Bagels
I’ve been making a lot of bagels lately.
Here’s my basic recipe for doing so; it is more of a starting place than a strict recipe. Sometimes I use some sourdough starter…I’ve been experimenting with the exact quantities of sourdough starter to normal yeasted dough.
Dough
- 1 tbl instant yeast
- 4 c flour
- 2 tea salt
- 1 tbl brown sugar / maple syrup
- 1 1/3 c warm water
Bath
- 2 quarts water
- 2 tbl brown sugar
- 1 tbl molasses (if you can get your hands on malt, that is gnarly)
How
- Activate yeast by soaking in warm sugar water
- Make dough by combining all ingredients
- Knead dough for 10 mins (15 mins if by mixer)
- Let dough double in size, ~ 1.5 - 2 hours
- Divide risen dough into 12 equal pieces
- Make each piece into a long snake, and then make bagel shaped by pinching the ends together
- Let rest for ~ 30 mins
- Preheat oven to 425 f / 220 c
- Bring bath to boil
- Boil each bagel 2 mins (I usually do ~ 6 bagels at a time)
- Remove from bath and place directly on to baking sheet (if you have a silicone mat, I’ve found those helpful to reduce sticking)
- Top with whatever seasonings you wish (if you do this fast enough after the boil there is no need to egg wash/milk wash the bagels — I do this to keep them vegan)
- Bake for 20 - 25 mins, rotate after ~ 15 mins