I tried to make bagels once and the result was a disaster. It took a long time to talk myself into trying again. It’s silly, I know, but sometimes making new foods scares me. It was so difficult that I refused to take pictures. I made myself take one this morning because I really wanted to share this recipe.
This recipe from The Prairie Homestead is a perfect recipe. It was so simple and the result was the best plain bagel I have ever had. I made these on Sunday and this morning’s bagel was a little chewier but still so good. These have made eating my “designated” amount of grains difficult because each bagel is 4 ounces.
However, that’s not going to stop me from making more this weekend. Bagels are a staple in our house and these are easy enough to make that I won’t mind making them on a regular basis to go with our homemade cream cheese.
The only big change I made was I used regular cane sugar instead of raw or brown sugar.
Homemade Bagels
1 tablespoon yeast
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
Mix together water, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of your mixer or in a medium mixing bowl. Let proof about 5 minutes. Add flour and salt. Mix until all ingredients are combined then knead for 10 minutes (easy work if you have a mixer – mixed with the bread hook for about 2 minutes and then let go for 10 for kneading).
Place dough in greased bowl and cover with towel. Let dough rest for 90 minutes.
Transfer to floured surface and divide into 8 segments (will make apx 4 ounce bagels). Roll into nice little balls, cover with towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
Once the 30 minutes is up, preheat oven to 425 and prepare your water bath. In a large pot, add 2-3 quarts water and 2-3 tablespoons sugar. Bring to a boil. While the water is heating, poke a hole in the balls of dough and shape into bagels.
Once water is boiling, boil the bagels for two minutes, flip and boil an additional minute.
Once all the bagels have been through the water bath, place on a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or browned to your liking.
Eat a bagel warm with butter or cream cheese. Let the rest cool and eat as you would any bagel.
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