Bagels!

My niece Lauren came back from a trip to New York & made these bagels at home. She posted a picture of them Instagram…they looked perfect

I asked her where the recipe was from. The recipe is from sophisticatedgourmet.com. I haven’t made bagels before but I thought why not? So… I gave it a try & I think you should too! Even if yeast dough kind of ‘scares’ you..these are simple to make & worth it!

Here is a link to the recipe from sophisticated gourmet.com

They are actually very easy to make…. I used my food processor to make the dough..it works for my challah dough so I knew it would work for the bagel dough. After the dough was mixed in the food processor… I took it out & only kneaded the dough briefly then let it rise for an hour … punched the dough down, let it rest for 10 minutes…then shaped the bagels, put them onto a cookie sheet & let them sit under a moist towel to rest for 10 minutes. These bagels are boiled then baked so while the dough was resting I boiled some water & preheated my oven.

The bagels were fabulous fresh out of the oven… I let them cool briefly… then the next day they were a bit dense..so I cut them in half & put them into a zip loc bag & then froze them. They are great taken out of the freezer & toasted!

Here is the recipe from sophisticatedgourmet.com for New York Style Bagels & thanks to Lauren for giving me the recipe

Ingredients

2 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

Total of 1 1/4 cups of water *** you will need this water divided … 1/2 cup for the yeast & the rest, 3/4 cup, for the dough & you might need more water for the dough if the dough is too dry… I added another 1/4 cup of water…

3 1/2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 tsp salt.. you can use a fine sea salt..that is suggested in the original recipe but I use table salt since I did not have sea salt

Toppings

optional….poppy seeds…sesame seeds…. to sprinkle on top

Method

Grease or line a baking sheet

1. The yeast has to be dissolved… so in 1/2 cup of warm water…. put in the sugar & the yeast… let this sit for about 5 minutes…stir  until the yeast & sugar dissolve… then I let my yeast sit a bit longer until it got foamy… I wasn’t ready to use it !
2. While the yeast is ‘proofing’, in the bowl of your food processor or in a bowl, mix the flour & salt, just pulse the food processor a few times to mix the dry ingredients
3. Add the dissolved yeast to the flour & mix
4. Now pour the remaining 3/4 cup of water through the feed tube while the food processor is running…if the dough looks too dry add bit of water until the dough forms a ball around the blade…if the food processor slows down you need to put some flour in to get it moving again…mine slowed down so I dumped a couple tablespoons of flour down the feed tube & it started again *** if you are using a bowl, make a well in the middle of the flour/salt & add the dissolved yeast mixture.. mix…then add the water & mix well..you might have to get your hands in there to mix & knead the dough until a stiff dough is formed
5. Take the dough out of the food processor & put onto a work surface..knead the dough until it is smooth..the dough should be quite stiff…
6. Lightly oil a large bowl & put your dough into the bowl.. cover with a damp tea towel & let rise for an hour until the dough is doubled in size. I used the proof function in my oven ..my house is usually on the cool side…if you don’t have a proof function in your oven, you can put the oven light on & let the dough sit in there to rise…or another trick is to put the covered bowl into the microwave with a cup of boiling water…the water creates heat …let the dough rise in there
7. When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down & let it rest for 10 minutes before you start forming your bagels
8. Now…Preheat your oven to 425f
9. Put a large pot of water up to boil now… I used a large saucepan so I could boil more than one bagel at a time, when the water boils turn it down to a simmer until you are ready to boil the bagels
10. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions…I weighed each one but you can ‘eyeball’ it
11. Roll each portion into a ball
12. Take your finger & poke a hole into  the middle of each ball… the hole should be about 1/3 the width of the bagel…approx.  Wiggle your finger around in a circle to form the bagel hole or stretch the dough to form the bagel. You can coat your finger in flour if you think your dough is sticky & your finger might stick.. Alternately you can roll each portion into a rope, make them the same size, join the two ends & pinch them really well so they circle stays closed.
13. Put the formed bagels onto a lined baking sheet …once you have them all formed, cover them with a damp towel & let rest for 10 minutes
14. Bring the water up to a slow boil
15. Use a slotted spoon to gently place a bagel into the water…you can boil as many at a time that you want… The bagel will float to the top…
16. Boil the bagels 1-2 minutes on the first side, then flip them over & continue to boil for 2 minutes
17. Remove the bagels from the water with your slotted spoon & set onto a lined or greased baking sheet
18. Once all of the bagel have boiled you are going to bake them
19. Now is the time to put a topping of your choice on the bagels..or leave them plain if you want to.
20. Right when the bagels come out of the water & while they are still wet, sprinkle with the topping of your choice…I like to mix sesame & poppy seeds together… you can use either, or Trader Joes Everything Bagel Spice …or any thing that you can think of!
21. Bake the bagels in the preheated oven for 20 minutes
22. Let cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!