Bagels Bagels BAGELS

I love me some bagels.  I do NOT love old bagels, bagels that are hard, bagels that taste like shoe leather, and bagels full of preservatives and other nonsense. 

That doesn't leave much in the way of good bagels.  After all, we don't live in New York.  The bagels that are good often cost an arm and a leg, and frankly? Shaun would kill me if I fueled my bagel habits as often as I'd like.

So, I took matters into my own hands... quite literally.  It's bagel makin' time, people!

Here's the rundown: 

• 4 cups of bread flour (bread flour has more gluten which yields fluffier breads, etc...  it's worth it to go for the bread flour, but if you don't have it on hand, I can't imagine it would ruin the bagels completely).
• 1 tablespoon of sugar 
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons of instant yeast (almost all yeast that you can buy in the grocery store is apparently instant yeast... this cuts down on the need to "proof" the yeast before attempting the rest of your recipe). 
• 1 and 1/4 cups of warm water.  (make sure this is a smidgen more than room temperature, but definitely not hot... this is your yeast's jump start).
• Optional - cinnamon and sugar, chocolate chips, sesame seeds, blueberries, etc. 

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Nothing fancy.

Mix together until all flour is mixed into dough.  You can add a bit more water if necessary.  When the dough forms a ball, take it out of the bowl and place onto a lightly floured counter top. 

Knead the dough until there are no longer any lumps and the dough starts getting a bit more elastic.  This took me about 4 minutes of hard kneading.  Separate the dough into 8 uniform pieces.  Set these aside and allow to rest for about 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 

Now comes the playdough-ish fun.  Take a ball of dough and roll it into a snake on the countertop.  When the dough is long enough to wrap around your hand, place the two ends under your palm and fingers and roll until they fuse together.  This was harder than I expected.  I had a hard time getting a uniform thickness throughout.  Towards the end, I started thinning out the middle of the "snake" and that seemed to help a bit when the fused ends got skinny as well. 

Let the dough bagels rest on the counter for 15-20 minutes.  In the meantime, put a large pot of water on the stove to boil and lightly grease a cookie sheet. 

Once your bagels start looking puffy, you need to boil them.  Drop a bagel into the pot of boiling water and allow it to pop around for about 2 minutes.  You'll notice the bagel start to puff and change.  Take it out with a slotted spoon or sieve and let it drip for a few seconds. 

I chose to make our bagels into cinnamon-sugar bagels, so right after they came out of the boiling water, I dropped them onto a saucer of mixed cinnamon and sugar.  Then I placed the bagels sugared side up on a lightly greased cookie sheet. 

Once you get the bagels on the cookie sheet, pop them into the oven for about 8 minutes.  (I have a convection oven and 8 minutes was PLENTY...  according to the recipe I used, it should be 10 minutes, so watch your bagels and judge for yourself).  The bagels will puff bigger and start to look a bit shiny. 

After 8 minutes, flip them and put back into the oven for another 8 or so.  (I actually wasn't 100% convinced this was necessary and might try to omit this step next time). 

Pull the beautiful bagels out of the oven, let cool for about 20 minutes, and then, smear with your favorite spread and enjoy!  

You can add to the recipe with pretty much anything you want...  blueberries, sesame seeds, chocolate chips, etc. 

I used the following recipe and it was fantastic.  (Pay attention to the bagel rolling video if that part gives you trouble).  Let me know if you try it and what toppings or mixes you use!

(I'm not going to lie...  I'm totally going to eat one now).