Bagels

Does the thought of a nice warm bagel sound good to you?  Now you can make them yourself and have them on hand for whenever the urge arises to bite into a soft chewy bagel.  My family loves them, so much so that we buy cream cheese in bulk!  I hope you enjoy them.  I will be using this recipe in future posts to show how to make bagel dogs and other tasty treats with this dough.

What you to make the dough for 8 large bagels, or 16 smaller bagels, is the following: 3 1/2 cups white bread flour (I use Gordon's high gluten flour), 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon yeast (I use instant dry yeast that I purchase at Gordon's), 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 tablespoon oil, 1 1/8 cup warm water, and a standing mixer.

Combine all the ingredients in the mixer bowl.  Use your bread hook attachment. Knead the dough for 8 minutes on the 2 or 3 setting (for a Kitchen Aid mixer)

 This is a very stiff dough that requires a long knead time

After the 8 minutes, the dough should look like this:

Take the dough out and form into a ball.  Place it into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Let is rise for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.

Gently turn the dough out onto your counter and cut into either 8 or 16 pieces.  I choose to make 8 large bagels.

Gently work the slice into a ball.  Be careful not to squish it too much as it will take longer to rise the second time.  Poke a hole in the middle and stretch it out a bit.

Set the dough out to rise again on your counter for 20-25 minutes.

Using a large pot, boil 6-8 cups of water with 5 teaspoons of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Reduce the heat to low and boil 2 to 3 bagels at a time for 1 minute.  It is very important not to over boil them or they will get soggy.  At this point you should start preheating your oven to 375 degrees.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the bagels from the water.  Place on a well oiled cookie sheet. Brush them with egg.

Leave them plain or top with your favorite topping.  I made 2 Asiago cheese, 2 sesame seed, 2 kosher salt and 2 plain.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from cookie sheet and cool.  These bagels do not have a very long shelf life.  I highly suggest freezing any bagels you don't plan on eating in a day.  They are still delicious after you defrost them.  I freeze mine in a ziplock bag and it works just fine.  It's so nice to have a fresh tasting bagel any time I want.