Sunday, January 23, 2011

Bagels

Our school counselor used to work at a bagel shop, and has perfected the bagel recipe. This is the recipe he sent me, and I made them last weekend. The possibilities are endless. Although they are a bit time consuming, they're not hard at all.



6 cups flour (if you want to do whole wheat, 3 white and 3 wheat works well, but you need to add maybe 1/4 more water and a teaspoon more yeast)
1 TBSP salt
2 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP yeast (if you have more time to let them raise, you could do more like a heaping 1/2 TBSP)
2 1/4 warm water (if you need them quick use really warm water)
Anything else you want, like cranberries, or cheese or jalepenos

Here's what I do, I mix half of the flour with everythings else (I don't disolve the yeast first in a separate bowl). Once it's mixed, add the rest of the flour and let it mix until it looks like a good consistent dough. Then you form it into a bagel. I just roll out a long piece and then I connect the ends. If you have a ton of time you could let them raise in the refrigerator overnight, or just let them raise maybe 20-30 minutes. Then boil them in a big pot of boiling water with a little brown sugar (helps it get shiny). Anyway take them out once they've boiled a minute or so (and at least until they float to the top). Then right out of the water I dust a little corn meal on the bottom of the bagel so they don't stick. I bake them with parchment paper on a cookie sheet at 425 until they look done (sorry I know that might not be very helpful).