Bagel recipe

by Jon Sullivan - 2020-04-10 - Food

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Because sometimes a loaf of bread is just more than you need.

I don't eat a lot of bread, so making a whole loaf for a sandwich or whatever tends to make me just eat too much. A few bagels however is just the right amount. So this recipe is designed for 6 small or 4 large bagels.

The only tricky part is the timing. For other bread stuff you often want it to rise a lot. For these bagels you really don't. It's a stiff dough that makes a chewy firm bread. So the initial rise should be only 60-90 minutes. And once you form the individual portions before boiling, you don't want those to rise more for more than 30-40 minutes before they hit the water boil.

3/4 cup warm water
1 tsp instant or active dry yeast
2 cups bread flour
1 tbsp brown sugar (or barley malt powder/syrup)
1 tsp salt
For Boiling: 1/4 cup honey (or barley malt powder/syrup) in 3 quarts water

Instructions :

• Mix all the ingredients and knead for a bit, just till it comes together, but don't add more flour. Put in a covered bowl.
• After 30 minutes, knead again for a minute or two.
• After 60-90 minutes total, start getting things ready. Preheat oven to 425 and start heating a water bath.
• The water bath should be in a wide pot so you don't crowd the bagels floating in it. You need it gently boiling before adding the bagels.
• Once all that is started, divide the dough into 6-8 final portions. make each into a ball and cover them for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes your water should be boiling. Take each bagel ball and push your finger through the center. use your fingers to widen the hole and form a bagel shape. Set each aside till all are ready.
• Without crowding, drop the bagels into the boiling water in batches. Let them go 1 minute on each side, no longer. Let them dry on a wire rack until all are done.
• Once you have them all done, bake them on oiled parchment in a pan for 25 minutes, or until they look right.
• Let them cool for 30 minutes or so before cutting.

That all sounds way more complicated than it is. If you are confused by any of it, here's a video that will help. https://youtu.be/W8j-ZUp7KD0

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