New York Bagels not in New York

In college I had a friend who used to make bagels. I somehow have put off until now trying for myself. Amanda and John are always making crazy homemade concoctions, so I thought she would be a good partner in crime for making bagels.

The process is slightly more involved then baking bread, so you have to be pretty committed to take on this project. We were skeptical for a moment we were doing something wrong and they weren’t going to come out good, but we were just uselessly worrying. Bagels are so much denser then regular bread, so as we were kneading, the dough felt really stiff and I thought maybe we were doing something wrong. This is normal though due to the denser end product.

They came out awesome and you should try making them for yourself.

 

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
- 1 ½ tablespoons of granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups of warm water (you may need ± ¼ cup more, I know I did)
- 3 ½ cups (500g) of bread flour or high gluten flour(will need extra for kneading)
- 1 ½ teaspoons of salt

- Any toppings you want to add

Directions:
1. In ½ cup of the warm water, pour in the sugar and yeast. Do not stir. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture, until it all dissolves in the water.

2. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl forming a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.

3. Pour half of the remaining warm water into the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the water as needed. You may have to add a little extra water. You want to end up with a moist and firm dough.

4. Knead the dough on a floured counter trying to add in as much flour as possible, kneading for about 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.

5. Lightly brush a large bowl with oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down, and let it rest for another 10 minutes.

6. Carefully divide the dough into 8 pieces and form into as perfect round balls as possible. (This was a slightly stumping step for us. Smitten Kitchen made it seem really easy. My balls weren’t perfect, but this does not effect taste.)

7. With a flour coated hand work to form each ball into a ring by gently pressing your finger into the center. 

8. Stretch the ring to about 1/3 the diameter of the bagel and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet.

9. Do the same with all the dough balls.

10. Place rings on a cookie sheet, cover with a damp kitchen towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 425ºF.

11. Bring a large pot of water to a boil then reduce the heat.

12. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to lower the bagels into the water.

13. Boil as many at the same time as you are comfortable with and your pot can fit. (We started with one, but got up to 3!)

14. Boil them for 1 minute, and them flip them over and boil for on the other side for a minute.

15. When they come out of the water, that is when you want to add any topping. You can use an egg wash to make them stick.

16. Transfer all boiled bagel to a lightly oiled baking sheet.

17. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

18. Cool on a wire rack and/or eat immediately

Inspiration came here.