Bagels

In my perfect world, the Christmas holiday would be filled with cooking and yummy food. I love the smell of delicious things coming out of the oven, and the plates of cookies and candy that people make during Christmas. This year, I didn't get to really devote time to cooking until after Christmas, but I made up for it this week.


I decided a while ago that I wanted to learn how to make bagels. I was worried, and I thought it would be really difficult. This week I decided to just go for it. I found this recipe and decided to try it. They turned out amazing, and it turned out to be about as difficult as making bread. I love them, and we have now branched to trying several new flavors. Here is the recipe with the revisions I found most helpful.


Bread Machine Bagels - Makes 9 bagels


Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp warm water (110 degrees F)


• 1 1/2 tsp salt


• 2 Tbsp granulated sugar


• 3 cups bread flour


• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast




• 3 quarts boiling water


• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar (I have to admit, I forget this most of the time)


• cornmeal

Place water, salt , sugar, flour and yeast in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting. I usually double the batch. It barely fits into my 2 lb breadmaker. Many of the reviews said that they mixed it in their kitchenaid. My dough cycle mixes for 20 minutes, and then allows it to raise for 1 hour 10 minutes. My yeast works really well, and the dough is usually much to big to leave in the breadmaker for the full hour and 10 minutes. I usually have to take it out when there is about a half an hour left.

1. When cycle is complete, place dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut dough into 9 equal pieces, and roll each piece into a small ball.

Poke a hole in the middle of each piece with your finger. Twirl the dough on your finger to enlarge the hole, and even out the dough around the hole. When you enlarge the hole in the bagel, you want it to seem like it is much too big. When you lay the bagel down to raise, it shrinks quite a bit, and then as it rises, and goes through the boiling process the hole will shrink even more. If it is not very large to begin with, the dough will end up growing together.




The dough likes to dry out, so make sure you keep the dough you are not working with covered with a towel.

Place the bagels on the countertop that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Cover bagels with a clean cloth, and let rest for an hour. The original recipe tells you to let the bagels rest for 10 minutes. Some of the reviews said to let them raise for 30 minutes, but when I tried that, it left me with a lumpy bagel.

Many of the reviews said to wait let the bagels raise for an hour and after one hour, the bagels puffed up beautifully, and they looked so much better. The last 20 minutes of rising time, bring 3 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. Stir in 3 Tbsp of sugar.

Spray the cookie sheets with non-stick cooking spray, and sprinkle with cornmeal. I just noticed that the recipe says to sprinkle cornmeal on an ungreased cookie sheet. I always greased mine, and even then the bagels stuck occasionally.


Carefully transfer bagels to boiling water. Boil for 1 minute, turning halfway through. Drain briefly on a clean towel. I think a large spatula makes this step much easier.

Arrange boiled bagels on the cornmeal covered baking sheet. The recipe says to glaze the tops of the bagels with egg white, but some of the reviews said that that made the bagels taste funny, so I never tried it. I did spray them with Pam a couple of times, but the bagels with no coating looked much nicer.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes until well browned.





Variations

Asiago Cheese Bagels- Drain the bagels after boiling, and sprinkle the damp bagel with Asiago cheese, or press the damp bagel into the cheese.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel- Once the dough has finished raising for the first time, punch the dough back down, add 1 1/2 t cinnamon and 3/4 c raisin, and let the machine knead the new ingredients in for about 5 minutes. The review that gave this tip said to just knead the cinnamon and raisins in by hand, but when I tried this, I ended up with pockets of ingredients, and they didn't incorporate themselves into the dough. You could probably add the ingredients in the last 5 to 8 minutes of the kneading time.

Onion Bagels- Add 3 Tbsp dehydrated onion when mixing the dough and add 1 Tbsp water. (These are my favorite!! So good!)

Whole Wheat Honey Bagels- Reduce the water to 1 cup, Use whole wheat flour in place of the white flour, and use 1 Tbsp. Honey in place of the 2 Tbsp Sugar. The dough for these bagels was difficult to work with. The flour was very freshly ground, and that could have affected the density of the flour. It seemed too soft. I need to tweak this recipe more before I can be completely satisfied with them, but they are a good, very healthy tasting bagel.

I do have a printable copy of this recipie without all the pictures and commentary. If you want a copy, let me know and I will e-mail you one.