Bagels...the HOLE-iest bread in town!
Bagels…cream cheese…what better combo is out there!? It’s not very often you get to eat a bagel straight from the oven, at least not in my world, but boy are they delicious! Like most of my bread recipes, this is a whole day affair, but most of that is just waiting around. Perfect for quarantine! You can also start them the day before, then finish them the next day if you are on the ball! Imagine having your friends over for Sunday brunch, just showing off your new found bread skills with freshly made bagels! How impressive! Can’t wait until we can actually have brunch with friends again…one day!
Freshly made BAGELS!
Bagels
Yield: 6 regular sized bagels
Once you get to the boiling stage of the recipe, preheat that oven to 450*F
Sponge:
1 cup room temperature water
1 1/4 teaspoon Yeast (instant or whatever you got!)
1 1/2 cups Flour
Dough:
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon Honey (or molasses if you got it!)
Boiling Mixture:
Approximately 2.5 Litres of water
1/4 cup Brown Sugar (or Honey)
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
Egg Wash:
1 egg
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
Toppings:
I used poppyseeds, but you can use anything! Sesame seeds, dried herbs, everything bagel spice blend!
In the bowl of your mixer, combine the sponge ingredients - 1 cup of water, 1.5 cups of flour and 1 1/4 teaspoon yeast. Then cover this with saran wrap and let it sit for at least 3 hours. This is the “sponge” which is going to grow and build flavour similar to a sourdough bread while it sits.
Your sponge mixture should now looks very bubbly and have a goopy texture, that is perfect! Now dump in the rest of the dough ingredients - 1.5 cups flour, 1.5 teaspoons salt and 1 Tablespoon honey. Mix using the dough hook of your mixer for about 6 minutes. This is a pretty thick dough, so if your mixer sounds strained just pop it out of the bowl and mix it by hand. The finished dough should be soft and not sticky to the touch.
Place your dough ball into a large greased bowl and cover with a towel or saran wrap or a lid. Let it rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
Remove your dough ball and cut it into 6 equal pieces.
Take each piece and roll it into a ball, I like to cup it in my hand and roll it on the counter top to make a nice ball shape.
Now poke your finger through the middle of your dough ball and stretch it out until you have a bagel shape with a hole in the middle that’s about 1.5” wide.
Place the formed bagels onto a parchment lined baking tray that has been lightly dusted with flour.
Once all 6 of your bagels have been formed, cover them with saran wrap and leave them to rest 20-30 minutes at room temperature. If you want the bake these the next day, you can pop these into the fridge overnight and continue with the rest of the recipe tomorrow, just let your bagels sit out at room temperature for about 30 minutes before you boil them so they aren’t super cold.
While your bagels are resting, bring about 2.5 Litres of water to a boil and add 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
You can also preheat your oven to 450*F at this time!
Now boil your bagels in the water mixture for 20-30 seconds per side, I did mine 2 at a time so the water didn’t cool down too much.
Once boiled place the bagels back onto the parchment lined tray, trying to make sure not to bring too much water onto the tray.
Now the egg wash! Whisk together your egg with a pinch of sugar and salt, you can use a fork for this, just want to break up the egg so we can paint it onto our bagels.
Using a pastry brush if you got it, otherwise your fingers will do, brush the tops and sides of your bagels with the egg wash, then sprinkle them with your toppings, I used poppyseeds but you can also just leave them plain.
Once they are all egg washed pop them into your hot oven and bake until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped.
Now devour them with cream cheese! Yay!