The Best Bagels

Once you make and eat these, you will never again be satisfied with store-bought bagels.

 Ingredients

• Two cups cold water
• One tablespoon yeast (One packet if you buy it that way)
• One tablespoon softened butter
• One tablespoon barley malt syrup (you can use sugar if you can't find this)
• One teaspoon salt
• Bread flour (I use King Arthur)

(1) Mix the yeast, syrup, and water together. 

(2) Add about a cup of flour. Stir.

(3) Add the butter and another cup of flour. Stir some more.

(4) Add the salt and another cup of flour. Stir.

(5) Add flour until the dough is too thick to stir. Then knead it, adding more flour as necessary. You want the dough to be just slightly sticky. If you have a stand mixer this is much easier; but if you don't, knead by hand for about 10 minutes.

(6) Put in a greasy bowl, cover with a dish towel, and let rise for an hour.

(7) Punch down the dough. Start heating the oven to 400 degrees.

(8) Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease the paper.

(9) Shape the bagels -- basically you cut the dough into eight equal pieces, and then roll each piece into a long snake. Dampen the ends with a little water and mush them together. (I actually do this thing where I twist the snake and then make it into a circle and tuck the ends into the center of the circle. But this is not a traditional bagel.) 

(10)  Put each bagel on the greased sheet. Cover and let rise for 20-30 minutes. MEANWHILE:

(11) Fill a large sauce pan with water and set it to boil -- I use our six quart dutch oven. Add in a tablespoon of barley malt to this water.

(12) When the bagels have risen, and the water is boiling, boil the bagels 3 at a time for 30 second on each side. Pull them out and sprinkle with whatever toppings you like -- poppyseed, sesame seeds, salt, whatever. Return to greased baking sheet.

(13) Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Flip them over, and then bake for another 15 minutes.

(14) Pull out and cool on a wire rack.

(15) Any bagels you don't eat at once, you can freeze inside a paper bag (don't use a plastic bag). Pull them out when you want to eat one, microwave for 30 seconds, slice and toast. Butter, cream cheese, or lox, or any combination, are the traditional toppings, though sometimes I also melt white cheddar on mine.

Bagels