Today, I decided to make home made bagels. I searched for a recipe, found a great one that unbelievably, was quite easy, and off I went! I am just amazed at the end product. I have never in my life had a fresh bagel, straight out of the oven with a nice crispy crust and soft warm center. They were by far the most delicious bagel I ever ate. I made two versions, plain and Cinnamon Raisin. Here's my version of the recipe that you can find here by John D. Lee:
4 Cups Bread Flour
1 Tbs sugar
1.5 Tsp salt
1 Tbs Vegtable Oil
2 Tsp. instant yeast
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups of warm water
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. You don't have to soak the yeast, just throw it in with the other ingredients. Mix until all the flour is incorporated. I used all of the water and it came out fine. The dough should be stiff, and you should be able to incorporate all of the flour.
Plop the dough onto your counter and knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is uniform and smooth. Or you can be lazy like me and put it your good ole' hunkin' Kitchenaid mixer and let it do all the work for ya!
After you finish mixing and kneading, this is what you will have. You don't need any flour to roll it out, it doesn't stick to your work surface.
Cut your dough into 8 equal pieces. (I only made 6 pieces for my plain bagels and they were huge!) Let the pieces rest for 20 minutes. You can cover them to avoid a "crust"
Pre heat your oven to 425 degrees Farenheit
.
After the 20 minutes, roll each piece out long enough to wrap around your hand, like the picture below.
Wrap it around your hand and gently squeeze the seam. Now you just put your hand (palm down) onto your work surface and roll the ends together.
Yep, press and roll and it will seal itself up.
This is what they look like after rolling. Now you have to let these rest for 20 minutes or so. They won't look much different when finished resting. They will get a bit puffier, but not much.
Put on a pot of water and bring it to a boil while they rest.
I covered mine up while they rested....
. See...they look slightly puffier but not much after resting.
Now you gently drop them into boiling water for 1 minute, flip over for 1 minute, remove from the water and put them aside to dry for a minute. As soon as they are all boiled, place them on a cookie sheet or pizza stone (I used a stone) coated with corn meal. Put them in your preheated oven for 10 minutes, turn the sheets around so they bake evenly and bake for an additional 10 minutes, and you get these....
Tips: I read that if you put 1-2 tsp baking soda in your boiling water that it gives your bagels a great golden "crust" . I did this for both batches and will continue doing this. When you take the bagels out, they feel almost too crusty, but after you wait 20 minutes or so....they soften up a bit and are perfect. I know, I know, wait 20 minutes you say!!!??? It's worth the wait!
I tell you, it seems like a long process, but it is really not. It took me about an hour, start to finish.
You'll never buy bagels again for your Sunday brunch!
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Cinnamon Raisin - I added 1/4 c. of sugar, 2-3 Tsp cinnamon, and two small boxes of raisins (probably about 3/4 cup). I added all of these ingredients in the beginning with the flour, etc.
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