Bread of the Month: Bagels!

I have always wanted to make homemade bagels and today was the perfect day. Mainly because it was the last day of the month, I had forgotten about bread of the month, and I had all of the ingredients.

For once my beloved Joy of Cooking let me down - nary a bagel recipe in sight. Weird. So I looked in some of my other cookbooks, but the recipes I found didn't seem very authentic. So I searched the web and came up with a bazillion recipes, some super complicated. So I did something I've never done before: I tried an Emeril recipe. BAM!

Unfortunately, I don't think Emeril edited his recipe very well - there were ingredients in the list that were never used in the directions. And there were some steps left out. Fortunately, I was able to figure things out. But still. Annoying. BAM!

Let's get started.

First, I let the water, sugar, and yeast get all soft and frothy. Not that I needed to, since I used instant yeast, but I thought you might like to see what it looks like.


Then I added the flour.


And kneaded and kneaded and kneaded. Well, my KitchenAid did all the work. As it should. But I had to stand there and watch it. And when you're retaining as much water as I am, that's a lot of work.


You want the dough to be really stiff and thicker than regular bread dough. I use the hook test.


See? Clings to the hook and doesn't stick to your fingers. Done.

Then I let it raise for an hour in a well greased bowl. During that time I finally finished that dang gliding rocker I've been redoing. But that's another post.

After the dough doubled in size I divided it into 12 (mostly) equal parts.


Time to shape the bagels! First you roll a piece into a 4-6" log.


Then bring it together with a few fingers in the middle to make sure there's a hole. I wonder if this is the best way to do it, or just the Emeril way? I think next time I make bagels I'll just roll them into balls and then poke a hole in the middle. Just to see what happens.


Look at my poor water-bloated hand. Someone should stick a pin in me just to see what happens. (I suspect I'd spring a leak, like a water balloon or something. Seriously, folks, I'm dyin' here. And yet I'm still making homemade bagels...)

Place the shaped bagels on a greased cookie sheet and let them raise again, but not for too long. I think that was a mistake I made - letting them raise too long the second time around. It doesn't really affect the flavor, but your bagels are a bit mishapen because they fall a little when you place them in the boiling water.


Boiling water?! That's right. That's the next step. Twelve cups of water, 1 Tbls of sugar, boil the bagels 1 minute per side. That's what gives them that great chewy crust.


This is what they look like when they come out of the water. Kinda weird. Not very appetizing. This is also the step Emeril left out - when to put the toppings on. It didn't say anywhere. So I decided just out of the water was a good time, since the toppings would stick. I did sesame seeds, kosher salt, and plain.


See my finger indentations on the bagels? That's because they raised too long, like mentioned. Oh well.

Oh, and here's what the water looked like during the last three bagels. It got all bubbly and gluteny and junk. (Yes, 'and junk' is a cooking term.)


Then into a 400 degree oven they went! For all of five minutes. Then I flipped them and baked for another 30 minutes.

While they baked I was in the baby's room sewing a blanket for some friends who just had their first baby. And let me tell you, I could tell by the heavenly aroma that reached all the way to the other end of the house that I was in for a treat.

Voila.


They came out just perfectly golden brown.

Onto the cooling rack they went. Nice and crispty hot. Smelling like, well, like freshly baked bagels. And that's a wonderful scent, my friends.


Oh man. I couldn't wait for them to cool down.


I'm glad I didn't. The crusty was perfectly crispy and the inside was perfectly hot and soft and... oh man.


I tried it with blueberry jam. And honey. And a little butter. All wonderful.

And then I had one later for a late afternoon snack. The crust wasn't as crispy, but it was still nice and chewy and yummy. I ate it plain and was perfectly happy. Swollen, but happy.

Verdict? Unlike homemade English Muffins, homemade bagels are very much worth the extra effort and time. They will definitley become part of my carb-loving, bread-making repertoire.