Homemade Bagels

Our family LOVES bagels.  Well of course we were going to attempt to make from scratch.  We found a couple of recipes but this one worked the best.

 Mix all ingredients into a bowl.  We used our mixer but you can just mix by hand.

 4 cups bread flour.

 1 tblsp sugar.

 1 and 1/2 tsp salt.

 1 tblsp vegetable oil.

 2 tsp instant yeast.

 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups warm water.  The dough should feel stiff, but add the extra water if it is too stiff or you can't incorporate all of the dry ingredients.

 We had to add the extra water!

 Place dough on the counter and kneed for about ten minutes or until the dough is smooth.  

 Finished dough.  Took us about 8 minutes for it to look like this.

 cut the dough in to 8 equal sized balls and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

During this time preheat oven to 425.

 After 20 minutes comes the fun part.  Bailey and Brady and I watched this video a few times to make sure we had the technique down.

I know it is sideways...but you can see the technique to making sure the bagel ends come together.

 Basically roll one dough ball into a snake.  Roll until the snake can wrap around your dominate hand and the ends overlap in your palm.  Squish and roll the ends together against the counter.

This takes a bit of practice but bagels do not have to look perfect.

Let your bagels rest on the counter for 20 minutes.  While they are resting start a large pot of water to boil and grease a large baking sheet.

After they rest they are ready to boil.  Place as many as you can into the pot with our crowding them.  Boil each side of the bagel for a minute.  Take bagels out and let dry for a minutes.  Repeat until all of the bagels have been boiled.  

 This is the time that you can add toppings if you decide.  Whatever you want to add to bagels, put a large amount on a plate and dip one side completely before you put on the baking sheet.  We made this batch plain.

Here are some pictures of a batch that we incorporated 1/3 cup of chopped jalapenos. We used the pickled kind from the jar. 

 Place bagels on baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes (We cooked them 9 minutes).  Then turn bagels over and bake for the same amount of time on the other side.

 Enjoy!  These so much more delish than store bought bagels and way more inexpensive!!

Plain Bagel Sandwich.

 Jalapeno Bagels.

Homemade Bagel Recipe

4 cups bread flour

1 Tbls sugar

1 1/2 tsps salt

1 Tbls vegetable oil

2 tsps instant yeast

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

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. The dough should feel stiff, but add the extra water if it's really stiff, or you can't get all the dry flour incorporated.

Plop the dough down onto the counter, and knead for about ten minutes, or until the dough is uniform and smooth.

Cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls, and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Pre heat your oven to 425.

Now, take each of the dough balls and using two hands, roll it into a little snake on the counter. When the snake is longer than the width of your two hands, wrap it around your dominant roiling hand. The dough rope should be wrapped so the overlapping ends are together at your palm, near the start of your fingers. Now take the two overlapping ends, and use your palm to squish/roll these two ends together. Once the dough is fused, you should have a perfectly circular bagel-to-be! This is the only part of the process that can take a little practice before your bagels will look really professional. Don't get discouraged if they don't look perfect, it just takes practice!

Let your bagels rest on the counter for about 20 minutes, and meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil, and grease a large baking tray lightly. You can just rub a splash of vegetable oil and rub it around.

After the 20 minute wait, your bagels will start to look puffy, and it's time to get them boiling! Add them as many at a time as you can to your boiling water without crowding them. Boil for about a minute, turn them over, and boil for another minute. Take them out a let dry for a minute and then place them on your oiled baking tray. Repeat until all the bagels are boiled.

Add the tray to the oven, and after 10 minutes, flip the bagels over, bake for another ten minutes; and they're done!

Let them cool for at least 20 minutes, get the cream cheese ready, and feast on what's got to be one of the best weekend brunch treats possible!

You can add any toppings you like to these. To make sesame, onions, poppy seed, caraway etc. etc. bagels just have a dry plate ready with the seed or spice topping spread out on it. After the bagels have come out of the boiling water, place them face down onto the seeds, and then place the seed side up onto the baking tray. Bake and flip as for plain bagels.

(Recipe source: www.johndlee.hubpages.com)