I never thought about making bagels until I saw a friend post a photo of homemade bagels on Instagram. Now it’s all I think about. When these bagels come fresh out of the oven, they are so good they don’t need cream cheese or any other topping. Be warned: these bagels are delicious and super addictive.
Time: 2 hours
Makes: 12 bagels
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 5 tablespoons white sugar
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 egg, beaten
- 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for sprinkling
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 12 cups boiling water
- 1/3 cup honey or malt syrup
- 1/3 cup sesame seeds (or enough to cover the bagels)
- 1/3 cup poppy seeds (or enough to cover the bagels)
- Cream cheese, for serving
Directions:
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water and yeast. Let it sit for about 5 minutes, or until the yeast is activated – you’ll know it’s activated once the mixture becomes frothy.
- Add the sugar, vegetable oil, maple syrup, and egg to the bowl adn mix the ingredients, by hand or with the stand mixer, until the sugar is dissolved. Mix the flour and salt together, then add it to the west mixture 1 cup at a time. You should have a dough that’s sticky but holds together.
- Turn the dough onto a floured counter, sprinkle more flour on top, and start to knead. Sprinkling over more flour as necessary, knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic, then place it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a ta towel or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a draft-free place for 30 minutes.
- Just as the dough is almost finished rising, put the 12 cups of water and honey in a large pot. Bring to a boil.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and move the oven rack to the top. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and line another baking sheet with cooling racks.
- Punch down on the dough and divide it into 12 equal portions. Shape each portion of the dough into a bagel by rolling it into an 8- or 10-inch rope, curving the rope around your hand to bring the ends together and rolling it back and forth a few times to seal the ends.
- Working with three or four bagels at a time so as not to crowd the pot, boil the bagels for 90 seconds, flipping them halfway through. Remove the bagels from the pot, place on the cooling racks, and let cool until they can be handled.
- As the bagels are cooling, place the sesame seeds and poppy seeds on separate plates. Coat both sides of the bagels in sesame and/or poppy seeds and place them on a prepared baking sheet.
- Bake the bagels for 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through and flipping the bagels over. The bagels should bake on the top rack of the oven for the first 10 minutes and be moved to the bottom rack for the last 10 minutes. When they’re finished, the bagels should be golden brown with a few dark brown spots.
- Serve with cream cheese.