First Try at Bagels

After a long evening, I am proud to present my first ever batch of bagels. I got the book Bread Alone for graduation, and this is the first thing I have tried. Okay, most of the recipes in this book take 3-5 days. So naturally, I chose one that I could do in an evening. We’ll save the 5 day breads for later.

There were three batches in all, Cinnamon Raisin:

Everything bagels (onion flakes, poppy seed, and sesame seed):

And Asiago Cheese:

Did you know that you poach/boil bagels before baking them? Me neither. Until now. I thought it was kind of weird, but I did make some pretzels last month that called for a “poaching”. So, I gave it a try and they are great!

The author of Bread Alone says the secret is to avoid overboiling. Thirty seconds on each side will give you plump bagels.

The Recipe:
Measure 4 teaspoons dry yeast in a large bowl. Add 1 1/4 c. warm water. Let sit 1 minute. Stir to dissolve yeast. Add 1 T. salt, and 1/2c. whole wheat flour.

Then stir just enough white flour (2 1/2-3 cups) to form a stiff dough. Turn onto floured surface and knead for 15 minutes.

Let dough rise in a lightly oiled bowl in a warm place (74-80). Until doubled in size (1 to 1 1/2 hours)
Side note: I turned my heat up to 80 for the hour. It got really hot, but it was all for the cause. You see I have had trouble getting my dough to rise in the past because my house is too dang cold! So we roasted for a while this evening…

Punch the dough down and knead for a minute. Cut the dough into 10 pieces, and shape into 1 1/2 in balls. Place again in a warm place covered with a damp towel and let sit for 10 minutes.

Shape the balls into bagels. I just tore a hole in the middle and widened it with my fingers. The book here tells me to roll out logs and connect the ends. My way worked anyway. Again, let set for 10 minutes.

Here is when the cool poaching comes in. Boil 3 quarts of water with 3 T. of Barley malt syrup mixed in. I found this at Mama Jean’s, and since the jar was almost 6 bucks I’m going to have to find more things to use it for.

At this time you should be preheating the oven to 425 and preheating the baking stone making sure it is in the center rack.

Once the water is boiling lower it to a simmer. Place bagels, 3 or 4 at a time into the water. Poach them 30 seconds on each side. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel.

Sprinkle stone with corn meal and place bagels an inch apart. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Makes 10 bagels.

Now I made a triple batch and only had minor modifications.

The cinnamon raisin had cinnamon added to the dough before all the flour. These bagels also had some flax seeds sprinkled in. (I’ll squeeze them in anywhere) Then the raisins were added when the dough was divided into balls. I also soaked the raisins in boiling water before adding them to make sure they were plump and juicy. Then the topping was just brown sugar, flour and melted butter until the consistency was crumbly and brown

The other two bagels were straight from the recipe and had toppings put on just before going into the oven.