Charge your cooking by taking a class in something different, and impress your friends and family with your homemade bagels (or baklava, croissants, pizza—anything).

While it’s not a challenge to buy bagels, baklava etc., imagine the thrill of hot bagels emerging from your own oven.

Bagels are one of our favorite foods—authentic Old World bagels, not the bloated specimens many have evolved into. It’s time to learn how to bake perfect ones.

We have our eye on a bagel-making course at New York’s International Culinary Center (Saturday, June 26, 2010, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., $195). At the end of class, we’ll eat the piping hot bagels—sesame, poppy seed, salt, onion and garlic—with cream cheese, lox and all the fixings.

Check out the classes at your local cooking school for something that catches your eye. Cooking classes are also a great bonding experience—with spouse, parent, child or pal.

• Find recipes for challah and Irish soda bread in our Bread Section.

Imagine making bagels at home instead of
running out for them on Sunday mornings.
Photo courtesy French Meadow Bakery, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.