced the sugar by about half.

Then I made my real mistake.  I cooked the base and lime filling, then left it overnight, then added the meringue, then left it to cool.  This did not work out well, because the filling sitting on the pastry overnight made it go soggy (oh noes!!), and then although the meringue had a lovely crispy top when it came out of the oven, it went soft again before we had a chance to eat it.

So it was okish – but nothing to write home about and I wouldn’t make it again because it was fiddly and took a lot of preparation.  The only person who really seemed to like it was J who took two slices home with him.

That was the first bake; the second was mine and was a Sage, Parsnip and Parmesan bread to go with soup for lunch. This looked excellent, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the flavour and texture. It was a soda bread (not yeasted) and it was a bit dry which was odd as I would have thought that the parsnips would have moistened it. Also there was no taste of anything other than the parmesan cheese which was a bit overwhelming. So not so keen on that one and again, I palmed what was left over off on J.