Fresh, hot, fluffy bagels coming right up!
This recipe is brought to you by the King Arthur Baking website, linked below.
If you love bread as much as I do, I am sure you wouldn't say no to a bagel fresh out of the oven! Whenever I am in New York, bagels are one of the first things on my radar. A tasty bagel with your morning coffee makes the world seem alright. And that's what I was going for with these tasty morsels.
How to:
The first thing I did before beginning this process was to clean my work surface and set out all of the ingredients. I put on a Billie Holiday playlist and poured myself a glass of water. I finally found yeast on amazon for a reasonable price so look no further at the empty grocery store shelves! Amazon has it in a huge amount for an unbeatable price! I keep the yeast in the fridge, so before mixing it with everything else, I set out the tablespoon required for 40 minutes to get it to room temperature. While waiting for the yeast to warm up, I got out my electric mixer and began adding all the dry ingredients together, apart from the yeast.
Here is a link for the Amazon yeast I used in this recipe.
All this recipe takes is:
Dough
1 tablespoon instant yeast
4 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour (I used All Purpose and it worked great!)
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon non-diastatic malt powder, brown sugar, or barley malt syrup (I used organic brown sugar)
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water
Water bath
2 quarts water
2 tablespoons non-diastatic malt powder or brown sugar or barley malt syrup (I used organic brown sugar)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (and then again, organic brown sugar)
Toppings (these are up to you, but below is what I used)
2 tablespoons vegan butter (I use earth balance)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or more if you like)
1 dash of vanilla
1 heavenly jar of Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel Seasoning (you won't use all of it, but you can if you want)
Once the yeast was ready I added it to the mix along with the water, a little bit at a time. With all the ingredients added, I set a timer for 10 minutes and turned the electric mixer on a low speed. It is important to make sure the dough continues to knead against the side of the bowl. If it gets stuck in the middle or the side, I would stop the mixer and remove the dough from the bread hook.
While the dough was being kneaded, I lightly oiled a bowl with olive oil in preparation. After removing the dough from the mixer, I patted it lightly together and placed it into the oiled bowl. I covered this bowl with plastic wrap and set a timer for an hour. The recipe said that you should leave it for 1-1 1/2 hours, but since it was so warm here, an hour was plenty of time. During this time, the dough rises to about twice it's previous size.
Before taking the dough out, I lightly greased two baking sheets. For this, I used olive oil and a small piece of paper towel. Once the dough has risen, I transferred it to a clean and lightly floured work surface. Here, you have a choice in either sectioning the dough into either 8 or 12 bagels, depending on your size preference. I would prefer to have more bagels even if they are slightly smaller so I went with the 12. After breaking the dough into 12 pieces with a floured knife, I rolled each separate piece into a neat little ball. Six balls were then placed on one tray and six on the other. They were then covered with plastic wrap and left to rise for 30 minutes.
While my 30 minute timer was going, I prepared the water and sugar on the stove in a wide pan so that my bagels would have plenty of room. I then set the oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Depending on how fast your stove is when it comes to boiling water, you should have the water on before the timer is up. Once my timer was done, I took off the plastic wrap and poked a hole through each bagel. After poking the hole, I widened it by picking it up and shaping the bagel with my hands.
Now it was time for the water bath. When the water was ready, I placed the bagels, four at a time into the pan. They would then boil for 3 minutes total, 2 minutes on one side and 1 minute on the other. When they were finished, I scooped them up with a strainer and placed them back on their original pan. I continued this process with the remaining bagels.
Once all of the bagels were boiled, I made a key change to this recipe, I prepared two different flavors. I made a cinnamon sugar spread and a butter spread for the soon to be everything bagels. The cinnamon sugar spread was made by combining a tablespoon of melted vegan butter, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of sugar, and just a dash of vanilla extract. Mixing all of these ingredients together, I was able to paint over half of the bagels with a pastry brush. I could have also mixed the cinnamon sugar into the dough before they began rising, but I forgot about this until it was too late.
For the everything bagels, I used a tablespoon of melted vegan butter and painted it on the other half of the bagels with a pasty brush. Right away, I coated each bagel with a hefty amount of the Trader Joe's Everything but The Bagel seasoning and used my hands to guide around the bagel so it would stay on. These were the bagels I was most excited for so I put a little extra on each one.
Now, the bagels were ready for the oven. By this point I was exhausted. I had never made bagels before and I thought they wouldn't take too long to make. I was wrong. It was a process that took me a majority of the afternoon, possibly because I am a beginner.
Once the bagels were in the oven they would cook for 15 minutes and then another 5-10 minutes after flipping them over. I didn't think this through when I put toppings on them, but thankfully most of the toppings stayed put.
When my timer was up, I took both trays out of the oven. The recipe said you would be able to tell if they are done depending on the color of the bagel. The darker they are the more cooked they are, so I took them out when they were a nice golden brown.
The bagels were transferred to a cooling rack and as much as we tried to wait the full 10 or so minutes for them to cool. We couldn't wait and they were devoured almost instantly! They were absolutely delicious! Or if you watch the Great British Baking Show, they were fabulously scrummy!
These bagels didn't last more that three days in our house, and we were trying to make them last. The cinnamon sugar ones were sweet and fluffy and the everything bagel was a savory success. I would highly recommend this recipe to anyone who loves bagels, no experience necessary!
Looks delicious! Love the pics! I will have to try your recipe!