Bagels

I have recently re-kindled my love for fresh homemade bread. My poor bread maker had spent roughly a year in my basement, but in the last few weeks has made my family 4 different loaves.

As my house was filling with the smell of baking bread last week, I began to think about the other types of carbs my family enjoys. Bagels are definitely up there on the priority list, though it had never crossed my mind to make my own...until now.

Besides the fabulous smell of bread baking in your oven and the chewy texture of this recipe, I was completely surprised as to how easy bagels from scratch were.

What You'll Need

4 cups bread flour

1 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbs coconut oil, melted (vegetable oil works too)

2 tsp instant yeast

1-1/4- 1-1/2 cups of warm water.

Make Them

Mix the yeast and water together and set aside. Once all of the other ingredients are mixed, add the water and yeast combination and mix well. I prefer to mix this type of dough with my hands.

Place the dough onto the counter and knead it until it is nice and smooth. This should take about 10 minutes.

Separate the dough into 8 equal sized portions and roll them into balls. Allow them to sit for about 20 minutes. Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Check out this video on rolling bagels. I'm pretty sure I didn't look like this when I shaped my bagels, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. Maybe one day I will be this efficient.

Roll out each ball into a snake-like line.

Wrap the dough around your hand and give it a roll to create a circle.

Let your bagels rest on the counter for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil. Once your bagels have sat for 20 minutes, and the water in the pot is boiling, it's time to boil your bagels. This is the step I had no idea existed when it came to making bagels. From what I have read, boiling bagels allows the crust to be thicker and chewier therefore, the longer you boil them, the thicker and chewier they'll be. Generally, you should boil your bagels for 30-60 seconds each side.

So, place the bagels into the boiling water, wait about a minute, flip them and wait another minute before taking them out.

Once the bagels are boiled, slightly dry them and then place them on an oiled cookie sheet. I used coconut oil, but vegetable oil would work too.

You can top your bagels with whatever toppings you'd like. I used sesame seeds on half of mine but you can also used chopped onion, poppy seeds or whatever else you can think up. I think next time I will add more toppings. I found many of them fell off in the baking process.

Place the cookie sheet in the oven, and after 8-10 minutes, flip the bagels over, bake for another 8-10 minutes. That's it, they're done!

Let them cool for about 20 minutes and then enjoy.
Try making some homemade cream cheese to spread on these chewy bagels.

Recipe originally found at Homemade Bagels.