Ingredients
-3 1/2 cups of high-gluten flour (King Arthur Flour sells it online) or bread flour. You can use all-purpose but the more gluten the better. You can also do 3 cups of white flour and 1/2 whole wheat.
-4 1/2 teaspoons of instant yeast
-3 tablespoons of granulated sugar
-1 tablespoon of salt, I use kosher
-1/3 cup of dried onions, I find them in the baking aisle next to the spices
-1 1/2 cups of warm (100F) water or whey from making cheese (see my recipe for cream cheese here)
-2 tablespoons of barley malt syrup or brown sugar
Directions
Before we get started, I should say that you don't need a stand mixer to do this. You can do it all with a bowl, a wooden spoon and your hands. The directions here are for stand mixers.
-In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and onions.
-Mix well
-Add your warm whey or water and beat with the paddle attachment for a few minutes, until it starts coming together.
-Then, switch to the dough hook and knead it for about a minute. Now is the time to check if your dough is too wet or too dry or stiff.
-If it's too wet: add a tablespoon of flour and knead for another minute, giving the dough time to absorb the flour. Still too wet? Add another tablespoon and knead again until the flour is absorbed by the dough.
-If it's too stiff: add a teaspoon of room temperature water to the dough and knead for a bit.
-Once you've reached the right consistency, knead for 5 minutes. What's the "right" consistency? It should be soft and smooth, and just slightly tacky. Another trick is the dough should come away from the sides of the bowl when you're kneading it. You don't want the dough to be too dry because then your bagels won't be as fluffy. If you are unsure of how the consistency of the dough should be, go with a wetter dough rather than a drier one. Then once you taste your bagels, you can adjust it on the next batch.
-Grease a big bowl with canola or another tasteless oil. I like to use glass bowls because it's a pain to wash oil off of plastic. Then place your dough in there and turn it around in the bowl so the entire dough is coated with some oil. Cover with a clean and damp dish towel (don't use one that gives off lint) and let the dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour. I do that by putting the bowl inside of an oven that is turned off, with the light on.
-While it's rising, line 2 cookie sheets with some parchment paper and grease the paper with some canola oil. That will ensure that nothing sticks to the paper.
-Once it has doubled, take the bowl out of the oven and preheat the oven to 400F. Grab a large pot and put water about 3/4 of the way up. Then put it on the stove top and bring the water to a boil.
-Sprinkle your counter with some flour and place your dough on top. Deflate it by folding it onto itself and pressing down. Then form it into a log that is uniform in size.
-Now is the time to divide the dough into bagels. You can weight the dough and then divide it by 8 OR you can just eyeball the sizes. I like to weigh mine.
-Once you have all your little dough pieces cut up, do this to each one:
-Roll each piece into a ball. I have a technique of rolling it into the perfect little ball. Grab your dough and flatten it out.
-Then grab 2 ends and fold them until they meet at the top.
-Then do the same thing on the other 2 ends.
-Then gather the top of the ball until it comes together
-Then with the heel of my palm and my fingers I roll them on the counter so they're totally smooth.
If you're still confused about how I do this, watch this video and you'll understand what I mean.
-Ok! Now that you have your bagels all rolled into balls, grab one and with your thumbs, poke a hole right in the middle and work the ball into a bagel shape. You can stretch the hole of the bagel out more than normal because the dough shrinks back a bit.
-Now place them on your 2 lined and greased baking sheets. Let them rise for about 10 minutes.
-Meanwhile, your pot of water should have come to a boil. Add your 2 tablespoons of barley malt syrup or brown sugar.
-Once the 10 minutes is up on the bagels (look how much they have risen just in those 10 minutes!), you are going to add 4 at a time to the boiling water.
-Let them simmer in the water for 1 minute. Then turn them and simmer again for another minute.
-Using a slotted spoon, pick them up and let the water drain for about 5 seconds. Then transfer them back to their sheet.
-Do the same thing with the other 4 bagels. Bake them for about 13 minutes. Then rotate them 180 degrees and switch the top with the bottom pans. Bake for another 13 minutes or until golden brown.
-Cool them on a wire rack.
-You can store these at room temperature for about 3 days but they get pretty stale pretty soon. I like to cut them in half , wrap in aluminum foil and freeze them in a plastic storage bag. That way I'll have fresh bagels every morning and they'll taste exactly the same as when I made them!
Serving Size: 1 bagel per serving. 8 servings
Nutritional Info: 232 calories, 48g carbs
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