Home Made Bagels

 Today's culinary adventure was to make a batch of everything bagels.  I haven't made any in years because I can never eat bread fast enough.  I discovered though that breads can be frozen and keep for months and take them out and defrost just what you need a night or day ahead of time it still tastes just as fresh as when it was frozen.

I like breakfast sandwiches a lot so I figured I can switch it up every now and then and have a bagel instead of my normal healthy cereal.  This recipe makes eight bagels.  If you want to make more simply make another dough recipe.  This is definitely not a recipe you want to double, it will overwhelm your mixer.

If you want plain bagels simply just use the egg wash only and bake.  Or you can make them onion, garlic or salt bagels, whatever you like.

I am hoping to make a batch of cheddar bagels next.  I will be adding 1/2 to 1 cup of shredded cheddar when starting to mix the flour into the yeast mixture.  Another bagel I want to try and make are sun-dried tomato bagels.  What I will do for these is take 1/2-1 cup of finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes, maybe blitzed in my bullet and again, add in when adding flour to yeast mixture.  That will be a total experiment, if it doesn't work with just sun-dried tomatoes I might add in a tiny bit of tomato paste when blitzing the sun-dried tomatoes.  Maybe I would add in a nice savory herb like sweet marjoram and basil for a little extra flavor.  If I were to make cinnamon raisin bagels I would add a 1/2 to 1 cup raisins and 1-2 tsp of cinnamon and maybe an extra pinch of sugar to the dough when mixing in with flour.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups warm water (between 100-110 degrees)

2 3/4 tsp instant or active dried yeast

4 Cups Bread flour

1 TB granulated sugar or packed light or dark brown sugar (barley malt syrup preferred)

2 tsp salt

2 tsp olive oil for coating the bowl

Egg wash: 1 egg white beaten with 1 TB water

For boiling:

2 quarts water

1/4 Cup honey or barley malt syrup

Prepare the Dough:

Whisk the warm water and the yeast together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with dough hook attachment.  Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

Add the flour, brown sugar, and salt.  Beat on low speed for 2 minutes.  The dough will be very stiff and somewhat dry.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for 4-5 minutes.  Dough is too heavy to knead in the stand mixer, it must be done by hand. 

Lightly grease a large bowl with the oil and place dough into the bowl turning it to coat it in oil.  Cover and let proof 60-90 minutes until doubled in size.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper

Punch the dough down to release any air bubbles.  Divide the dough into eight equally sized pieces.  Shape each piece into a ball and what I do is turn the dough into itself rotating it in a circle in the air, eventually as you turn the dough into itself it will form its own hole.  

Rest the shaped dough while you prepare the water bath.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Fill a large pot with 2 quarts of water and whisk in the honey.  Bring to a boil.  Drop 4 bagels in at a time cooking them 1 minute on each side and then placing them back on their parchment paper.  I like to use a large round slotted serving spoon, they work great for handling them in the pot.  Brush bagels with egg wash and dip in everything spice in a bowl.  You can find everything spice at the grocery store so you don't have to take the time to mix it yourself.  I did add my own italian herb mix to my everything spice as I like the aroma of the herbs in it as well.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes turning and rotating half way through baking time.  Remove from oven and cool 20 minutes and then transfer to wire rack.  

Bagels can be frozen after baking once completely cooled.  Dough can be me made ahead of time and simply be placed in the fridge to proof overnight.  Pull out of fridge when ready and rise 45 minutes before shaping.

Note about baking breads:  Some people don't know that barometric pressure outside and temperature in your home can affect proofing and baking making it take longer or too heavy to rise.  Good baking days are always high pressure days when it is sunny, bright and dry.  Wet, stormy, humid, and cool temps can make it harder for doughs to rise.  I typically choose nice high pressure days to do any kind of bread baking.  My house is usually pretty cool year round so what I like to do is preheat my oven to 170 degrees and place a 2 quart pot with hot water in the bottom rack of the oven.  Once the oven temp reaches 170 degrees, shut the oven right off and place your dough on the top rack.  If it is already a humid day simply don't use the water, just the warm oven.  Make sure to cover your dough with a clean dry kitchen linen without it touching the dough.