Basic Bagels
You can do whatever you want to these bagels to make them your style (add seeds, spices, fruits, cheese, veggies, whatever!). We love making them whole wheat (changing out all the bread flour for wheat) and using them for sandwiches, but the possibilities are endless.
*I use a bread machine set to mix, knead, and get through the first rise. If you do not have a bread machine, simply mix and knead the dough as usual, about ten minutes, then let rise, covered, for about 45 minutes to an hour before shaping the dough.
Ingredients:
1 c. water (usually 1/4 c. more if using wheat flour)
1 1/2 t. salt
2 T. sugar
3 c. bread flour (or blend of bread and wheat, or all wheat)
2 1/4 t. active dry yeast
Directions:
1. Dump everything in order into bread machine (or do whatever your machine recommends as far as order goes) and set to mix, knead, and first rise.
2. Remove dough when ready and divide into 8-10 dough balls. Shape each ball into a bagel shape by either poking a hole through the middle and working it round or by rolling out a ball into a longer “wrappable” shape and join ends to form circle. Keep dough (shaped and unshaped) covered with towel or plastic grocery bag (rip these down the side seams and across the bottom to make two really nice rest-or-rise dough covers) when not shaping.
3. Let rest for about fifteen minutes and ready a 3 qt. pot on the stove with enough water to float and flip a bagel (not full, but not empty). Bring water to a boil.
4. Drop bagels in one at a time (or more if your pot is wide enough to allow without them crowding each other) and count to 25. Flip bagel and count again to 25. Bagel should have puffed a bit and be looking kind of weirdy (wrinkled but swollen). Remove bagel from pot and place on greased baking sheet, no need to cover at this point. Repeat step with all bagels. About halfway through boiling the batch, turn on your oven to 400 F.
5. Once all bagels are boiled and oven is fully preheated, place bagels on middle rack of oven and bake about 8-10 minutes, or until they are properly browned and come to an internal temperature of 190 F (if you don’t have an insertable meat thermometer, you might ought to get one… they are indispensable in bread-baking).
6. Let cool completely on a cooling rack (bread finishes baking outside of the oven, so do your best not to mess with fresh-baked bread items while still warm… you can reheat them later in a variety of ways).
If you would like to add things to your bagels, like seeds or spices, do it just after boiling them. You can make an everything bagel super-easy by dipping your bagels in a mixture of minced onion, garlic powder, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds (I used to brush on a smidge of beaten egg before dipping to help things stick, but if they’re fresh out of the pot, it’s probably not necessary). If you want to add things like blueberries or other in-the-bagel stuff, add when kneading the dough by folding in. If doing blueberries, fold in while frozen or you’ll wind up with a big ol’ mess. Also, you can make gourmet bagels pretty simply, just take note of what you like and give it a try (toss some asiago or feta and spinach on before baking, or mix in some chocolate chips and sugar crystals, whatever goes!).
